5/1/2007

I was a little at lost about how to categorize this, should it be strange or savory or both? In the end, what’s strange to me may not be strange to the Japanese people because to them horse meat sashimi is a delicacy. Horse meat is not strange to many culture in the world. Places like France, Belgium, Quebec, Poland, Kazakhstan eat horse meat too.

This delicacy of horse meat is called called sakura (桜) or sakuraniku (桜肉, sakura means cherry blossom, niku means meat) because of the meat’s pink colour. It is very chewy and can be served raw as very chewy sashimi in thin slices dipped in soy sauce, often with ginger and onions added. In this case, it is called basashi (Japanese: 馬刺し). Fat, typically from the neck, is also found as basashi, though it is white, not pink. Horse meat is also sometimes found on menus for yakiniku (a type of barbecue), where it is called baniku (lit., horse meat) or bagushi (lit., skewered horse); thin slices of raw horse meat are sometimes served wrapped in a shiso leaf.

Kumamoto and Matsumoto city are famous for basashi, and it is common in the Tohoku region as well.

Perhaps I WILL name this as strange as there is also a dessert made from horse meat called Basashi ice cream. I’m at lost for words for a few second after reading that line, but I recovered quickly when i thought about other ice cream flavors such as natto in the market as well. The company that makes it is known for its unusual ice cream flavours, many of which have limited popularity.

Source: wikipedia