The Anangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara peoples of Central Australia call Kangaroo "malu". They use malu mainly for meat (kuka) but other uses include materials for spear making.
Kangaroo meat will now be called "australus" in keeping with calling deer meat venison, cow meat beef, and pig meat pork. Australus was the winning entry by the Sydney-based Food Companion International magazine that sought a term to separate the animal's name from food.
In an era when chefs all over the world are clamouring to use wild, seasonal and local produce, one might expect kangaroo meat to take pride of place on Australian menus. Surprisingly, however, most Australians refuse to eat it.
Kangaroo: Kangaroo is common game meat in Australia as it helps to keep the numbers of wild animals under control. But for diners, kangaroo meat is an exceptional dish that's 98% fat-free and very high in protein.
Kangaroo, All About Game on the Worldwide Gourmet. Kangaroo is a red meat that can be categorized somewhere between beef and venison: meatier and more assertive than beef, but much milder than venison.
Originally introduced in the19th century from Europe and Asia as game animals by European settlers, Australia is now home to six species of deer; fallow, red, chital, hog, rusa and sambar. While deer continue to be farmed for venison, the wild populations are causing significant environmental damage.
The term venison comes from the Latin verb venari, meaning “to hunt.” It can refer to meat coming from boar, hares, and certain species of goats and antelopes, but is most commonly applied to deer meat. Deer meat is characterized by its fine grain and supple texture resulting from short, thin muscle fibers.
Game meat is meat intended for human consumption from vertebrate animals (except fish) which are not husbanded like farmed animals and are legally slaughtered in a wild state.
Koalas, like the platypus and echidna, are a protected native Australian animal, and harming or killing them could bring you a hefty fine or time in jail. So no, you can't eat koalas.
The laughing kookaburra is Australia's national symbol. The kookaburra is a brown-colored bird, about the size of a crow. The male is easily distinguished from the female by the blue hues on his wing feathers and darker blue on his tail feathers.
However, Australia is not the only country to eat its national emblem (it may be the only one to do it in the plural though). The elk is consumed in Sweden; the brown bear in Finland; the camel in Saudi Arabia and the bull in Spain (where it is also taunted and killed in public, occasionally vice-versa).
Many people think kangaroos are farmed for their meat, but all the kangaroo meat on supermarket shelves and served up in restaurants comes from kangaroos harvested from wild populations. Four species are commonly harvested – red kangaroos, eastern and western grey kangaroos, and the common wallaroo.
Kangaroo is a lean meat with less than 2% fat, making it a healthier red meat option. It is also high in protein, essential B vitamins, minerals such as zinc, iron and omega 3 fats and omega 6 fatty acids. Compared to beef, kangaroo contains double the amount of iron and triple that of chicken and pork.
Kangaroo meat is highly nutritious
With less than two per cent fat and being one of the highest protein sources in the meat section of the supermarket, kangaroo meat is one of the healthiest meat choices you can make.
The EU currently is Australia's main market for kangaroo exports, both for skins and hides and for meat products. According to Australian data, the main importers of kangaroo meat for pet food and human consumption in the EU are Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and France.
When it came to cooking possum, the standard method was to bake it with sweet potatoes. Some commentators have described the dish as a substitution of the English roast with white potatoes. The possum was typically seasoned with red pepper, and it was said to taste like pork.
Some aboriginal people hunt platypuses to eat, but it is against the law to do so. The meat from a platypus can be toxic since it is a venomous animal.
Emus and wombats are other possibilities, as they contain readily accessible meat and associated fat. Freshwater shellfish are another alternative, although salinity and the introduction of locks and weirs along our major rivers has altered the distribution of many of these molluscs.
Australia. Australians do not generally eat horse meat, although they have a horse slaughter industry that exports to EU countries. Horse meat exports peaked at 9,327 tons in 1986, declining to 3,000 tons in 2003.
Aussies actually eat Kanagroo meat. You'll see them packed on supermarket shelves and on restaurant menus. Kangaroo is lean red meat, it's healthy and you can prepare it in many ways – steaks, burgers, sausages, and much more.
Australians love chicken twice as much as beef and pork, and six times more than lamb – in fact we eat more chicken than any other country in the Western World.
Duck and goose are poultry and considered "white" meat. Because they are birds of flight, however, the breast meat is darker than chicken and turkey breast.
The common name for goat meat is simply "goat", while that from young goats can be called "kid", capretto (Italian), or cabrito (Spanish and Portuguese). In South Asian and Caribbean cuisine, mutton commonly means goat meat. In South Asia, where mutton curry is popular, "mutton" is used for both goat and lamb meat.
Insight into the cruelty behind veal begins with an understanding of its terminology: veal is broadly classified as meat from baby cows who are under a year old, while meat from cattle who are over a year old falls into the category of beef.