Pork

Buying Pork is not something I do a lot of. I was never a huge fan of it while in the US - although the bacon at the now non-existent Buffalo Grill in Houston was always pretty amazing. Never really ate it in Turkey as it was only available at one butcher shop, and I could do without the Oscar Mayer fatty bacon. So, I never missed it at all, and only tested it when visiting countries where it was everywhere in the menu and you couldn't escape it.

Well, tonight I decided to cook chicken wrapped in bacon. Chicken is always very easy to cook, but bacon might make it more interesting. So, I pop out to the local market to get my two important ingredients. Buying pork here, or the thought of it always makes me laugh a little inside. Every market here that sells pork has to have a special section, and I mean not just an aisle, but a pork room that has a huge advertisement across the top "Pork Section for Non-Muslims Only". Its as if you are walking into the gates of Hell, really. And if there is a local nearby, if I ever have to slip in then I do for some reason feel a bit uncomfortable doing it. I mean it is their country and why am I desecrating it by buying pork?

Even though permissible, it seems disrespectful to me in some way. If they see me go in, is it like I am spitting in their face? Eating pork in their country. I mean its nice they've developed this way to categorize it. And what would happen if someone in local dress walked in there? Alarms, lights? What might happen?

And why do Muslims not eat pork? I am told that it is because it is believed to be a dirty animal. The quotes I see on the Internet from the Koran are: " Forbidden to you for (food) are: dead meat, blood and the flesh of the swine and that which hath been invoked the name other than Allah. " To me dead meat could be interpreted in various ways, but I guess that means road kill. Blood, ok, no vampires. I assume this has a lot to do with how animals are slaughtered differently than in the West. All the blood is drained from the body as I understand it. And the flesh of swine, that's pretty explanatory. So that is kind of categorized as dirty in that statement, and I get it.

Jews don't eat pork either. I think that's because its not Kosher. I don't know what that means as I'm not Jewish, so I went to Wiki, and it says because it doesn't ruminate (chew cud), but has cloven hoofs - a religious doctrine is cited. However, if an animal has both, then that's ok. Something I came across on someone's blog or Q&A took it to the next level and stated that this represents some kind of hypocrisy. It was deeper than I wanted to dive tonight, so I clicked back to my search page.

Christians eat pork, and lots of it. However, through this search I learned that in the Old Testament of the Bible it states that Christians were instructed not to eat pork. But, continue reading and another blog said some Christians think that God was only speaking to the Jews and not them....Hmm...now isn't this the problem with religion? - So many people think God is talking to them only, or not talking to them and giving directives to others that don't apply to them?! Would we not have world peace if people didn't think God had a selective audience??!!!

And as I continue to research this subject on the internet it just becomes comical! - On Answers Yahoo: "I know Jews don't eat pork...What about bacon?" I'm not kidding. Its out there for the world to see.

One final thing I learned. In 2008, it was decided that giraffe is kosher.

NO WONDER I'M SO CONFUSED!!!