Not for the first time, an American friend has expressed fascination, in an incredulous kind of way, with the fact that Australians happily eat kangaroo meat. It’s something which hasn’t caught on anywhere else yet, but then again it’s something which took its time catching on around Australia.
It started here as pet food, which helps justify writing this report on a dog blog to dog lover friends.
I can remember, back in the 1970s or 1980s, that South Australia was the only state in Australia where it was legal to sell kangaroo meat for human consumption. It was available around the country as pet food, but only in the trendy state of SA (we had a Premier who wore pink hot pants into sessions of parliament) was it sold as human food.
This meant – shock horror - that it was available in some of the more adventurous restaurants, who actually claimed that it was both healthy and delicious. We just shook our heads. These, we thought, are weird times.
I remember that kangaroo meat, when sold as pet food, came with a warning: don't feed your pets on kangaroo meat alone. The reason for the warning is that it is about 99 per cent fat free - the leanest of all meats - and dogs and cats fed kangaroo meat would actually needed supplemental fats for a rounded diet.
The next major point to make here is that kangaroos are a pest in Australia. There are millions of them. They move in groups of several hundred, they can jump tall fences, and they can strip a 200-acre wheat paddock overnight. The government has sponsored controlled culling for decades now, something considered essential by Aussie farmers and reprehensible by global animal rights groups far removed from the reality.
Fast forward to three weeks ago when an old Hong Kong friend (I lived in Hong Kong for 16 years) came to visit me in Melbourne. He's American, and when I asked what he'd like me to cook for him, he said, "I hear you guys actually eat kangaroo."
“Indeed we do,” I said. It’s been legal, and reasonably popular, nationwide for decades now.
Eating kangaroo is like eating the finest, softest, most delicious red meat imaginable, and with a minuscule fat content, it is healthy. I have cooked kangaroo many times. I made it for my American friend pan-fried in a red wine and Dijon mustard jus, and served it with mashed potato and broccolini.
He’s still talking about it. He posted pictures on Facebook of me cooking, and of the dish as served. I'll try to find them and repost them here some time.
Here endeth my kangaroo story.
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