Today we spent the day in Bazas - a small town south of Bordeaux with an enormous gothic cathedral and a unique race of cattle. Every year they fatten the cattle up for five months and then they parade the best specimens through the streets of the town behind tractors to the main square where they are weighed, judged and admired.
We spent the morning ogling their enormous rumps; lunchtime eating the enormous rumps of their defunct predecessors; and the afternoon admiring men on stilts accompany their enormous rumps by now adorned with plastice flowers. Tonight they'll be bedding down in the abattoir.
Pauvres bêtes, one look in their puzzled eyes makes it all seem a bit barbaraic really. It's almost enough to make one want to give up having animals fattened and killed in one's name.
If only it didn't taste so absolutely delicious.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Fête des Boeufs Gras
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5 comments:
Hmmmm, a town that knows how to appreciate its fat cows sounds like a town worth a visit. . .
'ogling their enormous rumps', haha... always best to ogle one before eating one I guess!
Oh dear, it is terribly tricky to meet and admire them in person knowing their imminent fate isn't it? And very hypocritical not to want to. But they really are very beautiful and clearly have a very good time beforehand, and what can one do with the surplus males of a species? Do they use the mummy ones for milk, or are they beef and only beef, or presumably veal as well?
I saw this beef on the Rick Stein show when he was on the Canal du Midi - looked yum then!
Great pics and a droll post.
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