Animals we have eaten and seen

One of the things that I do for a large portion of my year is travel writing. I love to eat different animals and stuff, and go around the world eating them.
- Gary Shteyngart, in conversation with Deborah Treisman

The animal I am eating right now, to use a loose definition of the term, is a parsnip. It's spicy parsnip soup day at the lovely cafe near my office, and it's nice to have a break, curl up with the ol' laptop, and enjoy some honest to goodness free wi-fi! We've so missed you, Bloggership, and I'm sorry to report that there is still no end to our internet woes. The new router has yet to arrive, though the security/reception guy at my office promises that he is on high alert for it. In the meantime, let's lunch.

Thanksgiving was great, due in large part to the turkey, another Swiss Mister masterpiece. We were slightly concerned when we picked up the bird on the morning of -- we had been expecting a 5-6kg creature, and this hefty fellow clocked in at a whopping 6.4kg! Would he fit in the oven??? Barely. His legs did bust out of the cooking bag about halfway through the lightning-fast 2-or-so hours or so in the oven(!!!), but that in no way affected the deliciousness of the end result. We managed to rustle up 10 friends/proto-friends to warm the house up (though the oven in our kitchen-diner mostly took care of that!), and now, having had our first party, we can officially say we are moved in.

This week I went to the London Zoo for THE ANONYMOUS CHARITY's regional conference. Here's a tip to all conference organizers: if your organization is undergoing a lot of change (people getting let go, etc.), keep a careful eye on your attendee list. Don't, for example, have a table at which two people have been made redundant and one is expecting the axe this week, and another who is a temp who doesn't even work for THE ANONYMOUS CHARITY! Worst conference ever. It was more of a hate-fest with bad sandwiches. At least I got to spend some time at the zoo after. Minor consolation.

London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo, opened in 1828. The zoo receives no state funding, which might explain why admission prices are so high, so I was very happy to wander around for free. First stop: penguins! Why do penguins always look so happy? (And tasty. I think one of these guys for Thanksgiving would be delicious!)
I must have had turkey on the brain, because I next found myself here:

But don't play too nicely...

One of nature's "Men in Black" in action(not so tasty-looking)

For the pescetarians in the crowd

Up next for the weekend, an animal sighting of a different sort: tickets to the BFI London Film Festival movie Smash his camera, about paparazzo Ron Galella. Helmet required.