Daishomaru here, and let’s talk about rabbits.
Some Meta-ranting: Sorry guys that I misplaced the arc, the problem with the RDC arc is that it’s really hard to pace these write-ups.  I actually planned the writeup to be released when Isshiki made his dish, but I was busy with stuff and I then realized that what Isshiki DID with his dish that I wanted to talk about happened last episode.  This is why I really hate the RDC in terms of pacing, because the three fights happening at the same time format makes doing these write-ups more of a pain for me.  But I didn’t finish the writeup so I had to upload it today.
So what can I say about rabbits?  Well, at least with this theme I can write more than 4 sentences.

So rabbits are kind of a unique culinary creature amongst animals.  Contrary to the popular belief, rabbit should NOT taste like chicken, or at least it shouldn’t.  I had rabbit dishes before and I do not recall ONCE them tasting like chicken so I do not get where this idea comes from.  However, If I recall, a gibier (Game animal chef) saying about rabbit is that if the rabbit tastes like chicken, it’s prepared incorrectly.  If I got the details correct the rabbit tastes like chicken effect usually means that they removed too much blood by drying the meat out by overcooking or squeezing too much blood out during preparation so there’s not enough blood in the meat, and if you want rabbit to taste good, you have to make sure you don’t lose too much of the blood, especially for freshly killed rabbit.  If rabbit is prepared correctly, it should have a bloody, very gamey taste to it, but yeah, I can personally confirm that rabbit does NOT taste like chicken when prepared right, having eaten rabbit quite a few times, and I do not recall ONCE them tasting like chicken.  Rabbits are game animals that eat and reproduce like mad.  They are pretty much eaten by anything, like other game animals.  The thing that makes rabbits unique to other game animals, however, is the blood.  The blood is easily the most important part of a rabbit, and basically gives rabbit their flavor.  Rabbit meat can be described best as 60% meat, 40% blood.  If you were to squeeze a rabbit like a towel, you would have blood coming out like a hose.  That’s why when you see a chef working with rabbit meat, especially freshly killed ones, they tend to get blood all over their hands and clothing, they have so much blood it’s kind of the culinary equivalent of an perverted anime nosebleed.  The blood also gives the rabbit its flavor, and as all great gibier will tell you: Always use every part of the animal.  Gibier chefs would take the blood from the cutting board, pour it into a saucepan, and mix it with many things, like red wine and vegtables to make use of the blood for sauces.  One of my favorite parts of the rabbit is the liver.  It has a very mature flavor, something that appeals to adults due to how well it goes with red wine.  Make it to a pate and serve with red wine, and it’s basically heaven.  Speaking of red wine, a very popular choice is red wine and rabbit.  Red wine tastes AMAZING with rabbit, with rabbit meat and its rich bloody flavor going well with red wine, or mixing red wine and rabbit blood to make a sauce, or if you are feeling French enough, do both.  A rabbit dish with red wine sauce and red wine is more than enough to make anybody happy, and I know I sound like I’m repeating myself, but it just WORKS.  Fall vegetables, such as onions, carrots, and mushrooms also go very well with rabbit, and it’s a common European family recipe to mix red wine, spices, onions, carrots, and mushrooms with rabbit to make a nice winter stew.

Rabbits, in the wild, are often eaten for game animals because of their tendency to reproduce.  Just to give you an example, 12 rabbits were accidently released to outside Australia in the 1800s.  Those 12 rabbits reproduced to 15 MILLION and end up overwhelming the continent and displacing wildlife within the next 15 years.  Speaking of Australia, and I’ll use this to move to the subject I want to talk about, Australians HATE rabbits.  Like really, really *really* hate rabbits.  They are the most or 2nd most hated animal in Australia. [So much so they made a website declaring their hatred of rabbits](http://www.rabbitfreeaustralia.com.au/).  Because of their tendency to displace wildlife, some areas of Australia have it in the laws to make it illegal to own pet rabbits.  A magician was infamously arrested for bringing a bunny into Australia.  There was an actual protest in Australia to change the species of the Easter Bunny to a bilby (An Australian rodent, very cute), just to make sure Australian children know that rabbits are evil and need to be murdered on sight.  It is even considered patriotic duty in Australia to kill any rabbit on sight in the most violent manner.  And forget about telling Australians to kill them humanely, they want these species GONE.  So yeah, Australians hate rabbits.

Anyways, why do I mention all this?  Because in the game cooking world, a lot of controversy is between the side of the animal activists and hunters, of course.  Hunters believe in their right to hunt, animal activists and vegetarians believe that animals have rights.  However, what both sides universally agree in is that pest animals need to be eradicated.   Many animal rights activists and hunters would actively not only agree, but even team up to help kill invasive animals by hunting pest animals, often cooperating with nature park rangers and the military (Yes, seriously.  In Georgia, for example, there’s an entire US army division literally devoted to hunting invasive boar).  In fact, many animal activists encourage people to buy meat from places that have foreign animal infestations, like Australian Rabbit, or Georgia Boar, and the people from those respective areas would happily give you their meat for so cheap it’s basically free.  There are many meat lovers who promote this too.  So if you feel like helping the environment but don’t want to give up eating meat, you can do this.

I would like to talk about a certain technique Isshiki used, called Broth Making (I’m not sure of the Japanese name, but it’s basically broth making and this is the translation that Japanese-To-English uses, so I’m calling it Broth Making).  In the manga, they noted that Isshiki is using the technique in an unorthodox manner, and I’d like to talk about it.  Isshiki is using a traditional Japanese broth making technique, where he adds bonito flakes or skipjack tuna flakes, uses the dried contents as well as dried kelp to make a broth.  The broth is filtered and usually the dish that complements the broth is a fish ball or some seafood.  The fish ball is then placed into the middle, according to traditional Japanese plating rules, and the broth is poured over the fish ball, and this dish is usually served as an appetizer to a full course meal.  Broth making works like how mirepoix (where you chop up onions, carrots and celery and mix it with chicken bones and water to make chicken broth) works or how Chinese people make soups by using pork bones and scrapings.  The fish flake scrapings release a pure savory, umami flavor that is so savory that the inventor of the word Umami actually uses this broth to describe the concept of it.   You probably seen this if you ever watched an Iron Chef episode with Michiba as the Iron Chef, because the Michiba school technique is by far the most famous variant of the broth making technique.  Rokusaburo Michiba was famous for using broth making to complement a dish, and while it is common for Japanese people to use a large amount of flakes for flavoring, Michiba was famous for using an even larger amount than most people were known to do it.

The reason why I want to talk about this is because normally, and traditionally, you rarely EVER use this technique with certain land animals, and rabbits especially.  In the show, they even point out that what Isshiki did was considered very out there.  Normally, when traditional Japanese Broths are paired, they usually pair it with seafoods, to accompany another.  They never do land animals, especially rabbits, because of tradition (See my Beef Writeup from Season 2, because I’m not explaining all that again) all the blood in the rabbit would have normally overpowered the broth and you essentially have a recipe for walking heartburn.  However, the concept isn’t that foreign, in fact, Rokusaburo Michiba became VERY famous because of this technique, in his debut battle no less.  To give context, when Rokusaburo Michiba first aired on Iron Chef, he said that he can easily beat a French chef to Takeshi Kaga.  Kaga, wanting to put Michiba to the test, said sure, and arranged a battle with a French chef, giving Michiba the theme of foie gras.  During the 30 minutes (The first 10 episodes of Iron Chef did 30 minute battles) of battle, Michiba famously made a dish that combined Foie Gras and Japanese broth, and everybody was shocked, because they thought that the foie gras and Japanese fish broth would overpower the guests.  (Keep in mind, this was HIS VERY FIRST DISH in his DEBUT BATTLE).  However Kaga and the Judges liked it so much that it’s considered Kaga’s 2nd most favorite dish, and Kaga said that Michiba famously kept his word.  So the reason why I wanted to talk about this technique is because the way Isshiki does it is very unorthodox and it shows how Isshiki is liberal in Traditional Japanese cuisine.

Next Writeup: Mushrooms, and why Rindou is Working for the Mafia.