Chicken Sashimi.... whaaaa????

I have developed quite the obsession with Anthony Bourdain and his show No Reservations. I must admit I have a little bit of a girl crush on him, but not in the "hey, let's run away together" kind of way - more in the "man, I bet he would be really funny to go have a drink with" kind of way. Because he is really funny. I love how he is quick and witty and tells it as he sees it on his show. His humor may not be for everyone, but I get it - and enjoy it.

Brad and I were watching his show where he's in Japan last night. I'm sure we will have to watch it again since Jacob is obsessed with all things Japan. I think it started with his love of sushi, but it has gone much, much deeper than that. Jacob is convinced when he grows up he's going to live in Japan. Brad's heading to Japan for work later this year which has Jacob turning green with envy.

Anyhoo.... back to the show. One of the places Anthony Bourdain goes to serves yakitori. Don't know what that is? Check out the definition here, basically it's skewered chicken. The chef at the restaurant they were eating at (called Toriki) used the entire chicken. He slaughtered the chickens each morning so they were as fresh as possible and then made each serving to order.

One of the dishes the chef served was chicken sashimi. I had to do a double take, rewind the TV and make sure I saw and heard what I thought I had. Yep, chicken sashimi. My first thought was ewwwwwww, followed by 'hey, how can they do that?' I mean, isn't chicken supposed to be always well cooked or we die?

Apparently not. This looks pretty much like what they ate. It kind of gives me the heebie geebies. Even though I eat raw fish (which until a few years ago also gave me the heebie geebies).

Anthony Bourdain talks about how there in that area where chickens are really raised free range, and then they are slaughtered fresh, the risk of salmonella is way less than it is in the huge, mass produced factors they make chickens (what word do I use - they don't raise them, the quality of life is so low - I don't want to use the word 'raise').

Interesting.

I'm not sure I'm in a huge hurry to go out and try chicken sashimi, but I have HUGE chicken issues. To the point where I really don't want to buy/eat chicken unless I am getting it from our local farmer and I know they were free range (I'm the same with eggs). I may not be going to eat my chicken raw, but it sure confirms the fact that I want to keep buying my chicken fresh, local and free range.

- on that note, I'm meeting my farmer tomorrow at the market to pick up our 1/4 beef. Next week we are meeting him to get our lamb. Our freezer will be full again, and I will know where all my meat came from.