DS Forums

 
 

Why don't we eat seagulls?


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 17-01-2011, 10:52
Hugh Jboobs
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 14,237

I was in Scarborough at the weekend and walking along the front I noticed some absolutely huge seagulls strutting around. It got me wondering - why have I never heard of anyone eating a seagull?

We eat pigeon and dove after all and various other wild birds, so why not seagulls? There's billions of the buggers out there and some of them are absolutely huge!

Are they perhaps "dirty" and carry disease in the same way common pigeons do? Would their meat be too salty or otherwise inedible? Anyone here ever tried seagull, or know someone who has?

I'd be very interested in the answer!
Hugh Jboobs is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 17-01-2011, 10:57
molliepops
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: woking
Posts: 21,681
Have you tasted seagull ? Like crows they are not nice.
molliepops is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-01-2011, 11:24
grassmarket
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 23,325
People in the Orkneys, Shetland and St Kilda used to survive on eating seagulls. Those would have been wild fish-fed birds, though, not the pizza and vomit feeders we have now. Icelanders still eat puffin.
grassmarket is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-01-2011, 11:27
Hugh Jboobs
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 14,237
Have you tasted seagull ?
No, that's why I asked. Have you?
Hugh Jboobs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-01-2011, 11:37
molliepops
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: woking
Posts: 21,681
Many many years ago had crow and I am told todays seagulls taste similar due to the rubbish they eat.
molliepops is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-01-2011, 11:47
hobbes
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Sunny Manchester
Posts: 5,560
I read an article in the papers yersteday about some downed airmen in the war who were adrift in a life raft and had to catch gulls to survive- apparently the first time they were so rank that it made them ill but two of them did survive.

Mind you they were raw which is pretty gross
hobbes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-01-2011, 11:56
Fizzbin
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: East London
Posts: 25,850

Because you can get an albatross for 9p - much better value http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_u7VGiMO0U
Fizzbin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-01-2011, 14:25
degsyhufc
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
I remember Ramsay eating Puffin. IIRC it was rank so if seagulls are similar then it might be the reason.

I saw HFW eating crows and he said they were quite nice.
degsyhufc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-01-2011, 09:32
m1pnk
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 754
its because there a bugger to catch.
m1pnk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19-01-2011, 11:58
Hugh Jboobs
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 14,237
I remember Ramsay eating Puffin. IIRC it was rank so if seagulls are similar then it might be the reason.
I remember that Gordon Ramsey programme. I seem to remember him saying they were nice? I also remember him getting bitten on the nose by one!

its because there a bugger to catch.
With a gun in your hand, I fail to see how.
Hugh Jboobs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19-01-2011, 14:43
degsyhufc
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
I remember that Gordon Ramsey programme. I seem to remember him saying they were nice? I also remember him getting bitten on the nose by one!
Maybe i'm getting mixed up with another delicacy
degsyhufc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-01-2011, 10:47
fluffsta007
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 414
People in the Orkneys, Shetland and St Kilda used to survive on eating seagulls. Those would have been wild fish-fed birds, though, not the pizza and vomit feeders we have now. Icelanders still eat puffin.

I came here to say that the amazing people of St Kilda used to eat these birds. You beat me to it.
fluffsta007 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-01-2011, 12:05
Hugh Jboobs
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 14,237
OK so I think that the conclusion I'm getting is that seagulls who hang around Scarborough and other seaside towns would taste awful because of all the crap they eat. Makes perfect sense.

But surely there are places where seagulls that don't eat rubbish could be sourced from? I realise there probably isn't a demand for it, ut I'd certainly like to try it and see how it tasted! (Not the Scarborough ones though, obviously)
Hugh Jboobs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-01-2011, 17:05
TelevisionUser
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Storbritannia
Posts: 28,930
I was in Scarborough at the weekend and walking along the front I noticed some absolutely huge seagulls strutting around. It got me wondering - why have I never heard of anyone eating a seagull?

We eat pigeon and dove after all and various other wild birds, so why not seagulls? There's billions of the buggers out there and some of them are absolutely huge!

Are they perhaps "dirty" and carry disease in the same way common pigeons do? Would their meat be too salty or otherwise inedible? Anyone here ever tried seagull, or know someone who has?

I'd be very interested in the answer!
Herring Gulls are omnivores and scavengers so they'll try to eat almost anything including chicks of other birds, small mammals, fish, scraps of junk food and, worst of all, waste from rubbish dumps. That means they'll be absolutely riddled with unsavoury bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella species and so on.

Personally, I wouldn't go near one!
TelevisionUser is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2011, 11:47
Olls~
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,339
Why would anyone want to eat a Seagull?
Olls~ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2011, 12:32
I love Ellie
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 7,743
Why would anyone want to eat a Seagull?
The Albatross is off the menu today, maybe.
I love Ellie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2011, 13:27
fonzerelli
Guest
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 942
One of our local Chinese restaurants got closed for a while because they were under suspicion of serving seagull, masked as chicken! Environmental Health got involved after people were getting violently sick after eating there!!

It's open again now. I've never been back!
fonzerelli is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2011, 14:24
AppleJuice:)
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Playing with Lego
Posts: 2,660
One of our local Chinese restaurants got closed for a while because they were under suspicion of serving seagull, masked as chicken! Environmental Health got involved after people were getting violently sick after eating there!!

It's open again now. I've never been back!
Yeah, that would put me off too.

Once some sailors got shipwreck on the island where dodos come from, they thought "yay, loads of massive chickens ", tried to eat it and it was completely inedible, just all fat and gristle.
AppleJuice:) is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 17:50.