Meat is Murder...Tasty, Tasty Murder
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 18/Sep/2010 12:33, 34 days ago
I have always bought my chicken at Safeway or Sobey’s in a nice Styrofoam package without bones and cleaned. In Cameroon, such luxuries are not available. If you want to cook a chicken you go to market and buy it...and no it isn’t cleaned, cut and packaged, it is alive and looking at you with beady little eyes. Yesterday Victor planned to prepare Poulet DG for me which is a Cameroonian chicken dish with plantains and other veggies. In order to make it however, it also required a chicken and subsequently killing said chicken.Before we killed itThe chicken was purchased in the afternoon and stayed on my balcony until it was time to“prepare” it. While on the balcony it was evident that he was unhappy with his fate as he pooped numerous times to show his displeasure and hatred towards me.The unhappy chicken with bowel issuesWhen it came time for the killing, Victor showed me how to hold the chicken and gave me a knife. Up until then I thought I would be able to go through with it, but sadly confronted with the reality of having to decapitate him, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I have a fear that if I kill a small animal I may enjoy it and turn into some sort of Dexter-like serial killer. As a daughter of a psychiatrist I am keenly aware of the fact that killing small animals could trigger some sort of killing compulsion. Therefore I chickened out at the last minute and made Victor carried out the murder.Victor the murdererWhen the chicken was dead we put him in boiling water for a couple minutes as it helps facilitate the removal of the feathers. Once the feather were removed, he was cut up into pieces, washed and thrown into a big pot with a lot of spices and boiled.The chicken totally nakedThe chefWhile the chicken was boiling we prepared the fried plantains and the vegetables. After the chicken was boiled the pieces were removed from the pot and were fried in the left over oil from the plantain cooking. Then everything was mixed together. Et Voila Poulet DG!Tasty dinner