Mouthwatering muskrat meals to go

[Hellfighter]

Man this is weird crap i ever read

Riverview restaurant offers fast delivery of Downriver delicacy
November 11, 2004

BY JOEL THUR-TELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

This was only a test.

The chef, a florid-faced man with wild, white curly hair, tossed chunks of butter and garlic into a frying pan whose bottom was tickled by a tall blue flame.

Next came the piece de resistance, two chunks of dark brown meat that began to sizzle as the cook swished the pan over the fire.

If this had been the real thing, the cook would have needed to have his main dish finished and neatly wedged alongside mashed potatoes, gravy and sauerkraut and delivered to the customer at home inside 30 minutes to beat the competition.

While the main course was ready -- hot in its plastic sealed plate within 10 minutes -- the rest of the test was canceled.

On this particular afternoon, there were no delivery orders phoned in to Kola's Food Factory in Riverview for this particular menu item -- muskrat. Or, as proprietor Johnny Kowalewski put it, "Rats on the run."

His muskrat delivery is a first for Downriver, or anywhere for that matter, claims Kowalewski, whose restaurant also delivers pizza and other rare and regular fare.

"The others only do pizza," notes Kowalewski. "What have we got?" Besides muskrat, Kowalewski has alligator, perch, shrimp, hamburgers, kielbasa, baby back ribs and other regular offerings.

"The kids can order pizza, but maybe the parents want rat," Kowalewski said.

Those who are a bit faint of heart should know that muskrats are strictly vegetarian.

The taste? A lot like squirrel. The meat is dark and succulent.

This modern convenience of home-delivered muskrat began this week and is made possible by Kowalewski's recent union with Capri Pizza, a company that bakes its pizza in Kola's Food Factory restaurant but offers delivery, too.

To demonstrate, Kowalewski shoves the plastic-sealed plate with the hot and ready-to-eat muskrat into an insulated pizza delivery bag.

It fits.

But who needs it? Customers, says Kowalewski, that's who.

In the past two weeks since the restaurant re-opened after a summer hiatus, about two dozen people have ordered muskrat. Not bad, since the rodent is most popular in the winter, especially during Lent.

While the standard rat fare comes with potatoes and kraut, there are other possibilities, in theory.

Why not muskrat Benedict?

Not a problem, says Kowalewski.

"Instead of ham, you just lift the rat meat off the bones and put it on poached eggs and hollandaise sauce," he said.

Rat entrées are not new.

Colonial French fur trappers from Quebec introduced muskrat eating to southeastern Michigan in the 18th Century, according to Dennis Au, a descendant of French colonists in Monroe County. Au wrote about the French muskrat custom in a 1987 Smithsonian magazine article.

According to Au, violence and the disruption of life during the War of 1812 prompted many people to rely on muskrat. And it is said that the French settlers appealed to their bishop to allow them to substitute muskrat for fish on Fridays, arguing that because muskrat live in the water, they should be declared a fish.

"God bless dee muskrat, she's a fish," the old-timers would declare.

English-speaking settlers derided them as "muskrat French," while meanwhile adopting the delicacy.

In a paper written for Michigan State University, Au wrote: "More than any other food, muskrat identifies French folk culture in Monroe."

"The culinary appeal of a good muskrat supper ... has spread beyond" Monroe, and at one time reached as far north as Port Huron, Au wrote.

In Monroe, it's still a major feature of political and charity fund-raisers, Au wrote. Few places in metro Detroit serve it today, admits Kowalewski.

The rat was dealt a blow in the late 1980s when state Department of Agriculture officials tried to ban serving it, saying it could spread Giardia lamblia a nasty intestinal parasite that causes all kinds of gastrointestinal ailments. The state declared it illegal to serve muskrat. Kowalewski fought back, as did the late Jerry Bartnik, then a state representative from Monroe County - and the ban was lifted.

In the late 1980s, there still were Monroe residents who considered the muskrat a fish and often cooked and ate it, according to Au.

The French generally served muskrat with creamed corn. Kowalewski's combination of rat with kraut and potato is more German or Polish.

The key to cooking muskrat is removing the musk sacs from the carcass to reduce the oiliness and gaminess of the meat.

Kowalewski recommends boiling the rat three times, first in salt, then in bay leaves, and finally in tomatoes, onions and garlic.

So how far will Kowalewski ship his rats?

Sorry, Grosse Pointers -- you're out of luck, as is Bloomfield Hills.

"All of Southgate, Wyandotte, Riverview, Trenton and maybe Grosse Ile," Kowalewski said, adding "I don't know what I can do to elevate the rat any higher than this."

Hey, if it catches on, maybe he'll open another Food Factory restaurant to serve Woodhaven, Gibraltar and Brownstown Township, Kowalewski says. And if that goes well ... who knows.

Some might construe that as a warning. For all his ebullience about muskrat, the chef is not immune to some ribbing in his own restaurant. As he posed for a picture, holding a stuffed muskrat with its snout aimed at the freshly-cooked entrée, a regular customer wisecracked: "You going to feed him?"

"Muskrat to go," chuckles Kevin Brown, one of Kowalewski's partners in the pizza-muskrat delivery biz. "We figure we'll give the muskrat an address and he'll make his way there."

Maybe even muskrat on pizza, wisecracks Brown. Well, maybe not. Brown said he is not about to eat rat.

"I've tried a lot of other things, but that one doesn't hit my palate," he said.

Kola's Food Factory is at 17168 Fort St. in Riverview. To order your rat, call 1-734-281-0447.
===========================================
Don't think so i'll pass on that one big time maybe steve have go at it.