Pigeons take patience

I was in Toronto earlier this week. And one of the pleasures of visiting the city is eating Chinese food in Markham. I met up with family on Tuesday night and we went out for a meal that would be difficult for me to find in Ottawa. We had winter melon soup steamed inside a whole winter melon. And also, something I remember from my childhood: roasted pigeon. I remember my grandfather would take me out for pigeon every time mom, dad and I went back to Hong Kong for a visit.
First rule of pigeon eating is not to question how the restaurant got the pigeon. Second rule is to have patience. Pigeons aren’t big creatures so it takes time to pick the meat off the bone. What I appreciate about the Chinese philosophy to food is if you’re served flounder or duck you know what you’re eating was once fish or fowl. Fish are steamed whole from head to tail, chicken is served chopped up -- bone and all. An accurate – but slightly rude-sounding – translation of a Chinese expression for enjoying meat off the bone is "sucking bone". As in "Give her the fish head. She’s very good at sucking fish bone." (If anyone can think of a more delicate way to translate this, please let me know.)
The benefit is you don’t distance yourself from your food. It doesn’t end up being a slab of meat that came wrapped in plastic wrap from the grocery store. My aunt was shocked when a friend of mine once told her the only type of chicken she’d ever purchased was skinless and boneless chicken breast. It’s about slowing down and focusing on your food. One of the pleasures of eating pigeon – aside from the rich, dark meat – is methodically dissecting the bird with your chopsticks, hands and teeth – cleaning the flesh off the bone so that the roasted pigeon becomes a small pile of bones on the plate.
People who’ve watched me to do this who aren’t Chinese think it’s slightly odd behaviour, and even gross. And I guess there is something slightly barbaric to it if you’re not used to seeing it at the dinner table. But I think it’s unfortunate when the experience of dining is refined to the point where you can’t appreciate your dinner was once a creature.