What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Australia? Crocs? Shrimps on the barbie? Koalas? Whatever you think of, kangaroos can’t be far down the list.

I recently took a vacation down under and the bizarre food eater in me had a craving for unique food experiences. In Australia, weird food means bush meat like croc and emu, but the most common and widely available bizarre food there is kangaroo.

Kangaroo Rump steak at Oz Turk Pizza’s & Kebabs

The first question about kangaroo meat that everyone asks is, “what does it taste like?” I would say that it’s a cross between venison and buffalo meat. Not quite as dry as deer but still leaner than buffalo. It has a wonderful gamey taste (because roos live in the wild and feed on grass and shrubs) that adds a lot of flavor without being overpowering.

Down in Oz, I ate kangaroo on several occasions. By far my best meal was a tender, juicy, marbled kangaroo rump steak cooked medium rare. It was prepared by a man who looked like he had been cooking the dish for decades, so the concerns of game meat becoming too dry were not a factor.

From what I’m told, kangaroos are much like deer here in America. They are a native species that lives in the wild and they overlap with human populations on the fringes of civilization. Anyone with a license can hunt them and allegedly they will overpopulate if not hunted (source – MSNBC). Oh yea, they are cute like deer. Understandably there is controversy over hunting them from animal rights groups.

While not as ubiquitous as beef or pork, kangaroo meat is readily available in supermarkets around Australia and tends to be cheaper than the meat of farm raised animals. In the supermarket I visited, I saw kangaroo steaks, pre-marinated skewers, and kanga bangas (sausage).

Kangaroo Burger at Oz Turk Pizza’s & Kebabs

Surprisingly, kangaroo wasn’t very easy to find in restaurants – we only found 3-4 in Sydney that serve it. Luckily, one of them was a random neighborhood pizza and kebab place just around the corner from where we stayed. We ordered EVERY kangaroo item on their menu, including a kangaroo burger and a kangaroo Turkish kebab (what we like to call gyros).

I highly recommend the kangaroo burger because it’s pretty delicious and inexpensive, but I would avoid kangaroo kebabs – something about the sweet tahini sauce they use in Australia with kangaroo rubs me the wrong way.

One of the most interesting ways I had kangaroo in Australia was on a pizza at the popular and touristy Australian Hotel (which happens to have an amazing rooftop view overlooking the Sydney Opera house ). The Australian is the place to go if you want kangaroo, emu, and crocodile in a single meal – they have a pizza for each of them.

Australian Coat of Arms – Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons”

A pizza at the Australian Hotel that has kangaroo and red pepper on the left half, and emu, tomato, and basil on the right half

At the Australian, my travel buddies and I decided to order a custom half kangaroo, half emu pizza in honor of the Australian Coat of arms, which depicts a kangaroo and an emu standing side by side. This pizza was amazing! The highlight was actually the emu, which has a very distinct, surprisingly non chicken like taste that is gamier than the kangaroo. In fact, emu doesn’t taste like chicken at all, it is more like a juicy, lean, yet tender beef jerky.

Just in case you were wondering, crocodile tastes exactly like chicken in Australia (for reasons explained in the photo gallery) but the Thai basil with Crocodile pizza and coconut milk at the Australian Hotel was delicious anyways. All of them go great with a James Squire Golden Ale (my favorite Aussie beer).

Kangaroo Vitamins

Back to Kangaroos, the fun down under doesn’t stop at food. Around Sydney people were sporting kangaroo leather hats and I found souvenir stores selling kangaroo jerky.

Even stranger, while perusing an airport gift shop I came across “Essence of Kangaroo” kangaroo meat capsules \ vitamins. I’m not sure that I’m interested in taking kangaroo supplements with my multivitamins and at $30+ US per bottle, I passed on this offering.

In closing, what do all of my kangaroo observations lead me to believe?

Stereotypical as it may be, Australians are genuinely fascinated by Kangaroos. They eat and wear kangaroo products, they use kangaroos their as mascots (see Qantas Airlines), and even the Australian National Soccer Team is called the “Socceroos”.

As far as incorporating kangaroos into their diets goes, while the meat is easy to obtain, I don’t think many Aussies eat kangaroo on a daily basis. They probably eat kangaroo as often as Americans eat venison or other game meat.

In any case, I highly recommend eating some Kangaroo! If it was readily available in Austin, I would be eating kangaroo regularly as a leaner and in many ways better tasting alternative to beef or pork.

Happy tasting and be sure to check out the gallery below for even more pictures,
Peter

Hawaii is known for being a tropical paradise with amazing beaches and beautiful natural surroundings. However, a Hawaiian vacation is also known for holding tourists upside down by the ankles and shaking all the money their pockets. The main issue is that stores and restaurants in touristy areas charge sky high prices for necessities such as food – which is a bummer for foodies like us.

Everyone knows that once you leave the touristy areas you can get some reasonably priced grub, but most people don’t know how the locals manage to keep expenses in check. Here are 6 tasty, unique, and inexpensive local options we discovered in Hawaii that will help you have fun and save money at the same time.

1. Poke

Poke, the Hawaiian twist on Sashimi, consists of small, fresh (usually raw) bite sized pieces of fish that come seasoned in many tasty ways. The most popular type of poke is yellowfin tuna seasoned with soy sauce (shoyu), garlic, green onions, and sesame oil.

However, there are a lot of different varieties – kimchi poke was very popular, poke with crushed and toasted kukui nuts seemed to be a locals only sort of thing, dried fish jerky w/ shoyu was at many places we visited, and there were various fish and seaweed types of poke as well. In addition to the standard tuna, options such as marlin, octopus, mussels, and crab are also available.

Poke can be found at supermarkets, seafood restaurants, and specialty stores. It costs about 9 dollars per pound and I bet you that 1/3 a pound is more than enough for the average person. Any sushi eater will love Poke… think of it as very fresh, preseasoned sashimi at a significant discount.

2. Musubi

Musubi are great little packets of rice that are usually wrapped in seaweed. The are about the size of my fist and you can eat them with your hands, so they are perfect for lunch on the go. Musubi are an import from Japan, where these flavored rice balls are known as Onigiri. Of course, as with most Hawaiian food, the locals have taken the original and adopted it to local tastes. The most popular flavor of musubi in Hawaii is the Spam based one (the Spam is usually grilled and sometimes teriyakied) with the korean style BBQ chicken flavor following a close second.

There are also more traditional Onigiri specialty shops in Hawaii – such as the excellent Manabu’s on Oahu. This place served up some amazing healthy and nutritious gourmet Onigiri at rock bottom prices. In addition to the standard Spam musubi, they serve up favorites such as spicy tuna, curry pilaf, and fish roe versions as well. Where Manabu’s shines though is in it’s healthy musubi – They use all natural ingredients like a 10 grain blend, Konbu and wakame seaweed, and shiso leaves to flavor their vegetarian / macrobiotic line of musubi.

Best of all, Musubi are super cheap and they ubiquitous around the island. They can be found at supermarkets, convenience stores, and specialty onigiri shops for about $1.50 to $3.00 depending on the size. Two large or 3 small musubi are more than enough for a quick lunch.

3. Loco Moco

With a name that means “mucus crazy ” in Spanish, you wouldn’t think this Hawaiian original is very appetizing, but it is surprisingly delicious. Loco Moco has 4 basic ingredients: fried eggs, a hamburger patty, rice, and gravy… not good for you but definitely delicious. Rice goes surprisingly well with hamburger and the gravy brings the whole dish together and adds some great flavor to the rice.

Legend has it that some poor students invented loco moco one day at a local grill when they didn’t have enough money to buy a real menu item. Apparently their friends also started ordering the dish and loco moco quickly spread throughout the islands once the word was out.

There are many varieties of Loco Moco (some use fried rice instead of steamed rice or a meat other than a hamburger patty) but I stick to the tried and true original. The Loco Moco pictured above is from L & L’s and is served with macaroni salad, which is a ubiquitous side dish in Hawaii.

*** UPDATE *** – forgot to mention that the loco moco is pretty huge and will fill you up. In fact, I just saw a version of the loco moco featured on Man v. Food!

4. Malasadas

If you are on the island of Oahu – GO TO LEONARD’S BAKERY. They have the most amazing malasadas, which are fresh, Portuguese style fried donuts without the hole. They are much softer and fluffier than donuts though because they are a bit thicker.

Malasadas come powdered with sugar with optional flavored cream and custard fillings. Apart from the original, my favorite flavors were the custard and coconut (haupia) filled malasadas. Many others I know like the Li Hing (dried plum powder) flavor as well.

Leonard’s is an extremely popular spot so be prepared to wait up to 10 minutes to place an order and bring some friends, because it’s much cheaper to buy malasadas by the dozen. Best of all, the price of a single malasada is about 80 cents so you can eat to your heart’s content without spending a lot.

5. Fruit from the Farmer’s Market

There are great little Farmer’s markets all over Hawaii that provide fresh, local produce. There are all sorts of delicious fruits year round, and many of these are surprisingly cheap.

When I went to the Hilo Farmer’s Market in November, the going price for good sized organic star fruits was 3 for $1.00, and papayas were 5 for $1.00. This fruit isn’t the stuff you are used to eating stateside either… these are vine ripened fruits picked just a day or two before… making a whole world of difference when it comes to taste.

Between 5 people we ate 30 papayas in 5 days…. and no we did not get tired of papaya, the fruit in Hawaii is that good!

6. SPAM

Yes all of the rumors about Hawaiians eating a lot of SPAM are more than true. Just take a look at this photo of the SPAM aisle at the local grocery store. Who knew that there were at least 7 different varieties of SPAM? Also, for some reason SPAM seems to be the cheapest thing in the whole store… 2.19 for a can? You can’t even get half a loaf of bread for that much in Hawaii.

If you had any more doubt about the popularity of SPAM, McDonalds serves a special Hawaii market only SPAM breakfast (with eggs and rice) for $3.84. And get this, instead of ketchup, they give you 2 packets of soy sauce on the side.

I have to admit that I tried SPAM one other time in my life (when I was camping as a boy), so I was a bit apprehensive about eating SPAM while in Hawaii. After my trip though, I have to report that SPAM is pretty delicious if prepared correctly. I had it grilled, grilled with terriyaki sauce, with eggs and rice, in a bowl of noodles, wrapped in sushi… all of the options were pretty darn good.

I think I’ll keep SPAM as a Hawaii only thing though because for some reason everything tastes better on vacation, and I just don’t think it would be the same back home. Also, I’m pretty sure that SPAM is pretty terrible for you and the mystery meat aspect will prevent me from eating it on a regular basis.

That said, I highly recommend trying SPAM at least once while in Hawaii both for the novelty value and to keep costs down.

Honorable Mention – POG

While it’s not a food, when in Hawaii you should seek out POG, a drink made of passion fruit, orange, and guava juices. It’s delicious, it’s local, it’s cheap, and you can’t get it stateside.

Happy Tasting, I hope this post helps you save money while discovering local treats on your trip to Hawaii!
-Peter

Photos by Peter Tsai Photography

Here’s a fun and delicious ingredient that you might not have encountered before, Okinawan Sweet Potatoes, AKA Hawaiian purple potatoes. They are known for their distinct purple color and unique earthy taste, and I think they are way better than a regular sweet potato.

I discovered this culinary delight on my recent trip to Hawaii and have been hooked ever since. Because it was so delicious in all of the forms I tried, I had to experiment with this ingredient once I got home and I decided to make something from it for Thanksgiving.

First things first, here’s how they use the potato in Hawaii:

In a purple potato mash at a touristy restaurant on Waikiki Beach, Tiki’s. I believe they made these with butter, milk, salt, and pepper. It was served it with Laulau Pork (the kind you get at a Luau). This was my introduction to the product and it was delicious.

Okinawan Sweet Potatoes deep fried and salted in chip form (shout out to my brother’s stunt hand for holding and my dad for providing the background) – we ate 2 very large baskets of this, and I had this dish a couple more times on the trip. Possibly the best chips I have ever had, and the flavor is all natural.

If you are wondering if these potatoes are the same as taro (because they are purple too), the answer is an astounding NO. These are way better! Okinawan Sweet Potatoes are more flavorful, deeper in color, and not nearly as tough.

So where do you find Okinawan Sweet Potatoes in Austin? Whole Foods doesn’t have them and HEB certainly doesn’t carry them. After some searching and making calls, I managed to find them at the Hong Kong Supermarket for $2.29 a pound and at Central Market North for 2.99 a pound. I heard a rumor that most Korean markets carry them, but I didn’t actually investigate. The potatoes at Central Market seemed a bit easier to peel because I think they hand pick the longer, more slender ones from the crop, which lend themselves to quicker peeling.

I have been making mashed potatoes for the last couple of years for Thanksgiving, so when I got home, I searched the internet for a good Okinawan sweet potato mash recipe. The first one I tried was Sony’s Okinawa Sweet Potato Recipe – I don’t know how I felt about the mixing of garlic with the sweet coconut milk in that dish, but when I added Massaman Curry on top of the dish to give it a little kick, which tasted like heaven.

The second time around, I adapted the above recipe for Thanksgiving. I wanted to take advantage of the Potato’s natural sweetness, and I wanted to make the dish more of a dessert, so I used a whole can of coconut milk this time and added a lot of cinnamon powder. The dish was a big hit at Thanksgiving, and it was so easy to make. Also, it is good either hot or cold and the purple color of the dish really makes it stand out.

Without any further ado, here is the very simple recipe for Peter’s Purple Potatoes.

Peter’s Purple Potatoes

Ingredients List – Serves 12? people

Preparation steps

Happy Tasting!
-Peter

Today’s “You Ate What” adventure takes place on a boat cruise through beautiful Halong Bay, Vietnam. On this amazing trip, we visited a floating live fish market literally built into the middle of the bay, where I ate some of the freshest and tastiest food I’ve ever had in my life.

The market vendors sold all sorts of fish, clams, crabs, and fruit, but the absolute best thing I had there was the delicious and somewhat unusual mantis prawn.

• Floating live fish market in Halong Bay, Vietnam

The Mantis prawn is aptly named for its front claws that look exactly like those of a praying mantis. Its body looks like a very large shrimp / prawn (probably 3-4 times larger than your average shrimp – see picture below). This interesting hybrid package makes for a good sized treat with a surprisingly wonderful, firm texture if cooked correctly.

The taste of the prawn meat is similar to regular shrimp (some say lobster), but much sweeter and slightly more flavorful. The sweet taste of the mantis prawn also extends to its shell. My absolute favorite part of this underwater treat (and this might be a little weird) are its tiny little legs with round paddles on the bottom. They taste like little sweet and crispy shrimp flavored potato chips packed with flavor. Our chef pan fried the shell a bit with oil which made these tiny morsels taste even better. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!

• Live mantis prawns

Mantis prawns are very hard to find in the United States (I hear it’s because they need to be cooked alive) but they are absolutely delicious and I would recommend them to any adventurous eater. Next time you are in Asia, you MUST try them.

Summary:

What: Mantis Prawn
Where: Halong Bay in Vietnam
Tastes Like: sweet shrimp or lobster with a delicate, firm texture
Dont miss: tasty and crispy prawn legs

If you are a regular to the blog you might know that I went to South Carolina a few weeks ago to photograph a wedding in Charleston and get my Southern Cooking fix. I’ve already written about my fast food experiences on this trip (see my post on Bojangles’ fried chicken), but I did get to sample some highbrow South Carolina cooking during the wedding as well at the restaurant Tristan at the French Quarter Inn.

The bride and groom really love food, and their reception seriously had some of the best wedding food I have ever eaten. The highlight of the meal was definitely the Shrimp and Grits, or ‘Prawns and Hominy’ as the restaurant Tristan likes to call it. While those who have never had this dish might think that the combination of shrimp and grits together (pictured above on the right) is weird , trust me on this one – get over it, eat it, it’s delicious and you won’t regret it.

So what are Hominy grits? They are a ground corn product that looks a bit like grainy, often slightly soupy mashed potatoes. Read more in the Wikipedia entry about grits. The version we had was a bit more fancy , as these stone ground hominy grits were a bit chunkier and thicker in consistency, but the idea was the same. While I didn’t make these on my own, the chef did cook these right in front of me so I have a rough idea of how to make them

Ingredients for the Shrimp and Grits (as displayed on a placard at the reception):

From what I observed, these were cooking steps for the shrimp.

Maybe you want to try this on your own, but I recommend heading to a local southern restaurant to try it for first if you’ve never had it before!

Happy Fooding!
-Peter

Photographs courtesy of Peter Tsai Photography

“Waste not, want not” the old saying goes – and the next Fooding adventure definitely does just that.

As you probably know, most people outside of America are not squeamish about the fact that meat was once a live animal. In Asia, they take it to the extreme. There, the ultimate sign of seafood freshness is being able to go to a restaurant and point at living meat (future meal) swimming around in a tank and then 10 minutes later, have that formerly living meat show up at your table cooked in 5 delicious ways, head, skin, and bones still attached – almost every part of the fish utilized in some way. This is the story of my Taiwan Live Fish Fooding adventure.

The Shiyuan Live Fish Restaurant in Taoyuan (about an hour away from Taipei) specializes in serving live carp. The dining experience starts when you first enter the restaurant and are led into the back room where you pick out a fish big enough to feed your entire party. Most of the dishes use about a pound of fish, so with the 5 pound fish we picked out, they said they would prepare the fish 5 different ways. We sat down and were served veggie sides (braised cabbage, along with some bamboo shoots).

Then, the real meal began… and it was a ton of fish! We ate the following:

1. Battered Deep Fried Carp with MSG
2. Pan Fried Carp in a Brown Sauce (pictured below)
3. Braised Carp served with a tangy sweet sauce
4. Tofu with Carp in a Red sauce
5. Carp Head Soup

Every dish tasted great and was distinct enough from the other dishes so that you didn’t feel like you were eating too much of the same thing. Since the fish was as fresh as you can get it, there wasn’t any hint of a stinky fishy taste whatsoever. My favorites were the pan fried carp and the deep fried carp. Taiwan Beer was served with the meal and the slight bitterness of the beer was a great contrast to the fish.

All in all, a great meal, but it was definitely way too much fish for just 5 people… 1 lb of fish per person and sides is too much for one man to eat. I would recommend a minimum of 7 people because that 5 lb fish was one of the smallest they had. Overall this restaurant was pretty awesome and totally different from what we have here in the States. Just make sure to bring lots of friends and be prepared to take a walk afterwards!

Check out the photos below for the full details. Photographs courtesy of Peter Tsai Photography

Thanks, and happy travels and happy fooding!
Peter

Their signature dish is the pork dumpling with soup. I’m certain there is a more elegant name for them, but that was the translation the group of friends that I was with gave to me. These dumplings were exactly as described, a dumpling filled with tasty ground pork and soup. So naturally my first question was, how do they get the soup in there? After some speculation about needles and secret magic, no one knew the answer. Thus, I made my way down to the kitchen area to watch the 20 or so employees frantically making the dumplings(this is a very popular place). I watched them closely as they assembled the dumpling first the wrapper, add a bit of meat, then a glob of something that resembled jelly, only it was brown. Then it hit me, they were using congealed broth! Brilliant. They would place a small amount of the congealed broth, then seal the wrapper. During the steaming process, the broth would melt and become tongue searing hot soup.

Content with solving that mystery, I made my way back upstairs to our dining room to work my way through a significant amount of these magical dumplings and ice cold Taiwan Beer.

After much food, drink and conversation the topic of dessert came up. There was a split in the faction in that some people wanted steamed buns with mung bean, while the other wanted something called Ice Monster. Ice Monster?…I asked. That settled it, we were all going around the corner to the Ice Monster to get dessert. As we near the establishment I see people with bowls that contained a mountain of what looked like ice cream, fruit, and snow.

There were so many fruit/ice cream choices for me to choose from I did what I typically do in those situations(i.e. I can’t read the printed language) I walk to the counter and I point to the first thing on the menu. I stood there drooling as I watched the owner assemble the concoction. A rather large block of ice was sitting on a machine that had some sort of blade that would shave the top layer of the ice with each turn of a crank. This light and fluffy snow would land in a large bowl. When the owner deemed that there was enough shaved ice in the bowl, she turned around to a buffet of different fruit toppings. But before she added any fruit, she covered the entire mountain of snow with what I believe was sweetened condensed milk. On top of that went three rows of freshly diced mango, with a large scoop of mango ice cream on top. It was incredible. No it was better than that, it was freaking delicious!

I’ve eaten at a few Din Tai Fung’s around Asia, but none compare with my first experience at the Xinyi location in Taipei City. Perhaps it was the large group of friends that I was with or the copious amount of beer that was consumed. Or perhaps it was the dessert we had at Ice Monster with the scooters whizzing by us at unsafe speeds. Whatever the reason, this was one of the best Fooding experiences I have ever had.

Cheers,

-Jon

There isn’t even a fine associated with it.

Update: Turns out durian does not smell all that great.

Update 2: Cracking one open in your house isn’t such a great idea.

Update 3: I don’t care for durian.

Update 4: Neither of my dogs care for durian.

Update 5: My wife has forever banned durian from the house.

-Jon

When I found out that I was going to spend a weekend in Charleston, South Carolina a strange craving suddenly manifested itself in my belly. It was a craving that had been dormant for almost ten years, but upon the mere mention of the Carolinas it sprang back to life instantly. It was an urge to eat fried chicken, not just any chicken, but possibly the best fast food fried chicken I have ever had.

That urge, it turns out, was for Bojangles’.

For some strange reason, this awesome fast food chain is only in the South, and only in certain parts of the south… mostly North and South Carolina. I used to eat it growing up in Tennessee and in Atlanta but by the time I was in junior high, all of the Bojangles in Atlanta had disappeared, so we had to drive to North Carolina to get any. Then I moved to Texas where there are no Bojangles at all – so until this past weekend, I had not gotten my Bojangles on in nearly a decade.

First thing I did was leave the airport and head straight for the nearest one. Was it as good as I remembered? Heck Yes! The chicken is moist and flavorful, and the spices used in the batter are amazing. The skin is crispy and delicious. Still the best fast food chicken I’ve ever had.

What makes Bojangles so good then? Apparently they never freeze their chicken and they freshly batter the chicken in store. Also, everything is fresh (they have a no biscuit over 20 minutes old rule). I strongly recommend getting the dark meat (the leg and thigh combo is awesome)… made the mistake of getting the chicken breast on my second trip there last weekend… don’t do it! Nothing beats some fried dark chicken meat.

The sides are amazing too. For sides, no question about it… get the mac and cheese and the dirty rice (which is infused with ground meat, pepper, and chili flakes). A lot of people like their fries too, which I agree are good as well. A lot of people make a big deal about their sweet tea, but I just think it’s OK… a little too sweet for me. Also, the biscuits are probably the best of any of the fast food chicken chains as well!

So, if you are ever in the Deep South and you are hungry for some chicken… by all means – go to Bojangles! You won’t regret it. I Hope you enjoyed this review and if you want to learn more, check out the Bojangles’ website at www.bojangles.com

Happy Fast Fooding!
-Peter

All photos courtesy of Peter Tsai Photography

I went to the Barking Crab in Boston last weekend expecting a tasty lobster meal. What I didn’t expect was seeing a giant 10lb edible sea monster from the deep sitting on the table in front of me. 

This lobster was massive – as large as a toddler and with pinchers that look like they could cut off a finger or 3! Luckily the claws were tied shut so it was safe for the staff to parade this guy around. Incredibly enough, on the day we went there was also an 8lb lobster making the rounds (you can see him in the picture below looking as large as the little kids petting him).

When we asked how much these guys would cost, the owner said that since a 1.25lb lobster usually runs 25 dollars and this guy is 10 pounds, it would probably cost about 200 dollars!  Wow – that’s one way to eat an entire month of groceries in one sitting. It should be noted that this restaurant is somewhat known for it’s large food though, as it was featured on the show Man v. Food on the Travel Channel.

I would definitely give a thumbs up to the lobster (which tastes amazing with purified butter) and the clam chowder (full of bacon-y goodness). For the more adventurous, the steamers (baked clams) are a Boston favorite and they taste great, if a little fishy. Just be sure to ask someone how to clean the steamers before eating or you will get a mouth full of grit.

Overall, the Barking Crab is very solid restaurant with beautiful harbor views and a great outdoor patio. The food is priced reasonably, but this isn’t a cheap meal especially if you are going to have lobster. One of the best deals if you want to eat lobster is to split a clam bake, which includes a lobster, steamers, clam chowder, and cole slaw for about 40-50 dollars. The restaurant has cheaper fried seafood options and burgers as well, so your non crustacean loving or broke friends can come along too.

Also, make sure to try some of the local beers from Harpoon and Samuel Adams to wash down the seafood goodness.

Happy Travels and Happy Fooding!
-Peter

All photos courtesy of Peter Tsai Photography