The Meat Bracket - Adopt a Meat

[Comments on this post have been CLOSED - please check the progress of the 'Meat Bracket' by clicking here]

I think our Meat Bracket is in a good place - ready for comments and claims.

There are 32 dishes, in four categories, as to make for a nice, easy tournament.

Please chime in if you want to champion any of these dishes.  It'll just take a little work, and you can do it in any format whatsoever (post, poem, podcast or just draw a pretty picture).

The first round will tentatively begin the week of January 15th.

RED (Red Meat)
Bacon (US) - Heather
Bacon  (UK) - Russell
Ribs - (Carnivore) Jared
Burger - Adam
Hot Dog - The Guilty Carnivore
Steak - (Alaskan) Jared
Sausage - Marcus
Leg of Lamb - Dan

WHITE (White Meat)
Foie Gras - Simon
Roast Chicken - $ophie
Chicken Tikka Masala
Buffalo Wings - The Guilty Carnivore
Fried Chicken
Turkey - Claire
Goose
Duck - Paul

BLUE (Seafood)
Sushi - Anne
Fish & Chips
Shellfish - Karen
Lobster - Hobart65
Salmon - (Alaskan) Jared
Snail - Graham
Hairy Crab - Ed
Shrimp - The Guilty Carnivore

GREEN (Wild Card)
Pie - Picklin' Paul
Offal - Picklin' Paul
Pastrami - Mark
Tofu - The Guilty Carnivore
Gumbo - Simon (?)
Chorizo - Stephan
Kangaroo - Kirsty
Spam - Simon

I'm still a little lukewarm on a couple of the contenders (especially in the Wild Card area). Any ideas?

It's first-come/first-serve or just argue amoungst yourselves. For now, I'd prefer a limit of 2 or 3 per person, preferably spread amongst different categories.

[I'm tagging everything with 'Meat Bracket' for Technorati purposes.]

Comments

[Jared]

Incidentally, it'd be awesome to get someone from New Orleans for gumbo, Maryland (or whatnot) for Crab cakes, Maine for lobster, etc.

And a proper vegetarian for tofu would be good. Not just Simon with a fake name.

[Picklin Paul]

Simon - you can stick with your posh offal and I'll do the proletarian stuff. Besides I've got some offally good puns...

[Heather]

Is it possible we could end up with a bacon vs bacon final? That would be awesome...

[Paul H. Colman]

I'll take duck.

[Jared]

Also:

Dan of Wales defending Lamb.

Graham, of www.noodlepie.com, is in for the exotic world of Snail Meat

(I'm killing 'Spam' for this unless someone from Alabama objects)

And 'Hamburger' is tentatively off the market, as it looks like someone might have that too.

Go foodblog networking!

[Jared]

Yup. Hamburger gone.

[Lebowski]

I'll do gumbo as well if there's no New Orlans person.

[Lebowski]

I'll also do spam as well if that's OK. I've got some good things to say on that. Seriously.

I figure if I do enough of these things I might get beyond the first round.

If I can do that, I'll officially cede offal to Paul.

Maybe.

[jared]

Since my freezer is full of it, I'll defend the honor of salmon (and steak, too) if they're still on the table.

[The Guilty Carnivore]

I'll take one from each bracket:

Hot Dog
Buffalo Wings
Shrimp
Tofu

[Jared]

I was hoping for that, but didn't want to be...uh... regionalist?

What's the word for that particular type of stereotyping? Whatever. Awesome.

[Jared]

This is a blast. I'm now fleeing my computer until tomorrow morning. Best of luck to all!

[Marcus Brown]

Sausage. It's got to be sausage for a chap that lives in Germany.

[Jared]

Shellfish will be defended by Karen of 'foodie on the run'.

All of these wonderful new blogs and sites I'm encountering are linked to on the right-hand side of the page - they're well worth visiting. Scout out the competition and all that...

[mark]

how about pastrami (v. popular in these parts). If not I'll definitely advocate for venison.

[Jared]

I love pastrami. If someone wants to champion venison, we can try to sneak it in elsewhere. (Not sure how, but we could).

[Angus]

Drats, I missed out on offal. Nasty Lebowski, you've hogged all the good stuff.

Second choice then, is kangaroo an option? Unless it involves actually physically sourcing some in the next month...

[Jared]

Snail is now a seafood (bye Tuna!), and Kangaroo is in as a Wild Card.

Hopefully there are no objections...

[Lebowski]

Not from me. I like the fact you're playing God and making snails a seafood.

I've handed over (not that it was even mine to hand over in the first place) offal to Picklin' Paul. Take your argument up with him Kirsty.

[Colman]

I've been working on my duck argument all weekend, seriously.

[Picklin Paul]

I've been in training too. Calves brains and ox heart at St John on Thursday (the Spitafields one) followed by some chicken liver and polenta at home on Friday.

All good but I think it will take some persuasion to convince people of the merits of brains...

[Jared]

Both Pauls could cite St John's 'duck heart salad' as evidence. Yum.

Also, the Blue bracket just got even weirder, as we have a champion for 'Hairy Crab'. I look foward to that one.

We have 6 dishes left (1 Blue, 5 White). I'm flexible on all of them, as long as they stay within those areas (seafood and poultry). I'm a tiny bit shocked that the poultry has been so unpopular.

[Lebowski]

They had calves brains on the menu at then Hope and Anchor on Friday when I was there. Didnt have it but someone at the table did. Looked really good.

Go on Paul. You know you want to. And surely as a strategist, the merits of brains should be an easy sell.

Actually, now you mention it...

[Heather]

could you tell us a little more about what you're thinking in terms of rules and regulations for this tournament? that might help us recruit people for the toxic white meat category.

[dcchick1425]

I'm seriously ready to get going on this competition - I already have my first two entries ready. Yes, I'm confident that I will make it through the first round. What are the rules/regs?
My blog is pending transfer to my domain so in case you click, never fear I will be back online shortly shorty!