I was thinking about trying Frog Legs.

I was thinking about trying Frog Legs.

There is this restaurant I drive by on my way to my favorite downtown Jackson coffee shop (The Thunderbird, Go Jon) that used to be known for doing a real good breakfast crowd. And they always had a sign outside extolling the specials of the day or week for the non-breakfast hours.

They used to be known for having good pie too.

Lately the sign says frog legs. I’ve always wondered about frog legs and over the years every now and then thought maybe I should try them, after all I LIKE TO EAT.

I like to go to new restaurants when I travel and sample the local ambiance of new establishments and sample their wares. I visited the Moosewood in Ithaca, lots of different places in Chicago including The Rosebud Café during my MANY trips. I used to really like the Inn Season Café in Royal Oak (the owner was also a bottled water customer of mine way back in the days yore). SEVA in Ann Arbor used to be one of my favorites, the owner there was also a bottled water customer of mine, but he sold the place and I haven’t been back. There used to be a real good German Restaurant in Stockbridge whose chef was formerly at the Campus Inn in Ann Arbor and on and on my travels have been. Lately I can be found at the Crowe’s nest every other weekend, as they have the world’s best tomato soup.

You might get the idea, my fine dining establishments and hole in the wall adventures were (are still) pretty much endless.

The Frog Holler Produce Station in Ann Arbor used to be a bottled water customer of mine too.

So I wonder, those plump meaty frog legs must be quite the mouthful? I doubt it. If they’re anything like the smelt I had on the way back from the ski trip a few weeks ago, you need lots of em to get a belly full. The smelt made me sick and I was all messed up for a week afterward but that’s a different story. The whole idea of eating minnows really grossed out the kids and that’s all I was after anyway – but I paid dearly.

So what do they do with the rest of the frog? I’ve never heard of frog tenderloins or frog back straps (I think the same as tenderloins but I would have to ask Ted). Has anyone ever been able to find frog breasts at the market? Frog jowls? Pickled frog feet (they do that with pigs after all). How about frog fritters? God I hope there’s no frog wings around – those little front arms would offer so little to nibble on.

So it just seems a waste to me. Those tender little deep-fried nibbles of frog leg and the rest of the little beast doesn’t even make it into hot dogs. Well maybe it does, I just don’t know so I wont say definitively. But it has never came to my attention.

Frogs after all do eat lots of bugs. They make real nice music in the summer evenings. The large mouth bass like them too. SO it’s all about habitat, and balance and nature and why the heel would we waste a whole frog if all we wanted to eat was the legs?

Frogs are also endangered all around the globe; the frog habitats are drying up in LEAPS and BOUNDS. Did I mention many frog species are now mutant, especially near Savannah River and Hanford Nuclear reservations. Want to talk about strip malls parking lots and wetlands preservation? You just knew I would tie this to water didn’t you?

I decided not to try the frog legs and I vote at the cash register when ever possible.

I’m just saying.