Sunday, May 01, 2011

Roo BBQ

“Anonymous” (who I strongly suspect is Uncle Carl, given his sign in difficulties) left an oblique reference to a Facebook post I wrote about eating kangaroo. I take that as a hint that the blogosphere would like to read about it as well.

I have eaten kangaroo a few times since I’ve been here, with varying success. Kangaroo is a very environmentally friendly meat; kangaroos are a bit overpopulated, and they eat naturally growing grass, so there’s no carbon expenditures on shipping in expensive grain to feed them.

Photo courtesy of Dan.
Unfortunately, it can also be a bit gamey if overcooked, which I have experienced on one occasion. It was not good. Anyway, Ethan and I thought it would be fun to serve roo for Heidi and Dan. Heidi and Dan picked out the meat – some marinated and some plain – and we cooked it on our outdoor gas grill. I was very conservative with the cooking, as I have a tendency to overcook on the grill, and in light of aforementioned experience. As a result, we were a bit undercooked for Heidi and Dan’s taste, but it turned out really good. Kangaroo tastes a bit like beef, and when cooked properly is very tender and juicy. There is no risk of trichinosis or e coli, so undercooking is more of problem with regards to taste than health. I preferred the marinated pieces, but the plain ones were good too.

Eating kangaroo is more of a novelty than anything else – it isn’t less expensive than beef, and doesn’t taste surprisingly different. But it’s still tasty and fun to say you’ve had some. I imagine we’ll have it again a few more times while we’re here.

4 comments:

craftosaurus said...

Cool! I imagine it's sort of like eating bison or moose in the states?

Anonymous said...

I got hungry reading that, imagining it tastes like venison. Does it at all?

How about all those rabbits overpopulating Australia? Recently I found out that jackrabbits of the west are not as tasty as the cottontails of our area, and people don't much eat them. Kind of tough it seems.

You were correct, that ws me, and we needed a post on this [g]

Uncle Carl

L said...

Crafty, a bit like both, really. I find moose can be a bit dry, and kangaroo really isn't dry. Bison is grown on farms as far as I know though, and kangaroo is not.

Uncle Carl, good question about the rabbits. I haven't seen any in the store, but I haven't been looking either. I can't remember what venison tastes like, so I can't say if it's similar to kangaroo or not, but I think probably not.

Lisa said...

Mmmmm, sounds quite tasty! I'm hoping to maybe get a spot on the IMET's to Australia list this season, so hopefully I can come down and try some with you! :)