The Other White Meat...

So, I was sitting in my room on Sunday reading a book, watching movies, and doing just about anything to stave off my boredom of not being able the surf the net for the 5 bazillionth day in a row…and really, more importantly, not being able to spend time working on my research papers. Anyway, I hear a knock on my door and it’s Gil. She came downstairs to tell me the little road stand across the street was selling bats. Not baseball bats…BATS, like those nighttime flying animals. Of course I didn’t believe her and ran to the window to look for myself and sure enough, the stand had like, 5 huge bats hanging from one of the support beams, prime for the pickin’. No way!! After a quick pow-wow, we came to the obvious conclusion that we must document this so we grabbed our cameras and hustled downstairs to our parking lot to take pictures.

At first, Gil and I were trying to be discreet, hiding behind motorbikes, zooming our cameras in, then quickly snapping a shot. We didn’t want to offend the shop owner. However, after a few uninspiring shots, I decided it was necessary we change our plan of action and just outright walk up to the bats and take the stinkin pictures. This is not something you see everyday and there was no way my curiosity would be satisfied by some silly long distance pictures. So, I led the way out the gate and toward the shop.


Once we got there, I decided I had made a huge mistake because as we walked up to the stand I saw the owner munching on bat entrails like they were a delicacy sent from God Himself. HOLY CRAPPOLY, I was about ready to upchuck when I saw that! All of the sudden, eating partially cooked fish with their eyeballs staring up at me didn’t seem like such a bad meal.

Fortunately, the owner didn’t take offense to our curiosity (or my periodic dry heaves) and was rather pleased visitors were showing interest in her products. She even came out from behind the counter to spread the wings of a bat so we could get a good picture of the wingspan. Ahhhh! I know these things were dead, but they were definitely the BIGGEST BATS I HAVE EVER SEEN and I was freaking out.




In talking to the shop owner, we found out that these bats were captured a few kilometers south of us past some village I forget the name of. She told us the bat tasted “very good” (well, in French she told us that) and it tasted like chicken, lolol. Yeah right. I didn’t feel like paying trois mil Ariary (approximately $1.50) to buy one and find out what they actually tasted like.

Anyway, that’s the bat “incident” for you. It was the highlight of our otherwise very mundane weekend.

Here are some other culinary delights I’ve seen while here in Ambositra. They were so appetite-inducing to me, I just have to share…


Zebu legs…



All sorts of different meats…with flies all over them. How sanitary.

Alrighty, now that I've surely wet your appetite for a yummy chunk o'stake...bon appetit!!