On the Menu at Mamie Taylor's: Horse Meat

[Photo via Shutterstock]

In France it's a perfectly normal dish, it caused an uproar in the UK when it was found to have been substituted for beef in frozen burgers and now it's on the menu at Mamie Taylor's. You've been able to get horse meat in Vancouver for a while now - if you knew where to look - usually in Japanese restaurants where basashi — or horse sashimi - is considered a delicacy. The Globe and Mail's Alexandra Gill wrote about it back in 2005 when chef Moreno Miotto served horse meat tenderloin at a Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival's Stile Wines dinner. Mamie's, whose horse meat comes from Alberta, are serving it as a tartare with Swiss and green onions, espelette pepper, garlic chips and a quail's egg.

Co-owner, Simon Kaulback spoke to us this morning:

We've had one or two people who've come in and been appalled, which I find unbelievable in this day and age. But the majority who've tried it have been Instagramming it and going above and beyond with "Horses are delicious."
We did an Instagram post when we first started serving it recently and someone commented 'I can't believe you are doing this" and someone else came back with a load of statistics about horse meat which I found really interesting. It tastes super-subtle and there is a slight sweet tang to it; it's delicious. When I worked at Blue Water Cafe they used to sometimes serve it as a special but we wanted to have it on the menu because it tastes great and yeah, it's slightly controversial.

What do you think? Is horse meat on the menu a yay or a neigh? Mail us on the Pending Controversy Hot Line or leave a comment.

. All previous Mamie Taylor's Coverage [EVAN]
. Mamie Taylor's [Official Site]