Immigrants eat swans

[snopes]

Comment: There's a rumour over here in the UK that European Imigrants
(Polish people are the most often mentioned) are catching, killing and
eating swans. I can't seem to find any quote from the police about this
and it's only papers like the Daily Mail, who have a bias against
Immigrants anyway, who seem to be printing the story. Have you any ideas?

[inkrose115]

Mmmmm, giant, satanic, ankle-mauling mutant geese. Yeah, they're pretty. They're also evil.
ETA: People used to eat them as a bit of a delicacy. Does anyone know when they banned hunting it in Britain? They're considered property of the crown now, right?

yeah, i think they are....

but anything you had with a long handle would render the swan defenceless... i would've thought they taste like geese. so... amphibious turkey or something. and you could take the wing and try and break someone's arm with it

[Blatherskite]

I think I would pay all my pocket money to watch a Polish gourmet catch a swan. But viscious as swans are, I imagine they would leave enough left over for months and months of cold swan sandwiches. It's a shame people love them so much.

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

Hmm. I'd rethink that, Blatherskite.

According to the responses archived here, Swan sucks:

Swan

One person notes that he ate swan in the UK in the 70s, so it can't be that far removed from the culture.

Would you like to try, though, this Elizabethian cookbook has a reciepe:

MMMM.

Course, those old cookbooks could also teach you the proper way of preparing a cow's head.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Blatherskite

I think I would pay all my pocket money to watch a Polish gourmet catch a swan.

Yomank

It's a shame people love them so much.

Love what - swans, or Polish gourmets?

Serously, I was chased by one once (a swan, not a Polish gourmet) and it was a fearsome vicious looking bastard. Pure malice in it's eyes. There's no way in hell I'd have tried to catch it.

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

Oh, found an "Immigrate eating a swan story"

http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...-11-2006_pg7_3

And an even better swan recipe:

They went Medieval on that swan's *ss

[Tarquin Farquart]

Here's a Daily Mail story about it.

All that happened is one person saw some Poles or Lithuanians (I wonder how she knew where they were from, I don't know) fighting with a swan and concluded they wanted to eat it. Thus the Mail has a story.

This one is a bit more verifiable:

A man who claimed he killed a swan because he was hungry on the second day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has been jailed for two months.
However, Shamshu Miah, 52, from Llandudno was released because of the time he has already spent in custody.

Of course this man isn't Eastern European so it can't be the source of the rumours.

[Mosherette]

Originally Posted by Ryda Wong, EBfCo.

Course, those old cookbooks could also teach you the proper way of preparing a cow's head.

They don't even have to be very old - my mum has a Good Housekkeping recipe book from the 1950s that has cow head preparation as well as all sorts of other tasty morsels g-you probably don't want to think about. Mmm, rationing.

[inkrose115]

Originally Posted by Blatherskite

I think I would pay all my pocket money to watch a Polish gourmet catch a swan. But viscious as swans are, I imagine they would leave enough left over for months and months of cold swan sandwiches. It's a shame people love them so much.

I would put my money on the swan. How the devil are these people catching these evil birds? It's one thing to keep it's beak and wings at bay. It's another thing to actually catch one. If it was a swan or an angry eagle I'd take the eagle.

[PallasAthena]

Originally Posted by Mosherette

They don't even have to be very old - my mum has a Good Housekkeping recipe book from the 1950s that has cow head preparation as well as all sorts of other tasty morsels g-you probably don't want to think about. Mmm, rationing.

My 1975 edition Joy of Cooking discusses the proper method of cleaning and preparing all sorts of game including squirrels. Apparently, the gray ones are better to eat than the read ones. I like squirells too much to find out if it's correct. I don't have it with me at work, but it may very well have a swan recipe. I know it has goose, dove, and various wildfowl.

[High Eight]

Originally Posted by PallasAthena

My 1975 edition Joy of Cooking discusses the proper method of cleaning and preparing all sorts of game including squirrels. Apparently, the gray ones are better to eat than the read ones. I like squirells too much to find out if it's correct. I don't have it with me at work, but it may very well have a swan recipe. I know it has goose, dove, and various wildfowl.

My sister has an old (1920's, I think) copy of Mrs Beaton's Cookbook that has, under 'Australian recipies', one for parakeet pie. Cockatiels, I suspect, as there's not a lot of meat on a budgie.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure there's one for swan, too. Australian black swan, I would surmise.

I know a family that are descended from German Immigrants that claim it is their right to eat swans.

[frogpond]

We had problems with teenagers trying to steal the eggs out of the swan's nest this summer. They were Asian and someone said they probably wanted the eggs to eat.

[llewtrah]

In Chelmsford it is believed that the travelling folk eat the ducks, geese and swans from central park when the fair is in town. I've seen them dismantle and use park benches for firewood and the local wildfowl does seem to be depleted when they leave and local residents claim to have seen them hunting wildfowl with dogs. It was also claimed that the ducks on Writtle village pond vanished soon after an ethnic restaurant opened near Writtle green.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

In Chelmsford it is believed that the travelling folk eat the ducks, geese and swans from central park when the fair is in town. I've seen them dismantle and use park benches for firewood and the local wildfowl does seem to be depleted when they leave and local residents claim to have seen them hunting wildfowl with dogs. It was also claimed that the ducks on Writtle village pond vanished soon after an ethnic restaurant opened near Writtle green.

Not to mention the cats that disappeared. Whenever someone says something like that to me I find myself saying "Cite?". I obviously spend too much time on here.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

Not to mention the cats that disappeared. Whenever someone says something like that to me I find myself saying "Cite?". I obviously spend too much time on here.

There were no reports of cats and dogs vanishing. However, the Writtle ducks really did vanish - whether they fled from local kids throwing things at them or whether they ended up on someone's menu is not known.

Central park's wildfowl also declined, again it's not certain if it was due to the disturbance caused by the funfair or whether fairground folk were eating them (local free papers reported that youths from the fair were seen setting dogs to chase ducks).

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

Not to mention the cats that disappeared. Whenever someone says something like that to me I find myself saying "Cite?". I obviously spend too much time on here.

Reminds me of an old Bernard manning joke, but it's extremely offensive so I will blank it out. Highlight if you want to read it.

Have you noticed there aren't so many Pakistani's around, since the Chinese found out they taste like chicken?

Blanking ends.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

There were no reports of cats and dogs vanishing. However, the Writtle ducks really did vanish - whether they fled from local kids throwing things at them or whether they ended up on someone's menu is not known.

Central park's wildfowl also declined, again it's not certain if it was due to the disturbance caused by the funfair or whether fairground folk were eating them (local free papers reported that youths from the fair were seen setting dogs to chase ducks).

I was just referring to classic ULs with the cats.

That's the rub: whether they were hassling them or eating them. I would say it is much more likely they chased them off than eating them.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

I was just referring to classic ULs with the cats.

I know. This was a notable occasion for the lack of domestic pets in the story!

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

That's the rub: whether they were hassling them or eating them. I would say it is much more likely they chased them off than eating them.

I have a sneaking suspicion some were eaten. One of my battier acquaintances ran off with a bloke from the fairground (the dark-eyed, dark-haired "gypsy" and the travelling lifestyle seemed such a romantic idea compared to a husband and a day job - or in her case trying to stay on the dole and avoid a day job). When she returned (after discovering it wasn't romantic and she was expected to actually work) she mentioned being expected to clean rabbits and wildfowl that the boys had trapped/shot. It sounded like a culture shock for a person whose concept of meat was the wilted pinkness of a Walls sausage.

(Note: her husband took her back, as always; she often vanished that and we'd phone up only to find she'd been gone a few days and he had no idea where she'd run off to - nice woman, but totally batty)