In fact, in Jakarta, where the Obamas lived with their Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, dog meat is illegal. In the majority Muslim Indonesia, eating dog is forbidden among most ethnic groups in the islands, though a small, black market is said to exist for those looking for it. The only exception are the Batak people, principally of Northern Sumatra who eat it on holidays–but Obama’s stepfather, who was raised in West Java, isn’t a part of that ethnic group. Besides, the Obamas lived hundreds of miles and several islands away.
A diplomatic source close to the Indonesian delegation in the U.S. confirms that while dog is sometimes eaten in Indonesia, it is done so very rarely. “Obama had to go hunting for dog meat,” the source, who didn’t want to be identified, told me.
“I don’t know of anyone who eats it and frankly, I’m a little offended you would ask.”
At the risk of offending fellow Conservatives by defending Obama, he was a child. The sins of the (step)father are not placed on the head of the child.
The recipes on the blogs were fun though.
On a related note, the book said that Lolo told him that when you eat an animal you take on it’s characteristics (or some such nonsense) and that he was going to get some tiger meat for young Barry. Based on the way this guy throws a baseball, I’m guessing Lolo couldn’t find a tiger so he settled for a house cat.
While I appreciate how much fun everyone’s having with this, I suspect the real story is that Obama’s ghostwriter made this up for the book because it sounded good at the time (Indonesia…Asians…yeah, they probably eat dog).
What do you want to bet that Obama has never even READ that book…?
This is very true. The dish is called Tsang-tsang, and it’s fairly common in batak areas, such as Medan in north sumatra. Also considering the Javanese are almost all Muslim, there’s no way they would EVER eat dog, let alone touch them.