Amsterdam steakhouse boss admits selling horse for 63 years

[The Straight Story]

Amsterdam steakhouse Piet de Leeuw has been selling horse fillets as beef for 63 years, owner Loek van Thiel admitted to the Parool on Friday.

On Thursday, Van Thiel had denied the charges, saying the cafe only sold South American beef. The Parool had various pieces of meat tested and concluded the cafe's popular steaks were horse.

Van Thiel came clean on Friday, saying the cafe has sold horse since 1949 when his father, a horse meat butcher, bought the premises.

Staff at the cafe have a contract which states they are not allowed to say anything about the use of horse. 'I've never considered saying 'horse steak' on the menus,' he said. 'People enjoyed their food, business was good, so why should I?'

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2013/02/amsterdam_steakhouse_boss_admi.php

[htuttle]

1. Isn't horse meat kind of tough?

They don't have much body fat, so there wouldn't be a lot of marbling.

[Mnemosyne]

2. He must have had a great marinade. It can make anything tender. nt

[bluestate10]

4. Depends upon how it is raised. Any meat can have more fat in it.

I don't know how to feel about the story. The man was in business for 63 years and had a popular business. But he should have told people what they were buying and let them chose whether they wanted to buy it.

[WinkyDink]

6. You "don't know how to feel"?!?! THIS WAS CRIMINAL FRAUD.

[bluestate10]

12. You're right, it is fraud. My feelings are around beef versus horse. I don't eat much of either,

but, the family ran a successful business for 63 years, so the product they sold must have been considered good by their customers.

To you point on honesty. It would have been better for all concerned for the owners to have advertised that they sold horse steaks and burgers. There would have been a market for that. The fact that they didn't indicates they felt their product was inferior, or they let greed consume them.

[hack89]

17. No - I have had horse meat just as tender as any beef. nt

[Katashi_itto]

27. "Horse...it's whats for dinner..."

[pinboy3niner]

36. My sentiment exactly! ...

--The Horse Steak Whisperer

[jeanmarc]

3. It's a mistake to eat beef in Europe

...at least for me. The meat tastes more gamey and it's tougher.

Maybe it was horsemeat all the time?

[bluestate10]

5. I have learned to not eat american or mexican standards anywhere in the world except

in those two countries, the food in other places is bad. I eat local standards in local places, unless it looks nasty.

[Franker65]

7. He should be punished for lying to his customers

63 years? He should have been honest to his customers. I'm sure much of his clients will avoid the place from now on.

[bluestate10]

13. I think he is out of business. There would have been a market for horse steaks and burgers,

but his family lied for 63 years. The lie is what will kill the business, not the horse meat.

[cbdo2007]

8. I don't like the lying.....but why all the fuss about people eating horse meat all of a sudden??

I think people should be honest about where they get their meat, but is there something I'm missing in all the press recently about horse meat?

[Tien1985]

9. Well,

This guy will get it because he purposely committed fraud.

But the problem with the rest is because could contain Bute, which humans aren't suppose to eat. On top of the fact that it really ticks people off if they think they're eating one thing and you feed them something else.

[FarCenter]

20. You would have to eat a huge amount of horsemeat to get a significant dose of bute

Phenylbutazone is a non-steroidal anti-inflamitory drug that was formerly used in humans.

The amount in horsemeat is far below the former theraputic dosage.

Phenylbutazone is mostly used in racehorses.

[Tien1985]

21. I somewhat accept

that our food is all sorts of contaminated, and honestly, "horse" wouldn't even register on my worry list. I highly doubt fruit and vegetables are any better. But so far as I can tell, this (the bute, and the fraud issue)is the reason people are throwing a fit.

Now if we lived in a perfect world, I'd say I'd rather no Bute, therapeutic dose or not, in my food without my knowledge.

[FarCenter]

43. Veterinary drugs carry recommendations about suitability for food animals and time to withdraw

Many are supposed to be withdrawn some days or weeks before slaughter. It's unclear how diligently the recommendations are followed.

[bluestate10]

15. There is probably lots of contamination in food.

I look at some posts from vegans and vegetarians in response to the horse meat scare. All that I have seen stated that contamination of vegetable sources is not an issue. I disagree, as vegetables have become more popular as part of our diet, the level of contamination in vegetables has increased. If a vegetable become wildly popular, the impulse for farmers to take shortcuts to increase yield or size of vegetables will become more irresistible.

[Capt. Obvious]

10. Ray Comfort recently had a FB post

stating atheist countries eat cats, dogs, horses, etc because they lack Judeo-Christian values that tell them what to eat and not to eat.

Bananas!

[MADem]

28. I used to live down the street from a horse meat butcher in largely Roman Catholic Italy.

I never patronized the guy, but he had a sign with a smiling horse out front.

Can't imagine any horse that did business with that guy had anything to smile about...

[marybourg]

33. I didn't realize there were Judeo-Christian values about what meat to eat.

Where does bacon fall? shrimp? cow hind quarters? porkchops? Lobster? Are they Judeo-Christian?
What an a**

[d_r]

35. and pork and shrimp

[Hugin]

11. So, "South American Beef" is a euphemism for "horse meat"?

I'll have to remember that... You have to wonder if at some point during those 63 years that Bovine Beef didn't become cheaper than Equine Beef.

[treestar]

14. What amazes me is no one realized it in 63 years

You'd think in that time somebody would have had the discriminating palette or have eaten horsemeat before.

[bluestate10]

16. The place was wildly popular and pricey. Many people likely went there for the reputation

and didn't give a crap about what was served to them. I can't say that I could determine the difference between beefsteak and horse steak since I seldom eat beef and don't have a capacity to discern a swap.

[treestar]

42. I'm fairly sure I couldn't either

Horse meat must resemble beef, too, since in 63 years no one saw, let alone tasted, the difference.

[Javaman]

18. However, after having a steak, a few patrons did remark about...

having and overwhelming desire for oats.

[pinboy3niner]

22. Sadly, they were shunned as neighsayers

[dixiegrrrrl]

41. *groan*

[formercia]

19. Wild Mustang

Probably why the roundups have been so popular.

[Cleita]

23. My father was in WWI in France. He said at one point they were cut off from supplies and they

killed the cavalry horses to eat them because they couldn't feed them either and the horses would have starved as well. He said they were tasty but tough.

[AgingAmerican]

25. I've heard that about domesticated animals

That domestication makes their meat tough and not as good to eat.

[CreekDog]

24. I wouldn't eat at a Steakhorse

[Puzzledtraveller]

26. So the question is this..

Is this the breakthrough for horse meat becoming accepted in western diets? I say no, not when it's "horse" on the menu, BUT!, call it "Equine" and people will think wow, that sounds fancy and less Mr. Ed.

[Orrex]

29. Oh, great. Now where can you get a good filly cheesesteak in Amsterdam?

[pinboy3niner]

30. Try the racetrack after the early races

[Orrex]

31. Sounds like a stable supply.

Thanks!

[pinboy3niner]

32. I'm tempted to respond--but I don't want to be a nag. nt

[datasuspect]

34. horse is better for you than beef anyway

[pinboy3niner]

38. No way! When I eat horse, an hour later I have to pee like a...well, you know

[Go Vols]

37. The menu offers "horse fillet steak"

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=http://www.pietdeleeuw.nl/&prev=/search%3Fq%3DPiet%2Bde%2BLeeuw%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DQcC%26tbo%3Dd%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&sa=X&ei=j3kiUeuAHozY9ASY_IHADg&ved=0CDQQ7gEwAA

[TeeYiYi]

39. Thank you. Yes it does...

I wonder how that minor fact can be construed as a lie?

TYY

[Yavin4]

40. Today's Special - Mr. Ed Fillet