I asked my friend what he was cooking and he replied, "I am cooking meat." I asked "what meat?" He said, "dude, meat. Don't you know meat?" I asked him again in a more clear way, "Yes, but what meat? Chicken, mutton, fish?" He replied, "Mutton."
I asked him why he didn't say "mutton" when I asked him "what meat?"
He said that when we say meat, we mean mutton. I said that "meat" is meat, be it a fish or chicken or mutton. So my question is, who is correct? When we say meat, we mean the flesh of any kind of animal which we eat or does in cooking meat specifically refers to mutton?
Best Answer
The use of these words varies between countries.
Your friend is clearly employing the Indian English colloquial use of the word. I have visited India several times and it doesn't take long to pick up the differences. I assume the Indian variation is due to the prevalence of vegetarians in the country and the limited number of animals that are eaten.
In India you will often hear menus described as:
Veg = Vegetarian
Non-Veg = Chicken (Murghi)
Meat = Lamb, mutton or goat
So, asking "What meat?" is irrelevant as it will never be Beef or Pork.
There are many Indian restaurants in Britain that have Meat Curry (or similar) on the menu, in these cases it will usually be Goat.
Elsewhere, as others have said, meat will encompass the flesh of almost any animal.