Unusual meat products in the Pioneer Valley

March 9, 2015 12:16 AM

Due to an overly elaborate inside joke, I need to treat my girlfriend to an anniversary dinner — either out at a restaurant or cooked at home — involving some sort of rarely-served meat. (Last year's iteration of this was in Texas and involved barbecued raccoon from a friend who hunts.) This year we'll be in Northampon, MA, with access to a rental car and a decently well-stocked kitchen. Suggestions?
posted by nebulawindphone to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

Can you get kangaroo anywhere? It's pretty common in Australia but I can't imagine it's plentiful where you are.
posted by Jubey at 2:48 AM on March 9, 2015

Best answer: Northampton has a fancy pants new butcher shop. Sutter Meats You might pop in and see what they can acquire for you. Here is a list of farms in the area offering pastured meat- I bet they have a lot of offal and nose to tail bits for you.
posted by Lisitasan at 3:09 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Not sure if this qualifies, but Northampton is a hotbed of vegetarianism, so this may be your opportunity to offer a rarely-served "meat". One that comes to mind is Quorn, which is made from a lab-grown fungus. It is available in natural foods stores in the freezer section, alongside such curiosities as vegetarian "squid", "duck", and "scallops".
posted by apparently at 3:22 AM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

For exotic meats how about these (all personally verified tasty):
Beefalo. Rattlesnake. Ostrich. Alligator. And on and on.


As for WHERE if Goole mapping exotic meats in Northampton has no luck (it didn't seem too) just order online from one of many reputable purveyors.
posted by chasles at 3:24 AM on March 9, 2015

Squirrel melts?
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:59 AM on March 9, 2015

Best answer: Tran's World Food Market on route 9 in Hadley (just across the river) is probably worth a look.
posted by usonian at 5:11 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: (Although I don't think they're going to have exotic game along the lines of raccoon. Plenty of tentacled things though. And durian candy, which is as terrible as it sounds.)
posted by usonian at 5:16 AM on March 9, 2015

It's about an hour and a half into Cambridge Ma. Julia Child's local market Savenor's has a good variety of exotic meats.
posted by sammyo at 5:22 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Perhaps get the cookbook (Amazon), 'How to Bake a Snake'.
posted by donaken at 6:11 AM on March 9, 2015

Best answer: Arnold's Meats in Chicopee carries a variety of unusual meats, I'm told (I've not been there personally).

Pekarski's for sausage.

If you want pig, Outlook Farm is the source.

Fresh Acres market has buffalo, ostrich and other unusual game.
posted by plinth at 7:24 AM on March 9, 2015

Best answer: Bub's BBQ has fried gator tail.
posted by vogon_poet at 7:38 AM on March 9, 2015

Response by poster: Although I don't think they're going to have exotic game along the lines of raccoon. Plenty of tentacled things though.

Great! To clarify a bit, it doesn't necessarily have to be game, which I know is hard to get if you don't know hunters in the area. Tentacled things (or less-common farm-raised meats: ostrich, squab, goat, etc) would work fine so long as there's a reliable way to obtain them in the Valley.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:57 AM on March 9, 2015

Best answer: Also, a former colleague recently had dinner at the Student Prince, which had a game menu recently and if they don't have that available (likely) maybe they'd tell you where they got bear meat?
posted by plinth at 10:43 AM on March 9, 2015