Taste 'O Turtle

After a 12-year hiatus -- not counting two appearances a few years back -- the dish made famous by the South Loop restaurant Binyon's will once again rear its head at Taste of Chicago.



"It's a Chicago tradition, like shrimp de Jonghe and chicken Vesuvio," said Donnie Kruse, BB's co-owner, who is gearing up to sell 50 gallons of turtle soup a day. "



Now after reading a few articles like the above, I wanted to know what type and where exactly these poor little turtles were coming from. So I called BB's.



A very young gal asked a server, who told her the turtles were farm-raised.



Now far be it from me to say terrapins aren't tasty, (they are. I'm hideous. I admit it) but I did want to be ecologically sensitive.



Turns out there are several large U.S. turtle farms in places like Oklahoma and Louisiana. Unfortunately, there is still plenty of wild collecting going on in Texas and other states. Read a great article about how the U.S. is exporting the delicacy to China. (Hope they get salmonella.)



China has overharvested turtles from all of Asia and is now seeking our surplus. Unfortunately, farming any type of seafood is fraught with negatives - disease within the colony, potential for farm stock to escape and infect wild populations, and the dreaded 'doesn't taste as good' factor.



But let's all give BB's the benefit of the doubt. I don't know how many tickets a taste o' turtle will cost you, but be sure to ask the server about the type and source of the meat. An informed consumer will drive the market.