Nerdcore

Anfang des Jahres gab’s schonmal einen Artikel in der New York Times, der mich etwas ratlos zurückließ: The New Age Cavemen and the City.

Damals ging’s um Leute, die sich riesige Gefrierschränke in die städtische Wohnung stellen und leben, wie Höhlenmenschen (zumindest, was die Essgewohnheiten angeht). Urbane Neanderthaler, quasi: „The caveman lifestyle, in Mr. Durant’s interpretation, involves eating large quantities of meat and then fasting between meals to approximate the lean times that his distant ancestors faced between hunts. Vegetables and fruit are fine, but he avoids foods like bread that were unavailable before the invention of agriculture.“

Jetzt lese ich etwas ganz ähnliches: In New York, New Orleans und San Francisco finden „Butcher-Parties“ statt, auf denen ganze Tiere zerlegt, geschlachtet und verspeist werden und in Sydney eröffnen „Designer-Metzgereien“ (oder so ähnlich). Ich erkenne da ein Muster: New School Cavemen feiern urbane Schlachtfeste und ‘ne komplette Rinderhüfte is the new Neonrubiks80shipster, oder so ähnlich. Soll mir ja recht sein, ich bin eh Fleisch-Fan, solange sich das mit den zu engen Röhrenjeans dann mal schnell erledigt hat.

“The first butcher party,” Ryan Farr says, “was called ‘Hop, Hop, Hop, Into the Burning Ring of Fire.’ That was on Easter last year, and we did rabbits.”

Farr is the star of San Francisco’s 4505 Meats, “Home of Revival Butchery,” and he is taking his gospel to the barroom. He is one of a handful of young practitioners across the country who are staging bacchanalian “butcher parties,” where they bring whole carcasses — from rabbits to steer — to bars, hang them up, take them apart, and cook them while wide-eyed partyers wash down the resultant meaty snacks with cocktails and beer. The resurgence of artisan butchery is supposed to be about respect for traditional craft, an emphasis on ethical, sustainable meat eating, and a renewed awareness of where our meat really comes from. Do blood-and-booze-soaked butcher parties cheapen these ideals?

Farr doesn’t think so. “It’s very educational,” he says. “You get to see the whole animal, it gets processed in front of you, and then you eat it. And at the same time you get to have martinis or beer. It’s just a good time all around.”

Salon.com: Meathead fad? The rock star butcher, New York Times: Young Idols With Cleavers Rule the Stage, Coolhunter: Victor Churchill Butcher – Sydney, Behomia: Viscera and Voyeurism – Watching butchers cut up whole animals is the newest live entertainment. Could this fresh group of hipster foodies save tradition? (via MeFi, Notcot)