The 2022 March Insanity bracket, determined by how scrumptious the mascots are

A convention like no different. Yearly I prefer to dive into the complete NCAA discipline and resolve which workforce mascot I’d most prefer to eat. This looks like a reasonably straightforward process at first look, however it’s a culinary minefield.

Each step of the best way you have to make ethical choices about how far you’re keen to go. Every stage within the bracket is a brand new strategy to confront your individual culinary biases. For those who thought making an attempt to resolve which workforce will reduce down the nets is hard, wait till you attempt to work out who you’ll be chopping up in your plate. Let’s put the flowery language apart and dive into my consuming bracket.

First off, I’d like to determine that there’s a hierarchy I’ve in relation to making the powerful choices, and it falls into a very easy flowchart:

Human > Endangered Species > Canine > Cat

In each in single occasion I’m following this. Until completely pressured, I can’t eat a human. It’s the place I draw the road. From there, I’ll keep away from consuming an animal that’s already threatened by environmental or human impression. Canine are a no go too, except I’m pressed.

Prior to now I’ve mentioned how I unwittingly ate cat, and it was surprisingly scrumptious, however tastes change as you age. I can not, in good acutely aware, bear in mind the candy, pork-like meat of a cat in making this resolution. It has now been added to the “taboo meats” part, and averted when doable.

The “Texas Conundrum”

Yearly this comes up and I want to consider Texas’ position in all this. The problem is that selecting the Longhorns is chalk. It’s the apparent alternative, the lazy choice. In a standard world then sure, consuming beef is a transparent alternative when what you’d prefer to eat from the sphere.

It’s additionally actually, actually boring. Beef is superb, however it doesn’t tantalize my tastebuds or dance on my tongue … and March is all about dancing. It’s my time of the yr to department out into one thing just a little extra distinctive, and being beef will solely carry you to this point.

Discussing the powerful choices

I hate what the East did to me within the first spherical. I’ll by no means forgive the East. Sure, I needed to eat a human. The First 4 sport between St. Mary’s and Wyoming/Indiana pressured me to essentially ponder what I’m trying to eat in an individual, if pressured.

Wyoming is a cowboy. Robust, like shoe leather-based. Not .

We all know Iberico pork is specifically fed acorns to enhance taste. Grass fed beef is greatest. By this notion, a Hoosier is flavored by Indiana. These are usually not culinary delights I’m down with. It’s a shitty turducken. I’m out.

Lastly, in relation to these mascots, St. Mary’s is a snack.

Photograph by Douglas Stringer/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photographs

We additionally had a cat vs. cat throwdown with Davidson and Montana State. It is a wildcat vs. a bobcat, that are an identical animals for all intents and functions. In the long run I went Montana. Free vary, relaxed vary cat >>>> soiled NC mountain cat.

The preparations of the Remaining 4

This yr provided a very nice mixture of culinary delights. I don’t simply take into consideration these meats in isolation, however how I’d put together them at residence.

Arkansas = Smoked, entire hog BBQ

Akron = Rabbit confit

Delaware = Roast hen

Jacksonville State = Gamecoq au vin

4 actually scrumptious meals I’d be pleased with any time. The problem I had with each Akron and Jacksonville State is the quantity of preparation. Coq au vin is a few WORK, and I solely ever order confit at eating places, as a result of utilizing that a lot oil in a residential setting appears like a waste.

That leaves us with Arkansas and Delaware.

I roast chickens semi-regularly. I’m of the agency opinion that if a majority of People discovered find out how to correctly roast a hen it could not solely remodel how households eat, as a result of entire chickens are an inexpensive supply of protein, however make Thanksgiving so a lot better when people learn to make a hen effectively.

The, there’s pulled pork BBQ. It’s meals perfection. Get one wild hog and you may feed over 100 folks, and wild hog is a scrumptious sport meat that I’d put up there with venison among the many greatest. High that off with an excellent, spicy Jap NC vinegar-based sauce and you’ve got a particular, transcendent meal.