Rats and mice would be a readily available source of protein, once you get past the general concept.
When visiting a friend at the University of Arizona many years ago I feasted on a Native American banquet which included among other things rattlesnake, dog, cat and rat. Our host, from the Pima reservation was quite taken with my comments on the meal, "gee, you guys have BIG squirrels here!", and he said, "Mo, Sen~or, kangaroo rat, not tree rat..."
If you have the pleasure to try Asian street food in the PI, Vietnam or Taiwan, you might educate yourself first:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/03/5-wa...-rat-meat/
1. It smells like rat. Rats secrete an oil onto their skin that gives them their distinct "rodenty" odor. Some compare the smell to that of a warm tortilla, says Ginn, while others compare it to urine. Regardless, it’s distinctive. While it’s true that the odor lessens after the rat is skinned, and again after the rat is cooked, no amount of cooking can ever completely get rid of the smell.
2. It tastes like rat. The oil rats secrete gives them a distinctive taste as well. Ginn describes it as quite pungent and gamey — most similar to raccoon or rabbit. Blended with other meats, rat becomes a lot less distinctive, so you’d have to be rather discerning to notice it.
3. It tastes delicious when brushed with a moonshine glaze and barbecued. Of all the ways Ginn has eaten rat, this is her favorite preparation. A close second is smoked rat jerky served on brioche French toast. So, if you happen to be savoring a moonshine-BBQ dish, or think there is something slightly "rodenty" about the gamey and delicious jerky you are consuming, you might want to check the ingredients.
4. It looks like lamb. When it’s raw, pinkish/red rat looks very much like lamb. Unfortunately for the Chinese, when ground, rat can look a lot like any generic ground meat. When cooked, rat looks more like rabbit, Ginn thinks, just because of the shape of the cuts.
5. You’re in Asia. According to Ginn, rats are most commonly eaten in Asia because of the rice crop. In areas where rats feed off rice paddies rather than garbage, the rodents are considered safer to eat. Of course, it isn’t clear whether the rats marketed as mutton in China were healthy, rice-fed rats or sewer-dwelling, garbage-eating, Templeton-esque rats. The New York Times reports that the arrest announcement "did not explain how exactly the traders acquired the rats and other creatures." Rats are also disease carriers, so when Ginn organized her meal she ordered hers from a company that supplies specially raised, grain-fed rodents to zoos.
Bon appétit! More if you dare!
https://meat-recipes.wonderhowto.com/how...ry-184537/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCAoBjfaEbE
http://bertc.com/subfive/recipes/cookingrats.htm
http://www.rense.com/general27/ram.htm
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5931901/recipes-f...t-rat-meat
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