Horse meat is sometimes served as sashimi, particularly in France and Japan. It's often called basashi or namasu when served as sashimi, bagushi if it's served sliced thinly and wrapped in a perilla leaf or sakuraniku if it's simply raw. People who eat horse meat raw usually eat the part from around the neck, where there's more fat, but most cuts of horse meat are very tender, so other parts can be eaten raw as well.
More facts about horse meat:
- Horse meat is very nutritious and high in protein and iron. There are about 28 grams of protein in a 3.5-ounce (about 100 -g) serving of cooked horse meat, which is about the same amount of protein found in a similar serving of fillet steak. Horse meat has about 175 calories per 3.5-ounce (100-g) serving.
- Despite cultural taboos, horse meat was eaten in the United States during World War II because of food shortages, and it was even featured on the menu of the faculty club at Harvard University for a while. It was commonly eaten in Northern England until the 1930s or so.
- About 4.7 million horses are eaten every year.