Eating a Camel

Last night we ate a camel.

It was a small camel, only a year and a half. They walked it into camp alive the night before and they butchered it right there. You have to slit its throat in a particular way for the meat to be "halal" (the Arabic version of kosher). I didn't actually see all this, but I was told about it.

Camel meat is pretty good. It's stringy in a way that reminds me of a hunk of stewed corned beef. There is no marbling of fat, like on a steak, but the meat itself is a little oily (could have been the way they cooked it too). I was served mine from a giant stewing pot that served over 100 people. You ate with your hands. The meat was spiced lightly with cardemum. Tasted a little like lamb or deer, red meat with some flavor. There was a little piece of camel fur left on one of my pieces, it made me sad.

PS. While looking up halal, I found that the eating roadkill is also forbidden in Islamic law. Maybe if I order roadkill for breakfast they will have to serve it to me with a specially marked plate and untensils, like when I order bacon.