Alan wrote:

> > if raw meat was always a part
> > of the human diet we would all have a natural craving for it and
> > it would still be eaten raw today rather than cooked in most
> > cases.

Jean-Louis Tu wrote:

> Well, it seems that several people here (including me) do have a
> craving for it. You may find it repulsive, but I believe that feelings
> of repulsion are cultural, rather than instinctive (that's of course
> merely an opinion, which would be hard to prove). Why then do people
> usually eat cooked, rather than raw meat? That's an interesting
> question, to which I don't have a definite answer. I have tried again
> a little cooked meat recently (either at home or in restaurants), and,
> depending on which meat and on the way it is prepared, it may or may
> not taste better than raw. So, if it were only for the taste, why don't
> people eat at least _part_ of their meat raw? Is it for safety
> reasons? (Since we have refrigerators, it is safe nowadays to eat
> high-quality raw meat, but it may not always have been the case.)

I've always had a craving for raw meat, but only red meat.  It used
to drive my mother crazy when I'd sneak some before it was cooked.
She'd always say, "OK, but don't EVER do that if you're pregnant!"
(A parasite concern, I assume.)  Now that I've tasted salmon sashimi,
I often crave that too.

Several times, I've had raw red meat dishes in restaurants --Italian,
Armenian, and Ethiopian -- but not often, since it is pretty rare.
(sorry :D)

Carol