Giddy up, horse meat is coming to Queens

UPDATE: Protest Saturday!

“Giddy up, horse meat is coming to Queens,” states a post on the Gothamist.

Raw Horse Meat. Image via Wikipedia.
Raw Horse Meat. Image via Wikipedia.

The all-things-New-York-City blog reports that “Canadian Long Island City diner M. Wells is coming back to us with this week’s opening of M. Wells Dinette inside MoMA PS 1“.

One of the feature attractions Chef Hugue Dufour plans to have on the menu is “horse tartare” or raw horse meat.

The Gothamist states:

When we called the restaurant to double check that fact — because, horse meat — we were told that yes, they would eventually be serving horse but that it wasn’t going to be happening just yet. Further, they told us it wasn’t a priority. But still, you say, isn’t it illegal to eat horses?

No, it is not illegal to eat horse meat. A lot of people think it is, but it is not. An Indiana pizza shop sells horse meat pizza when the Colts play in the Super Bowl. However, instances like this are aberrations as Americans do not typically eat horse meat, and there is very little to no market for it.

Where will the horse meat come from? “They say the horses will be American horses slaughtered in Canada,” the restauranteurs tell the Gothamist.

Well, there is no guarantee the meat that the restaurant buys from Canada will be from American horses, but there is a 60% chance according reported slaughter statistics.

MoMA PS1 has been affiliated with MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) since January 2000. What the highly-esteemed MoMA or MoMA PS1 are thinking makes you wonder. Perhaps they do not know or even care, but the backlash is bound to be considerable. And it will not be from “Peta-types” as the Gothamist smugly puts it. Remember the Top Chef Canada incident?

Since their original restaurant folded about a year from opening, Hugue Dufour and co-owner Sarah Obraitis “have hosted pop-up food stands at MoMA PS1 while preparing to open new restaurants,” states GalleristNY.com. In May M. Wells served horse meat bologna and foie gras grilled cheese (pictures at link) at the 2012 Great Googa Mooga Festival in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

There is a big difference between serving horse meat at food stands where you are a moving target (so to speak) and doing so at a fixed location in a high profile museum setting.

M. Wells Dinette opens at MoMA PS1 September 27.

Contact information for MoMA PS1 >>

Contact information for MoMA >>

48 thoughts on “Giddy up, horse meat is coming to Queens”

  1. Horse meat is healthier, leaner, higher in Omega 3’s than beef. Not all horses are given Bute and certainly not “routinely” and before meat is served in a restaurant, it is often tested. Hype and hysteria only makes those doing the shouting look like uneducated and uninformed fanatics.

    JMHO, of course.

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    1. Did you know that cabbage and radishes are known to increase free radicals in the body which increase your chance for cancer and other diseases…

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      1. That is not correct while they are not the highest scoring veg’s on the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) scale of veg’s with antioxidant value they do not increase free radicals Raw cabbage (grn) scores 529 Red Raw Cabbage Scores 2,496 and Radish 1,750.

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    2. Looks who talking about uneducated and uninformed fanatics. You can not blood test for bute or other banned chemicals. You pro slaughter folks have been told that for years but still don’t get it.

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    3. You are funny. Admittedly opinions.

      1. Meat is not “healthy” to start with. Horse meat is particularly horrific because the medications they are given, especially for forced breeding, are highly toxic. 2. horses are routinely given Bute according to every veterinary society there is and most (honest) horsemen (if you can call truly them that) 3. Meat served in a restaurant is often tested? My husband was in the restaurant business. You have been mislead.

      No one against horse meat is shouting here; no hype, no hysteria.

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    1. Looking at your photo, I’m guessing that you are an AQHA type of guy. They encourage overbreeding because they want registration money and the “excess” can be sold at slaughter. Sorry, you’re comment doesn’t impress.

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  2. How irresponsible of the Restaurant Owners to bring in a food source that is probably a carcinogenic and tainted meat. Hope they have a deep pocket insurance policy. This will be the second nail in their coffin of Restaurants. Can you say, “Not a very wise choice for a new restaurant?” If I was a financial backer…I would be taking my money and running.

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  3. I don’t like mutton but I don’t condemn anyone for eating a cute little sheep or lamb! And not all horse meat is, or will ever be, “tainted”.

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  4. LORD That is SOOO Dangerous. How do Chefs not know what we treat our horses with, or the slaughter pipeline? Surely. Surely there is a knowledge gap here.

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  5. Why is everyone so fixated with what other people eat? This “I don’t like that so we should ban it for everyone else” mentality is so childish. Plus, I would like to see where 100s of people have died because of consuming horse meat.

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      1. Been around since I was six. Been a couple decades now. Studied them, along with the rest of the livestock animals, in college. Trained a few in my day to that are now out winning in the big pen and still training. What about you? Oh and BTW great reply.

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        1. Obviously you didn’t pay attention when they talked about the chemicals in bute. Bute causes cancer so no one dies right after eating a horse meat burger. And I’m sure you have used it in the past too. Sold any horses to slaughter? Toxic meat is what is being said here. The US does not track meds in horses.

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  6. Eat US horse meat at your own risk. Horses are not raised as food animals in this country, and they are routinely given Phenylbutazone, a pain-killer that horse people claim is the horse-equivalent of aspirin. The FDA has banned Phenylbutazone in food products as a potential carcinogen. Horses raised in the US (with Phenylbutazone) and slaughtered in Canada (not subject to FDA inspections) then imported (legally, I wonder?) back to the US as food may be hazardous to your health.

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