Trying to expand your palate? Metro Supermarket, an Asian market in Temple City, California has been getting a lot of press lately for one of its newest offering. After a woman, Christina Dow, posted a video of the “freshly slaughtered raccoons” to her Facebook page and urged others to share the video. (KCTV covers the story here.)
Dow said the raccoons were being sold in plastic bags, fully intact with fur and blood that definitely took away from their appeal next to cleaned and packaged fish and other meats. Store employees defended the product, saying that raccoons are a delicacy in China and are used in certain dishes, like this, this or this.
Photo Courtesy of nydailynews.com
The raccoons were being sold for $9.99/lb with one particularly large one selling for almost $54! The Los Angeles County Public Health Department considers raccoon a “game animal,” meaning that it can be legally sold under the California Health and Safety Code. The catch? The raccoons need to come from an approved source, which seems to be the concern for the raccoons found in this store.
Raccoon meat has been a common game meat and dark meat option in the South so maybe it’s not that outrageous. Maybe raccoon meat can be paralleled to deer meat, which has been rising in popularity in recent years, even showing up in some NYC restaurants.
According to the LA Times, an employee said that health inspectors took away the seven to eight frozen raccoons for sale at Metro Supermarket. If we’re “okay” with snacking on insects, maybe raccoon meat is going to be our next foodie trend of 2015? Stay tuned.