Kitty Burgers

It's rare that a news item so closely parallels a semi-true story. Anyway, here's an article regarding the furor over a Peruvian cat eating festival: "Fury over cat eating festival."

ANIMAL rights groups are up in arms over an annual festival in Peru that serves up hundreds of fried CATS to locals.

The 'Gastronomical Festival of the Cat' – dubbed the 'Massacre of the Moggies' – sees townsfolk in Canete, near Lima, feast on the fluffy pets for two days.

They believe that eating cat burgers – and fried cat legs and
tails – can cure bronchial disease (emphasis added). It is also believed that feline meat serves as an aphrodisiac.

Yum. I read this and it reminded me of a trip we took to Belize - my sister Angie, her husband Matt, Anne and me. We were on the island of Ambergris Caye off the coast.

During our trip there, one of my favorite musicians, Jerry Jeff Walker, played several concerts at a place on the ocean called, Wet Willie's. Great place - if you've never been there, you should.

Anyway, we went to about three show at Wet Willie's and visited the place on a few other occassions. Each night, after enjoying a couple adult beverages, we'd leave the place and head out into the sandy streets to catch a cab. As we waited for the cab to drive by and take us to our hotel, across the street, every night, was an old Mexican woman standing at a little sidewalk hamburger stand.

Let me tell you something, these weren't ordinary cheeseburgers - they were incredible. Like nothing I'd ever eaten before. Amazing. We'd quickly run across the street, buy a couple burgers, hop in the cab and eat them on the way home.

But, being in a small developing nation, things were a little different. The actual patties that made up these burgers were different. And by different I mean incredibly thin. To me, Anne and Angie - that didn't matter. They were just too good to let us be bothered by the details.

About the second night of eating them, Matt mentioned it. As we drove through a neighborhood, there were a few stray cats on the street. "You know, those are so thin because they aren't actually beef...they're cat burgers - 100% kitty meat." We all stopped eating. Looked down at the thin burgers through the darkness of the cab. We looked at each other, considering the possiblity.

"I had no idea kitty burgers were so good!" I exclaimed. Angie agreed, "We should have them in America!" We all finished our burgers.

Now I'm not sure whether or not they were kitty burgers - for all I know, they were. But they were darn good. And in the nearly three years since I ate them, I can say that Angie, Anne and I have had no bronchial disease whatsover. :)