There’s an issue we, the residents of NSW,
will have to face very soon: should Sydney serve kangaroo to
the people who visit Australia for the Olympics? And emu? And
crocodile?
We need to decide whether all native Australia animals
should be out of bounds to gourmet travellers, or whether the
creatures
that
are available in large numbers should be fair game for the restaurants
that will show off the talents of Australia’s chefs in
September.
And if we go for the second option, we have to be ready
to tough it out. The worst possible result is that we do it
half-heartedly, and then feel embarrassed.
I think we should proudly serve products next year, because
if we don’t offer tastes that are unique to us, the visitors
will go way thinking we’re just a colony of America or
Britain or Japan.
Everybody knows Australian chefs can do terrific things with
beef, lamb, pork and rabbit (or squid, or salmon, or blue-eye
cod). So can half the chefs in L.A., London and Tokyo. But with
kangaroo, emu and crocodile, Australia has something extra, and
we would be mad not to show it off.
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Let me declare a bias: I love kangaroos. I love them jumping around in the bush
and I love them barbecued with pureed beetroot, just as I love
cattle and sheep and pigs, both on the hoof and on the plate.
Roos, emus and crocs are not endangered
species, and all can be delicious if cooked ad spiced in the
right way. Kangaroo in
particular
is much healthier than beef – high in iron, low in fat.
Kangaroos also do less damage to the landscape than heavy-footed
cattle,
which tend to require fields of grass which might once have been
rainforest. Rumour has it that the animal liberation people are about to try
whipping up opposition to serving kangaroo during the Olympics,
based on sentimental notions about sweet furry creatures that happen
to be on the coat of arms. (They’ll be less loud about emus,
because they can be farmed, and crocodiles, because they eat tourists.)
The Sydney Restaurant Edna’s Table, which has been appointed
to provide the "fine dining" part of the International
Press centre at Homebush next year, is looking forward to offering
homegrown products. Jennice Kersh, co-owner of Edna’s Table,
has become pretty |
familiar over the years with the need to reassure
cautious customers: "People say to me, ‘Oh no, I couldn’t
eat Skippy’, and I say ‘Give e a break. What about
Baa Baa Black Sheep? That’s never worried you, has it?
You didn’t stop eating roasts because Mary had a Widdle
Wamb.’
"
I’d much rather serve kangaroo than beef – it’s
healthier and it’s better for the environment." At
the heart of the animal liberationists argument against roo-eating
is vegetarianism. They don’t approve of meat. They lost
the battle on farmed animals, so they want to make a small contribution
by whipping up emotion about kangaroos.
But Australia is not going
to become a vegetarian nation overnight, and the vast majority
of next year’s visitors will be unrepentant
carnivores. Cattle ands sheep and pigs will have to be cooped
up in paddocks and chopped up in abattoirs. If we decide we want
to
serve roo, they will have to be chased in the bush and shot.
The
latest estimate on the kangaroo population is 40 million. There
are about 50 species of kangaroo, of which about five are
harvested
for food.
If we’re going to eat and serve meat, we might
as well go for the version that was part of the environment,
that doesn’t
degrade the land, and that is unlikely to pass on major illnesses
(ever heard of mad roo disease?). There’s no reason why
we can’t have Skippy and eat him too. |
