Australians Eat Their Pests

After years of being encouraged to "throw another shrimp on the barbie", Australians are now being urged instead to tuck into the bogong moths that are plaguing many parts of the country.

The "munch a moth" campaign is being led by Jean-Paul Bruneteau, 51, a French-born chef who is regarded as a worldwide pioneer of such delights as smoked emu, lemon myrtle and bunya nuts.

He first began eating the brown bogong moths 11 years ago while researching a book on "bush tucker" eaten by Aborigines.

"They have a lovely popcorn flavour, like hazelnut," he said.

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[Euell Gibbons] Oh yummy, hazelnuts. [/Euell Gibbons]

yeah, we're the only country in the world that considers their national fauna emblems to be a tasty dish.

Nothing would surprise me about this. I once went on a bush tucker tour led by an ancient aboriginal man. It was very interesting. We even had witchety grubs although I have to admit, I only ate them cooked.

What did you think of fried witcheties?

I've run across references to "mulga mutton," quite aside from that one song with the chorus about "Who put the 'roo in the stew?" Any experience there?

"Australia eats its pests" -- Hassenpfeffer!

one study found that 3oz of bogong moth abdomen contains three times as much fat as a Big Mac.

now, would that be saturated fat?

witchety grubs cooked over hot coals taste a bit like hard fried egg yolk I think. They were ok, and if I had to eat them I would, but probably not my meal of choice.

yeah, hasn't everyone had roo steak before? I think it's a bit like venison. You have to have it fairly rare or it's very tough.

Aliantha;392906 wrote:

SNIP

yeah, hasn't everyone had roo steak before? I think it's a bit like venison. You have to have it fairly rare or it's very tough.

Agreed, skippy steaks are good, but tough if over cooked. I've heard they are very low in cholesterol too. As a "mostly but not absolutely" vegetarian, if I had to eat meat it would be 'roo. They aren't farmed at all, so there's no branding, mulesing, feedlotting, antibiotics, pesticides, hormones etc, and they have much less impact on the environment than hard-hoofed cows and sheep. Just munchin' away at the grass one night when ... pow, bullet to the brain. :sniper:
If you want something really tasty, try crocodile. Looks like fish, tastes like .. well, crocodile.

I would love to try roo. We have gator meat down here. You can get it in most of the fresh fish markets and it is a bit pricey. But if you cube it up and deep batter fry it it is actually pretty good. A bit chewy.

I don't eat bugs. At least not on purpose!

(When can we expect the "pets" clone thread? I'm on tenterhooks here.....)

LOl! Me too!

I considered it, then thought ....nah, too obvious.

and that's coming from someone who's about as subtle as a sledgehammer? :alien:

yeah, hasn't everyone had roo steak before? I think it's a bit like venison. You have to have it fairly rare or it's very tough.

Whenever there's a big roo cull in Aussieland, we end up with Roo steaks in Sainsbury's...yum!

There's roo culling constantly over here. It's how a lot of young fellas in the outback earn their living. All they do all day (actually mostly at night) is shoot roos.

I recall one time reading the label on a pack of roo steaks and it talked about a particularly big cull that takes place at semi-regular intervals. Maybe that was just marketing though, give it a sense of transience and future scarcity, so people buy lots of it?

It's possible Dana. There are sometimes efforts to cut the numbers back after good seasons, so it'd be more to do with that than a normal cycle if that makes any sense.

And there you have it!

:D

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22562480-662,00.html

monster;393099 wrote:

(When can we expect the "pets" clone thread? I'm on tenterhooks here.....)

Cloud;393103 wrote:

LOl! Me too!

[COLOR="Silver"][phew! What a good job I read this thread first!][/COLOR]:o