Truemors
It would seem that a new food craze is afoot in Britain: squirrel meat. To what extent, though, is this a marketing thing? I don't know anyone in the UK who has tasted squirrel. At any rate, squirrels aren't factory-farmed, so they're a bit more "green" than your average supermarket fare.
The challenge is one of perception: squirrels are far cuter than cows (at least to most of us- just look at those little cheeks!), so we'd be less likely to chow down on them than, say, a chicken, which we're used to seeing as food. This is a different face of an age-old conundrum: when do animals stop being pets and start being menu items? Dogs are fair game in South Korea (though it's not considered haute cuisine), and cows are verboten in much of India. Here in the west, though, we're all about the cheeseburger and would not eat anything that would appear on icanhascheezburger.
At Ridley's Fish and Game shop in Corbridge, Northumberland, the owner David Ridley says he has sold 1,000 - at £3.50 a squirrel - since he tested the market at the beginning of the year. 'I wasn't sure at first, and wondered would people really eat it. Now I take every squirrel I can get my hands on. I've had days when I have managed to get 60 and they've all sold straight away.'Simpson likens the taste to wild boar. Ridley thinks it is more a cross between duck and lamb. 'It's moist and sweet because, basically, its diet has been berries and nuts,' he said.
Both believe its new-found popularity is partly due to its green credentials. 'People like the fact it is wild meat, low in fat and local - so no food miles,' says Simpson. Ridley reckons that patriotism also plays a part: 'Eat a grey and save a red. That's the message.'
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