Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Princetonian Visitation
Tscheko, Nate and Clint come home for Thanksgiving and plan a hunting trip (with a pellet gun).
The result of the hunt? A pigeon. In delicate terms we would say squab.
Squab kind of looks like beef.
Squab tastes like a cross between beef and chicken (or so I hear).
Nate brought back two of his friends from the James Madison Young Fellows program for Thanksgiving. Clint, hailing from Alaska, and Tscheko, from Zambia, joined Nate for the train ride Wednesday afternoon. Our family was in stiches (laughing) as soon as the crew arrived. Clint and Tscheko both have stunning adventure stories. Tscheko had been chased by a herd of hippopotami into a river. I am still not exactly sure why jumping in a river helps a man escape a hippopotamus. Normally Zambians don't jump into rivers from fear of the snap of an alligator jaw. However, apparently hippopotami and alligators don't keep the same company, so it was safe to jump into the river in this instance. Clint had startling stories of bear hunts and rafting trips and cold nights spent in logging cabins.
The stories were somewhat incredulous, but the reality of these alternative lifestyles became very evident on Friday with a pellet gun hunting trip. As a Quaker family, we have never been too enamored with guns. A couple of years ago, however, we did purchase a small pellet gone to ward away squirrels from the garden.
Clint deemed that it was altogether necessary that he eat game caught with this pellet gun. Clint, Tscheko and Nate started the Thanksgiving hunting trip in search of squirrrels with no success. Nate and Tscheko retired from the hunt, but Clint was joined by Jacob and Rebecca. Out of desperation or fervor or both, Clint ended up shooting a pigeon in the barn.
Our family was relatively enamored by this new game, and apparently it is a delicacy at some restaurants known as squab. Clint proceeded to skin the pigeon, clean the pigeon and subsequently eat the pigeon for lunch. He generously offered portions of his meat to others to try. All taste reports came back positive.