A Dutch restaurant is now serving up some stallion with its scallions.
The offbeat food truck Keuken van het Ongewenst Dier, which translates to "The Unwanted Animal Kitchen," now supplies its "My Little Pony Burger" year round to Babbe Hengeveld, a chef who runs her own restaurant Food Guerilla, reports Vice Munchies.
Keuken van het Ongewenst Die has been serving the burger periodically for years and the patty itself is made from the meat of butchered, aging horses that have worked at a local amusement park, Slagharen.
The idea behind the unusual protein is to ensure that the meat from older horses isn't wasted when the animals are put down.
The menu at Keuken van het Ongewenst Dier is dependent on seasonal food waste so items fluctuate based on the incoming meats and available ingredients. But there's usually plenty of horse meat to keep the "My Little Pony" burgers on the menu.
Hengeveld says she thinks horse is a tasty, protein rich meat but admits the horse burger is not one of the menu's bestsellers.
"They don't sell well because people do feel bad about the idea of eating horse," Hengeveld told Vice. For some, horses will always be seen as pets in the same way dogs are. Cows and chickens, in many Western cultures, aren't kept as pets so they're okay for food.
"I just need to throw away the meat sometimes. For people to understand, you really have to explain to them clearly about the unwanted ponies and horse meat. When I'm cooking in the kitchen, I don't always have time for this."
But the potential of using meat that would otherwise be wasted hasn't been lost on the business world, Hengeveld says.
Bigger companies are interested in building on her technique and some have approached her about adapting the burger for a larger audience.
"For businesses, it's just a matter of improving their image," but, she says, "if the goal is reached, the underlying reason doesn't matter that much."
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