As I stepped out of the office for lunch yesterday, I noticed all of the trucks and tents and columns of smoke drifting into the clear October sky down by ArtsRevive.
The Wild Game Cook-off would soon be underway.
Ever since I saw the announcement in the Chamber of Commerce’s community calendar, I began to dream of all the exotic meats that would await me at the gathering of cooks eager to show off their best wild game recipes.
I was not disappointed.
I sampled dishes I could never could never have conceived of, even during the midst of my most carnivorous cravings.
I had a crispy fried dumpling filled with both venison and alligator, a savory duck sausage wrapped in bacon, barbecued rabbit, a red snapper taco, fried quail and I’m not even quite sure what else.
I wandered around in a meat induced intoxication, my appetite growing with each savory morsel I consumed.
I hope no one traveled to the Birmingham Zoo to pick up ingredients.
I tried my best to keep the exotic meats off the camera hanging around my neck- a fact my vegetarian colleague in the newsroom would no doubt be horrified by.
As my wild game fever turned into meat induced hangover I decided to speak to some of the individuals preparing these treats instead of just scarfing down their wares.
Many of the cooks sharing their creations with the people of the Selma-Dallas County area were avid outdoorsmen.
For them, the event serves as a way to get people to see that there is so much more to eating than the freezer section of their local grocery store.
The forests, fields, rivers and lakes of this great state are ripe with fish, fowl and game that can be turned into meals that would make a James Beard Award winning chef hang their head in shame.
Some of the finest food I’ve ever had didn’t come served on a silver platter, placed on a white tablecloth.
The best food I’ve ever eaten was served to me on a Styrofoam saucer by a man wearing a camouflage ball camp with a burly, black beard as he clutched a can of cheap, domestic beer in his other hand.
People like that man are the true Iron Chefs.
If the thought of eating a creature that roams the woods makes you squeamish, I beg you to reconsider.
Consuming wild game is a great way to connect yourself to your food.
When you eat wild game, you know where the meat came from.
You don’t have to wonder what sort of weird chemicals the animal might have been injected with or if said chemicals are going to give you cancer, diabetes or a third arm growing out of your back.
The only thing you have to think about when eating a wild animal is how good it tastes and how lucky you are to live in a state with such plentiful offerings.
If the wildest animal you’ve ever consumed is the free range chicken you bought at Whole Foods, do yourself a favor and make your way over to the Wild Game Cook-off next year.