THIS HAPPENED TO ME

Why Eating Ducks and Geese Repels Me Now

We do not eat our friends, do we?

Ducks! Male mallards (with neon green heads), female mallards (mainly brown feathers), young crested duckling (white feathers, crest on top of head), young Pekin duck (all-white feathers). Photo taken by the author at Pontefract Park in England. ©Josephine Crispin, 2024

As far as I could remember, the first time I ate a duck dish was when I was six years old.

This stuck in my memory because, at the dinner table, the family discussed the duck that we were eating.

It was that duck, most likely a Pekin, that used to chase me around the backyard in our ancestral home.

Pekin duck, preferred by duck breeders because the meat of this duck is not as strong as other duck meat. Photo taken by the author at Walton Colliery Nature Park in England. ©Josephine Crispin, 2024

That the duck was the very same bird that I tried to play with was now duck adobo — did not horrify me.

Astonished, yes, because I was just playing with it the day before. And the next day, the bird was our main course.

(Adobo is perhaps the most well-known Philippine dish; it is meat stewed in vinegar, soy sauce, lots of garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf.)

Photo taken by the author at Pontefract Park in England. ©Josephine Crispin, 2024

During those days, people bought live poultry to be fattened before eventually being served on the dining table.