Taboo food and drinks are food and drink which people abstain from consuming for religious or cultural reasons.
Food taboos can be defined as a codified set of rules about which foods or combinations of foods may not be eaten and how animals are to be slaughtered. The origin of these prohibitions and commandments is varied. In some cases, these taboos are a result of health considerations or other practical reasons. In others, they are a result of human symbolic systems. Some foods may be prohibited during certain festivals (e.g. Lent), at certain times of life (e.g. pregnancy), or to certain classes of people (e.g. priests), although the food is in general permissible.
Causes
Various religions forbid the consumption of certain types of food. For example, Judaism prescribes a strict set of rules, called Kashrut , regarding what may and may not be eaten. Islam has similar laws, dividing foods into haram (forbidden) and halal (permitted). Jains often follow religious directives to observe vegetarianism. Hinduism has no specific proscriptions against eating meat, but Hindus who apply the concept of "ahimsa" (non-violence) to their diet practice forms of vegetarianism.
Aside from overt rules, there are cultural taboos against the consumption of some animals. These usually appear to be based on unconscious emotions such as revulsion and are rarely justified by logical argument. One cause is the classification of a food as famine food – the association of a food with famine, and hence association of the food with hardship. Within a given society, some meats will be considered taboo simply because they are outside the range of the generally accepted definition of a foodstuff, not necessarily because the meat is considered repulsive in flavor, aroma, texture or appearance. For example, even though there is no law against eating dog meat in the United States and Europe, it is widely considered unacceptable. (Dog meat is eaten, in certain circumstances, in Korea, Vietnam, and China, although it is nowhere a common dish.) Similarly, horse meat is rarely eaten in the Anglosphere, although it is part of the national cuisine of countries as widespread as Kazakhstan, Japan, and France.
Sometimes food taboos enter national or local law, as with the ban on cattle abattoirs in most of India, and horse slaughter in the United States. Even after resumption to Chinese rule, Hong Kong has not lifted its ban on supplying meat from dogs and cats, imposed in colonial times.
Environmentalism, ethical consumerism and other activist movements are giving rise to new taboos and eating guidelines. A fairly recent addition to cultural food taboos is that of eating the meat or eggs of endangered species or animals that are otherwise protected by law or international treaty. Examples of such protected species include some species of whales, sea turtles, and migratory birds.
Similarly, sustainable seafood advisory lists and certification consider certain seafood taboo due to unsustainable fishing. Organic certification prohibits most synthetic chemical inputs during food production, or genetically modified organisms, irradiation, and the use of sewage sludge. The Fair Trade movement and certification discourage the consumption of food and other goods produced in exploitative working conditions. Other progressive movements generating taboos include Local Food and the 100-Mile Diet, both of which encourage abstinence from non-locally produced food, and veganism, in which adherents endeavour not to use or consume animal products of any kind.
Taboo food
Amphibians and reptiles
Judaism and Islam strictly forbid the consumption of amphibians such as frogs and reptiles such as crocodiles and snakes. In other cultures, foods such as frog legs and alligator are treasured as delicacies, and the animals are raised commercially.
Bats
In Islam "birds of prey" are haram. In Judaism, most of the laws of Kashrut pertain to animals. The Torah explicitly states which animals are permitted or forbidden. In regard to birds, the Torah provides no general rule, and instead the Deuteronomic Code and Priestly Code explicitly list the prohibited birds, using names that have uncertain translations; the list seems to mainly consist of birds of prey , fish-eating water-birds, and the bat.
Further information: Kosher foods and Kosher animalsBat meat is known to be a prized delicacy within the Batak and Minahasa minority communities of Indonesia.
Bears
Bears are not considered kosher in Judaism while all predatory terrestrial animals are forbidden in Islam. Observant Jews and Muslims would therefore abstain from eating bear meat. Bear meat must be cooked thoroughly as it can often be infected with trichinosis.
Birds
The Hebrew Bible (Leviticus 11:13) explicitly states that the eagle, vulture, and osprey are not to be eaten. A bird now commonly raised for meat in some areas, the ostrich, is explicitly banned as food in Leviticus 11:16.
In North America, while pigeons (as doves) are a hunted game bird urban pigeons are considered unfit for consumption.
Swan was at one time a dish reserved for royalty. The English custom of Swan upping derives from this period. In more modern times, swans have been protected in parts of Europe and America, making swan unavailable. Reports about the eating of swans are seen from time to time.
Scavengers and carrion-eaters such as vultures and crows are avoided as food in many cultures because they are perceived as carriers of disease and unclean, and associated with death. An exception is the rook which was a recognised country dish, and which has in more recent times been served in a London restaurant.
In Western cultures today, most people regard songbirds as backyard wildlife rather than as food. In addition, some migratory birds are protected by international treaty.
In Islam the birds that are halal must have feathers (which presumably excludes bats) and not be a bird of prey (which follows from Islam's general prohibition on eating carnivores). Moreover it must be the kind of bird that when it flies, if so, it must flap its wings to fly more than just simply gliding. This includes fowls, pigeons, ducks, etc.
Camels
The eating of a camel is strictly prohibited by the Torah in Deuteronomy 14:6-7. Although the camel is a cud-chewer, the Levites still considered it "unclean". While the foot of a camel is split into two toe-like structures, this passage explicitly states that the camel does not meet the cloven hoof criterion.
The eating of camel is allowed in Islam.
Cats
Main article: Cat meatIn desperate times, people have been known to resort to cooking and eating cats, but under normal conditions there is no cuisine that chooses to do so, except in China and Vietnam. Cat meat was eaten, for example, during the famine in the Siege of Leningrad. In 1996, a place that served cat meat was supposedly discovered by the Argentine press in a shanty town in Rosario, but in fact the meal had been set up by media from Buenos Aires.
In 2008, it was reported that cats were a staple part of the local diet Guangdong, China, with many cats being shipped down from the north and one Guangzhou-based business receiving up to 10,000 cats per day from different parts of China. Protesters in other parts of China have urged the Guangzhou provincial government to crack down on cat traders and restaurants that serve cat meat, although no law says it is illegal to eat cats.
The term "roof-hare" (roof-rabbit, German Dachhase ) applies to cat meat presented as that of a hare, another pest (or pet) used as a source of meat. Subtracting the skin, feet, head and tail, hares and cats are practically identical. The only way to distinguish them is by looking at the processus hamatus of the feline scapula, which should have a processus suprahamatus . Dar gato por liebre ("to pass off a cat as a hare") is an expression common to many Spanish-speaking countries, equivalent to "to pull the wool over someone's eyes" derived from this basic scam. There is an equivalent Portuguese expression Comprar gato por lebre , meaning "to buy a cat as a hare". More specifically, in Brazil, cat meat is seen as repulsive and people often shun barbecue establishments suspected of selling cat meat. The expression churrasco de gato ("cat barbecue") is largely used in Brazil with a humorous note, especially for roadside stands that offer grilled meat on a stick (often coated with farofa), due to their poor hygiene conditions and the fact that the source of the meat is mostly unknown. Cases of passing off cat meat as lamb shish kabab in less reputable shops, are also regularly reported in Egypt. "Kitten cakes" and "buy three shawarma - assemble a kitten" are common Russian urban jokes about the suspect origin of food from street vendors' stalls.
The inhabitants of Vicenza in northern Italy are reputed to eat cats, although the practice has been out of use for decades.
During the so called Bad Times o
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