I am supposed to be on a four-day rotational diet, while avoiding foods to which I am sensitive, avoiding cow's milk, and severely limiting refined cane sugar. I am urged by my naturopathic doctor to eat only organic foods. The diet is wonderfully healthful; but I would like to expand the variety of meats and grains we consume. Meats are difficult. Our supermarkets carry mostly the commodity meats, chicken and turkey, pork, and beef. Occasionally, lamb. Seasonally, frozen duck. We don't eat pork, as my wife is Jewish. Southern California fish selection is very limited. Only salmon comes reasonably fresh. I once asked a local market, famous for its meats, if it carried goat. The butcher was offended, implied that I was a spy for a competitor market, and directed me to a Mexican market. I discovered that our local health food store carries frozen venison and bison ground meat. So we added them to our menu. But no store at all carries game birds.
Then one day, I discovered a store that does carry an extraordinary variety of unusual meats. I was replenishing Bear's supply of canned dog food at a pet store. I decided to expand the variety of foods our black labrador eats, though she eats enthusiastically and indifferently everything she is fed. I don't think she even tastes any of it. Nonetheless, I began reading can labels. Lo and behold. Merrick Pet Care of Texas cans an astonishing variety of wonderful meats, with can labels distinctly appealing to human pet owners. Here is Merrick's "Harvest Moon": "Duck, Pheasant, Quail, Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, Minnesota Wild Rice". Duck! Pheasant! Quail! I have never found these game birds in a local supermarket. The clerk at the pet store, an earnest, smiling, and beautiful young woman, explained that Merrick's is human quality dog food. To prove it, she said, the Merrick salesman came to the store and ate dog food out of the cans with a spoon. A great salesman. A great demonstration. Quality level helps explain the price of the food. Over $2 for a 13.2 oz can. Nonetheless. I still haven't found a local market that offers for humans the game foods available for dogs by Merrick. I'm not desperate, however. I haven't started to eat my dog's gourmet canned food. I am thinking, however, of going back to the pet food store and asking the young woman clerk if she has tasted "Harvest Moon".
Recent Comments