Food Like That: Recipes your mouth will like

When was the last time that someone said to you, "I could really go for some roasted goat about now?" or "I hope that the butcher has goat this time?"

Goat is not a well-loved animal in the West. This likely comes as little surprise, as we don't seem to be overly fond of animals in general - "You (insert name of food animal or domestic pest here)", all being relatively common epithets." However, we often like eating those very same animals (except in most cases, dog and almost without exception, weasel.)

So unloved as to be even infrequently used in epithets, writers allude to the goat when they wish to conjur up a particularly earthy kind of lewdness or a rancid unctuousness. Take Douglas Adams, "When it's fall in New York, the air smells as if someone's been frying goats in it, and if you are keen to breathe, the best plan is to open a window and stick your head in a building."

Not an encouraging environment to think about cooking goat, is it?

In a vague cloud of thoughts like these, I ventured out to my local halal butcher looking for goat.

Hrm. The painkillers have kicked in - it is time for me to return to sleeping. I'll finish up the description tomorrow.