A Los Angeles County Asian supermarket is now under investigation by the Los Angeles County Health Department after receiving a complaint from a customer over the store’s selling of bagged and frozen raccoons as food. Metro Supermarket in Temple City received a visit from inspectors earlier this week.
Raccoon is considered a delicacy in China, and store employees willingly told inspectors they had frozen raccoons selling at $9.99 a pound, adding they had been selling them without a problem since they opened in 2011. The whole raccoons, with teeth and fur intact can cost as much as $54.00. Store employees said the health department confiscated the raccoons, although the health department didn’t comment, other than to say the case was under investigation.
The customer who started the uproar, Christina Dow, had apparently never been in the Asian food market before. While perusing the meats and fish section, she came upon the raccoons, nicely bagged and labeled. As she tells it, “The way it’s packaged in the store, it’s so real, and it’s so fresh, and you don’t see chickens with their feathers and blood all over them, and their expression, with their tongue hanging out,” said Dow.
Dow claims she was so “horrified” she took a video with her smartphone and ran home and posted it on her social media page. Then she pleaded with her facebook friends to re-post the video. “Is this right or what?” she says on the video. She also contacted the local Department of health, complaining of the raccoons.
Actually, the metro Super Market has probably done nothing wrong. According to the California Health and Safety Code, raccoons are a game animal and can be legally sold if the supplier meets certain conditions. It was learned on Thursday the raccoons were sourced from a wholesaler who got them in Florida. The selling of the raccoons will be legal if the store’s “approved source” is checked out and is legal.
While it is true that we most often think of raccoons as cute and endearing, they were eaten by native Americans and early settlers. As a matter of historical record, raccoons were eaten extensively in early California. Christina Dow might also be surprised to know that the first edition of The Joy of Cooking, published in 1931, featured a recipe for preparing raccoon. But regardless of whether Dow or anyone else finds the idea of eating a raccoon repulsive, they might be surprised to learn that several thousand of them are eaten every year in the U.S.
Correction to article
This writer was contacted by John Becker, the great-grandson of Irma Rombauer, the creator of Joy of Cooking. John is currently reworking the Joy of Cooking website. He also likes to test some of the older Joy recipes from past editions of the acclaimed cookbook. This is what he says about preparing raccoons for eating:
“The only editions of Joy of Cooking that contain an actual recipe for raccoon –which calls for blanching, stuffing, and roasting in a moderate oven– were published in 1963 and 1975. In the current edition, we suggest substituting the meat of raccoon and other small game in chicken recipes.”
