Klumpen0815: It may surprise you, but I always wanted to try dog and maybe still.
I hate dogs (living in the city with most likely the largest dog population in my country by far) and if it's one that isn't bred for this purpose and free of parasites, I'd still be very tempted.
Actually, there's this aggressive always barking carpet rat in my house... ;)
Not surprised, I already saw your other post where you said something about wanting to eat natto which surely can't taste worse than dog. With the right preparation, dig is probably a lot tastier. Natto isn't quite as disgusting as it looks but I find it only edible when putting it into the breakfast rice and mixing everything with a raw egg. Natto by itself I don't really like so I have never made any attempts to find it here in Asian food stores. I'd love to incorporate more Asian food into my cooking but it's a bit difficult to find good quality stuff that isn't the cheap MSG industrial crap. For example, I'd love to have Miso soup every single day but the miso paste I find here is the mass produced kind with stuff in it I don't particularly want. East Asian food in general can be very healthy but only if it's the fresh home made variety, not the China restaurant MSG crap. Real home made and fresh Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese/Korean/Japanese food is something I could eat every day. I'm tired of the bread and cheese culture over here. I should just get a lifetime supply of Swiss chocolate and then move to East Asia.
As for the barking dogs, that's a complicated issue. I love dogs but those little barking shits (Zwergpinscher, Chihuahua etc) can drive anyone up the wall. What's most annoying is their owners. If you want to cook and eat someone, don't punish the dogs but have a 'talk' with the owners. The owners of those neurotic shivering little carpet rats with those weird paranoid eyes turned back at an unnatural angle are quite often either unfit to be dog owners or simply antisocial people. And by antisocial I don't mean they don't go to parties (which has nothing to to do with social anyway), I mean the actual meaning of the word in that they are people who are egoists in Lala-Land. Very often, owners of small dogs are unaware of the fact that even small dogs need a lot of exercise and long walks, and need to be trained every bit as much as big dogs. You can't just buy a small dog and keep it as a pillow warmer in the same way that one would keep a house cat, that doesn't work. As I had a smallish dog myself for many years, I understand the difficulty. You want to be the dog's friend but that doesn't cut it. A dog needs you to be his boss first and friend only second, so for people who just want a friend but aren't willing to train the dog and accept the fact that a dog thinks in terms of hierarchy and needs a master, it would be better for them to get another type of pet. I loved my dog very much but I didn't train it enough and I never had full control over it so I understand it's not easy. However, we lived in our own house and our dog only barked at people walking by outside the property on a set of stairs that were part of a public hiking trail. People didn't like that but the dog was behind a fence and only doing its job. In an apartment building, you can't allow dogs to bark, that a huge no-no. Anyway, I only once had a problem when a boy from Ex-Yugoslavia threw stones at my dog, the boy was young and had apparently not been raised to respect local customs. I was a few years older than him but didn't cut him any slack, ran after him and told him in unmistakable terms that he'd be done for if I ever saw him throwing stones again. That he understood, as that seems to be something anyone from any culture understands. It upsets me when one has to be harsh but as annoying as a barking dog is, you can't resort to violence and throw stones etc.
Our dog was a mix between a hunting dog and a guard dog so whenever anyone walked by, it went off like a burglar alarm, and back then I was too young to figure out how to properly train a dog so it can discern between a mere passerby and an intruder. Plus, I hate exerting authority over others, it deeply goes against my grain to boss anyone around, including animals. So even though I love dogs more than people, I don't think I'll have a dog again because I only want to be friends and dislike ordering dogs around and systematically training them.
As a solution to your problem, taking to the owners will most likely achieve absolutely nothing. I don't know those dog owners but I think I've seen enough of those kinda people. They think of themselves that they're nice and normal and that they aren't doing anything wrong. Your best bet is to get to know their dogs, bypassing all the owner BS.
You can't prevent the dogs from barking around inside their apartment but at least you can prevent them from barking at you if you make the effort to be on peaceful terms with them. I can give you some tips if you want on how to deal with that as I've learned a lot from mistakes in the past. But some dogs are already past the point where one can do anything, I'm talking about those Zwergpinschers that are so insanely neurotic and do not respond to even the smartest methods and tactics that even I would say they should be cooked - along with their owners.
SalarShushan: Awalterj, he's not kidding. That far back, it's a very different set of tastes, health issues, cultural sensibilities, and all that being applied to those foods. It's usually advisable to adjust the mix and amount of spices in medieval recipes to modern tastes, yep yep. We have a greater variety of spices right now anyway. :)
I believe you, guess I'll have to stick to the fake renaissance fair food then - until I get a chance to be in charge of such a banquet and direct the use of spices myself :)
