Uproar Over Whale Sushi Just Ridiculous

Outrage at foreign preferences just 'gastronomic nationalism'
By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 11, 2010 8:02 PM CST
Uproar Over Whale Sushi Just Ridiculous
Whale meat sashimi is served at a whale meat eatery in Tokyo.   (AP Photo)

Sure, the owners of a Los Angeles-area sushi restaurant broke the law if they indeed served whale meat, but those in a tizzy had “better wipe that morsel of moral superiority from your chin,” Japhy Grant writes. At the root, it’s a culture disconnect: Eating whale is deeply ingrained in Japan—as eating seal is with the Native Alaskans allowed by the US government to slaughter some annually.

And your objection that a whale is an intelligent species is bunk, too, Grant adds for True/Slant—since you probably are fine eating octopus, which, among other things, is the only invertebrate to use tools. “Compared to an octopus,” he chides, “the sei whale is little more than a whistling bag of fat.” Conclusion: “Your outrage at another culture’s preference is ultimately little more than gastronomic nationalism.”
(More whale meat stories.)

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