Raw Horse Meat, Basashi, in Japan

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Raw Horse Meat, Basashi, in Japan

When my husband and I visit Japan, my mother-in-law always buys fresh raw horse meat, which is basashi (馬刺) in Japanese, for us. We really like eating it with soy sauce and fresh grated ginger or garlic. It's so good! :)

Unlike Japan, I think eating horse meat is not acceptable for some other countries, and I think that some of you can't imagine especially raw meat. Yes, Japanese people have been eating raw horse meat. However, this food culture doesn't exist all over Japan. For instance when I was living in Osaka, I have never seen raw horse meat shops there. Well, probably they sell one in Osaka too, but it's not easy to find one because of less popularity. In contrast, some specific areas are famous for providing raw horse meat such as Kumamoto, Aomori and Fukushima. Because my hometown is Fukuoka, where is close to Kumamoto, there are some famous raw horse meat shop there. When I visited Japan two month ago, my mother-in-law took me to the famous horse butcher shop in my hometown. She said this shop was very popular and had been often on TVs.

Horse Butcher Shop

Horse meat are more expensive than beef or pork. People there don't eat horse meat as often as beef, pork, and chicken.

Horse Butcher Shop

According to Wikipedia, majority of horse meat in Japan is imported from other countries such as Australia, Canada, and U.S. I have never seen horse meat here in U.S. though.

I found this video, on which French girls tried eating raw horse meat for their first time.