Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern traveled to Bentonville, Arkansas to sample tamales, gumbo, stew and other dishes all made with a little something extra - squirrel meat.
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Ask, and you shall receive. We implored CNN Political Producer Shawna Shepherd to suss out the secrets of vice presidential candidate and avid hunter Paul Ryan's much-vaunted homemade venison sausage, and goodness, did she deliver.

According to Sunday's pool report, the secret to Ryan's venison sausage is spices from Tenuta's Deli ("A Kenosha Tradition Since 1950!") where he spoke with reporters while purchasing supplies for this year's haul.
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Hunting and fishing are on the rise for the first time in decades.

While hunting has always been a way for self-sufficient people to feed their families in a poor economy, another theory for its current popularity is that it can also be an affordable "staycation" for people trying to spend less on their vacations.

Steven Rinella, host of "Meat Eater" on the Sportsman Channel and the author of a just released hunting tome of the same name, says there's more to it. As an increasing number of Americans become interested in where their food comes from and want to play a part in making it, Rinella says that many are newly compelled to try killing their own meat.
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5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

Editor's Note: Lily Raff McCaulou is an award-winning journalist, Knight-Wallace Fellowship recipient and a columnist for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon. Her first book, "Call of the Mild: Learning to Hunt My Own Dinner" was published in June.

Growing up, I didn’t know anyone who hunted. Hunters, I figured, were probably just barbaric gun nuts. Then, eight years ago, I moved from Manhattan to rural Oregon, to write for a small newspaper. My perspective shifted when I began interviewing hunters for my articles and realized that although I had long considered myself an environmentalist, these hunters – most of whom scoffed at the “E” word – were more knowledgeable and thoughtful about animals and nature than I was.

Eventually, I decided to buy a gun and join them. But don’t worry, I’m still an environmentalist, loud and proud.

Five Reasons Why Hunting a Wild Animal Makes an Ethical Dinner: Lily Raff McCaulou

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If you think of hunters as men in camouflage, you better think again.

Eatocracy associate editor Sarah LeTrent and CNN's Suzanne Malveaux discuss how "The Hunger Games" bucks the conventional idea of people who hunt.

Watch Eatocracy on CNN Newsroom every Wednesday at 12:45 ET.

“Within a few minutes, I spot a rabbit and make my first kill with the bow and arrow. It’s not my usual clean shot through the eye, but I’ll take it,” says the narrator in “The Hunger Games.”

“The Hunger Games” is the wildly popular trilogy of dystopian novels by Suzanne Collins – and the narrator is not a stereotypical camouflage-clad hunter; she’s a 16-year-old girl.

The eagerly anticipated first film of the series hits theaters on March 23, and with the growing popularity of protagonist Katniss Everdeen, aims to shoot down conventional ideas of people who hunt.
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5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

Hank Shaw is the blogger behind Hunter Angler Gardener Cook and the author of "Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast."

"I think daily about new ways to cook and eat anything that walks, flies, swims, crawls, skitters, jumps – or grows," Shaw writes.

"Honest food is what I’m seeking. Nothing packaged, nothing in a box, nothing wrapped in plastic. I eat meat, and I’m not keen on factory farms, so I either hunt it myself or buy it from real people who raise animals humanely."

For Shaw, one food that fits his "honest food" bill is duck.

Five times the quack, five times the yum.

Five Ways to Eat More Duck: Hank Shaw
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Last month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the 847 friends on his private Facebook page that he had "just killed a pig and a goat" - to eat.

Horrifying? Why? asks Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of the farm-to-table restaurant Blue Hill in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. That Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old Internet billionaire, has made killing any meat he eats this year's personal goal is "an incontestably moral act," Barber says. He's slaughtered animals for meat himself. "I do think it's important for anyone who wants to be conscious of their food and where it comes from," he says.
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Before I went on CNN Newsroom to discuss Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg's decision to consume only animals he'd personally slaughtered, I called chef Chris Cosentino. He's been cooking and serving food this way for most of his career, and while he believes that Zuckerberg is doing the right thing - and has a great partner in chef Jesse Cool - he's slightly baffled that such attention is being paid to a movement that's not new in the slightest.

Says Cosentino, "It's weird that it took a 27-year-old billionaire to get a spotlight shone on something chefs and grandmothers have been doing for centuries. But it's good that people are talking about it."
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When he's not too busy connecting people across the universe, Mark Zuckerberg is pursuing a new "personal challenge," as he calls it. "The only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed myself," says the Facebook founder and CEO.

It's an odd dietary direction for the 27-year-old Internet billionaire, but since he has taken to killing goats, pigs and chickens, "I'm eating a lot healthier foods. And I've learned a lot about sustainable farming and raising of animals," he says. "It's easy to take the food we eat for granted when we can eat good things every day."

Zuckerberg's new goal came to light, not surprisingly, on Facebook. On May 4, Zuckerberg posted a note to the 847 friends on his private page: "I just killed a pig and a goat."

Read Mark Zuckerberg's new challenge: Eating only what he kills (and yes, we do mean literally...)
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