Thermal Eye on America

So, if I were to ask the above question, I’d probably get one of a few possible reactions:

1. Legal - “Um, no, that would be a Federal Crime, you idiot!”
2. Conservationist - “Sorry, we just got them off the Endangered Species list, and I’m not about to help get them back on there.”
3. Culinary - “A burger, for a large, flighted gamebird?  Seems crazy to me.  If you insist on having bald eagle, I suggest we go with a roast; or maybe smoke it on apple and cherry wood, both for the subtle, delicious flavors those smokes would give to the meat, and for the subtle, delicious taste of irony.”
4. Patriotic - “Are you kidding?  The bald eagle is a symbol of our country, how could you even think of such a thing?”

In Australia, however, they have two animals on their coat of arms, and if you were to ask for a burger made from either of them, the only question would be “and what will you have for the side?” This is my round-about way of bringing up the fact that, as I last night, I have now eaten both of the animals on the coat of arms.  The first one was Kangaroo, which I had last week in Melbourne.   I found a restaurant that specialized in traditional Italian food, and they also had kangaroo on the menu.  The rest of the food looked excellent, so I figured I’d go with a place that knew cooking in general and get my kangaroo there.  I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised by how good it was.  I expected it to be somewhat gamey, and slightly tough, but it was neither.  It was better than a lot of steaks (um, beef steaks, that is) I have had.  Tender, not dry, and very flavorful.  I commented on this to the staff at the restaurant, and he attributed it to their supplier. 

Then, last night I was following a recommendation from one of my formerly-invisible friends (note: I’m not meaning here that he wrapped himself in bandages and wore a hat and glasses - what I mean is that I had known him from online discussion, but had not met him in person until yesterday) of a place to get crocodile pizza, an I saw that they also had BBQ Emu pizza.  Seeing my chance to complete the set, I changed my plans and went with the emu.  The pizza itself was topped with slices of emu, along with spanish onion, basil, and cherry tomatoes.  Not too surprisingly, emu tastes similar to ostrich - it’s a darker meat, and one I could imagine it drying out pretty easily if handled poorly.  This was cut in to small strips, like bits of flank steak, which were layed on top of the pizza.  

And for the record, both are meats I would definitely eat again. 

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.