"seal" news and stories

Seal meat. Photo: tootsmabel/flickr

Here's one food that may or may not get your seal of approval.

Seals -- the same lovable, clapping sea creatures that are a favorite zoo attraction and poster child for animal activism -- are being served for dinner by our neighbors to the north.

The New York Times reports a small number of fine dining institutions in Canada are incorporating seal meat into their menus.

Combine the unusual nature of the meat (the taste has been described anywhere from gamey to beefy to fishy) with the fact that the European Union recently banned imports of Canadian seal products, and suddenly the seal-serving restaurants have become both a target for hate mail and unforeseen hungry tourists.

Hear from one seal-serving chef after the jump.

No, it's not a cookbook from the singer. Nor is it a collection of recipes from the branch of the Navy that goes underwater.

It is a cookbook from Sweden chock full of recipes for seals - the animal. According to the author, Susanne Jonsson, "Seal tastes wild and of course it is nutritious," but its meat is not readily available in shops.

In addition to Jonsson, Åke Granström, who is from the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management is the project leader for the book, and 12 different chefs have contributed recipes to the book. I wonder if Kaz Yamamoto was a contributor.

The book is published in Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian. Not sure if there will ever be an English version, though.