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

Last Friday, Peter and Kristina from Foodingblog were invited as guests to check out the Flavor Tripping party at the Belmont hosted by the Berry Fairy, Jenny Wang. We’ve done a writeup of Flavor tripping previously here, so this article will not rehash the information we wrote in the other article. Instead, since Kris was new to flavor tripping and Peter had done it before, we’ll compare and contrast 2 different perspectives on flavor tripping with the Miracle Berry and share the combined tasting notes.

• Cool Flavor Tripping alcoholic beverages

Kristina’s Take on Flavor Tripping

What is this “flavor tripping” thing I kept reading about on Twitter? That phrase seemed to pop up on my feed pretty often via my foodie friends. At a Fooding BBQ last weekend, I was schooled on the ways of the flavor trip by guest blogger Vicente, so I was pretty excited about the Berry Fairy’s flavor tripping event at The Belmont.

When we arrived at the venue, we each got one Miracle Berry each and instructions on what to do. The Berry Fairy folks had set up a nice array of foods to try while flavor tripping, but before I ate the berry, I wanted to sample the wares at the Tito’s Vodka table. My favorite was a drink created by the Tipsy Texan (http://www.tipsytexan.com/) called the Balsamicosmico, a dreamy concoction mixing Tito’s, unsweetened cranberry, orange liquor, and balsamic reduction. This drink was not served in a martini glass like a regular cosmo. Instead, it was injected into large, ripe strawberries. Imagine how beautifully balsamic vinegar brings out the taste of ripe strawberries – now add a touch of vodka and smooth orange liquor. Enough said.

• The Berry Fairy chatting it up

After a couple of the Balsamicosmo strawberries, I moved on to the flavor tripping. I was a first-timer, so I did not want my sense of taste influenced by my more experienced cohort. I took notes on my experience and then re-grouped with Peter and a few others to share information.

The overall flavor tripping experience was great because of the venue, the hostess, and the interesting people in attendance. I definitely enjoyed how the berry changed the flavor of very familiar foods, and my sweet tooth appreciated the intense sweetness of some of the fruit selections. Flavor tripping is a fun experience best enjoyed with a group of friends with a wide variety of foods. I would do it again, but it’s probably an activity I would only participate in occasionally.

• Peter’s first plate of flavor tripping foods

Peter’s Take on Flavor Tripping

Since I had flavor tripped before, I had my tasting strategy all planned out to maximize the experience. I wanted to taste all of the foods both before and after tripping to get a better sense of the Berry’s effects on the provided foods. Since I knew that the trip would only last for a limited amount of time, I first created a plate and made sure to get enough for at least 2 solid bites of each type food.

Once I had made a mental note of how everything tasted pre-trip, I put the berry in my mouth for a couple of minutes like the provided instructions said (which was new to me since I had previously used the tablets). The berry was a little harder to use than tablets b/c you have to keep the juices in your mouth for a couple of minutes vs just letting the tabs melt on your tongue. The berry doesn’t really taste strongly of anything, and there’s a little bit of tough opaque meat (reminded me of lychee or longan meat) inside of a thin red skin.

• A Miracle Berry – Peter kind of smashed this one keeping it in his pocket

After finishing with the berry, I went straight to the lime first (as suggested by others). My once sour lime tasted extremely sweet so I knew that I was ready to go. I kept going back to the lime every 10 minutes to make sure I was still tripping. Overall the berry was a success – the effects lasted for about 30 minutes and I tore through about 40 different kinds of food in that time and got to try everything at the party.

Having now tripped on both tablets and berries, I would say that the berries feel more authentic since they are the real deal, but they aren’t worth the hassle after you have done it once. The tablets are cheaper, more portable, and the shelf life is much longer. As a side note, at this Berry Fairy Party, the company mberry was selling packs of tabs for you to take home.

• Flavor Tripping – Ranier Cherries, Tomatililos, Rhubarb

As far as other differences go, I could have sworn that when I tripped with the tablets before, spicy foods were no longer spicy. This time around with the berry though, spicy stuff was still just as spicy.

Overall, I had a lot of fun trying the wide variety of foods at the Berry Fairy’s party and I am glad that I got to compare the real berry to the tablets that I had before.

The Combined Tasting Notes

• Mysterious Fruit Tablets – courtesy of robbplusjessie via Flickr CC license

After reading a New York Times Article about “flavor tripping” (we’ll explain in depth later) last year, I was intrigued and really wanted to try it out. Luckily for me, a friend was already an expert on the subject and was about to host a flavor tripping party of his own. At the party we sampled an impressive spread of fruits, cheeses, and beers in a fun altered state of taste – some of the foods we tried that night tasted much different than how they normally do! We sampled so many different foods that it was hard to keep track of them all. Luckily for our Foodingblog readers, tasting observations were meticulously recorded for future reference.

With the upcoming “flavor tripping” party at the Belmont this Wednesday, we thought it would be great to share our “flavor tripping” experiences with those interested in trying it out. In order to better inform our readers, we brought in an expert for this one. This Foodingblog entry will be our first guest post courtesy of flavor tripping party host, fellow food lover, and blogger, Vicente Gonzales AKA “V”.

Flavor Tripping by Vicente Gonzales

• Miracle Fruit Berries – courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Last year, a coworker told me about Miraculin. He told me about a legal pill that you dissolve on your tongue that changes the way food tastes. He said he couldn’t wait to throw a flavoring tripping party. I was hooked – I researched everything I could find about Miraculin, a taste-modifying agent. Turns out it shows up naturally in an African berry called the miracle berry, flavor berry, or the wonder fruit. The berries last for only 3 days after being picked so it’s a bit impractical to use the real fruit unless you are throwing a big party and delivery works out perfectly.

The next best thing is flavor tablets. Made from flavor berries, the effect of the tablet lasts longer than a berry and has a year long shelf life. For my initial experience, I tried out a tablet on my own because I wanted to make sure it even worked before inviting a bunch of people over to try it.

First of all, not knowing what to expect, the tablet tasted somewhat sour and chalky, but not really all that bad. After allowing it to dissolve completely all over my tongue, I started sampling my platter of options.

Here were my results:

• Miracle Fruit Tabs – courtesy of DW!zzy via Flickr

I found that the effects of the tablet lasted for about an hour. I drank liquids last to ensure I would have enough time to taste everything before accelerating the dilution process with liquids.

My second experience was at a flavor tripping party I threw a week later. I expanded the options and had everyone jot down notes on their experience and compiled them into the big list at the end of this post. Since then, I have experimented with eating only a quarter of a tablet and it lasted the duration of a meal(15-30 min). Adding to the dosage doesn’t intensify the effect, it just prolongs the effect so it makes sense to only use the minimal amount and take more as needed.

For your first time, I would go ahead and use a half tablet to ensure you get the full experience. Make sure you include Tabasco, grapefruit, lemons, and lime with your meal, as those have the biggest effect. Also, you can give yourself ulcers if you eat too much citrus, especially lemons and limes, so be careful not to go crazy and overdo it.

• Fruit – A Flavor Tripping Sampling. Courtesty of robbplusjessie via Flickr

I’m a little surprised radishes and yogurt didn’t have a bigger change as they were recommended in some of the articles I read. Not all of the above observations are my personal observations, they are a collaboration.

Below is the complete list of the foods we sampled at the second party.

-V
 

Recently, I’ve been watching TV shows like Man vs Wild and Bizarre Foods. Seeing Bear Grylls and Andrew Zimmern eat the grossest / weirdest stuff in the world (and miraculously not dying) sort of makes me want try it too – almost as if they are daring me to do it too! While I don’t think I’ll be eating either a yak’s eyeball or a still living tree frog (that’s disgusting Bear Grylls) any time soon, I was intrigued when I heard that there would be an edible bug sampling at the “Most Interesting” party at Falkenstein Castle near Austin, Texas.

Hissing cockroaches next to the bug eating booth – I didn’t eat these

A little background:
My dad loves bugs – so much so that he studied them for a living for over 40 years. Being the son of an entomologist, my father was constantly shoving crawly insects in front of me and my brother on our frequent outdoor hikes and camping trips. I grew up listening to my dad tell stories (with a big smile on his face) about eating giant grasshoppers that doubled as pets. Additionally, bugs and butterflies with pins sticking out of them were a common sight around the house and I even saw my dad knock down whole wasp nests and eat the larva on multiple occasions.

Even with all of that, I had never been tempted to eat a bug until now. I mean I’m not squeamish at all when I see a cockroach or a spider or two crawling around, but putting one in my mouth is a different matter altogether. Despite multiple opportunities to try them overseas, something about my American upbringing made me believe that bugs are not something that would be tasty.

Frying up some little crickets

Seeing TV personalities eat far more disgusting things than bugs (and actually liking it) on many occasions finally pushed me over the edge. I decided to go to the “Most Interesting” party specifically to sample bugs. They had a professional chef frying up all sorts of tasty insect-y treats (I wonder if this is his day job too?) so there was nothing to worry about… right?

Well, I’m here to report that I did eat bugs and I’m obviously still alive. In fact, I stuck around long enough to try a couple of different kinds, both scorpions and tiny crickets. They tasted much better than expected!

Here are my tasting notes:

Scorpion – I had some dried out leg and tail segments of scorpion that tasted very crispy / crunchy. They had a slightly meaty flavor accented by seasoning salt. 3-4 people around me agreed that scorpion tastes almost like Baco bits, just crunchier and hollow. I would eat this again – it would be great on a salad

Scorpion segments about to go into my mouth

Tiny crickets – These had a meaty flavor and they were slightly juicy, probably due to being pan fried in oil. These particular crickets were so small that you couldn’t really tell they were bugs unless you looked at them closely. They were served on tortilla chips with salsa and they were a bit too salty for me (probably because all 3 components had salt added to them at some point). I think the crickets would have tasted pretty good alone.

Pico de buggo

Overall, I have a feeling that the “Most Interesting” folks started us off with smaller, less gooey critters because they are easier on the palette. I really want to try more bugs in the future, but I’m a little afraid of the big squishy ones (watch this video of Bear Grylls eating a giant larva).

In closing, we decided that insects are the crustaceans of the land, and if we love shrimp and crab, perhaps we could grow to love bugs too (although it might be an acquired taste). I heard a rumor that they serve larger crickets at La Condesa, so I’ll probably be heading there soon for more tasty bug action.

Thanks for reading and 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

• Eating Champion Christopher Huang with store owner Juan Meza

Being a foodie isn’t always about eating fancy 3 course dinners consisting of food that’s hard to pronounce. On the contrary, often the best tasting foods are inexpensive, hearty working class comfort foods. In Austin, a perfect example of great everyday, utilitarian food is the breakfast taco. Arguably one of the best breakfast tacos in town is the huge ‘Don Juan’ (made with a generous serving of potatoes, egg, bacon, and cheese) at Juan in a Million, a mecca for hungry diners in East Austin that hosts an eating challenge so infamous it was recently featured on The Travel Channel’s volume eating show, Man v Food.

In the Austin episode of Man v Food, host and eating challenge extraordinaire Adam Richman attempted and failed to break the Don Juan Challenge record held by Christopher “Hong Kong Hero” Huang, who in 2004 ate an astonishing 7 Don Juan tacos in one sitting! Huang, who set the record while he was a student at the University of Texas in Austin, has worked many jobs in the food industry including selling peanuts at a ballpark, delivering pizza, serving in a fine dining restaurant, and his current job managing Berripop, a frozen yogurt store in Houston, Texas.

Fooding blog pulled Christopher away from his busy schedule long enough to ask him about his amazing record and to get inside the head of a certified eating champion.

• The Juan in a Million Storefront in Austin, Texas

TastingBuds: You are the only person to ever finish 7 Don Juan tacos (which weigh in at more than 5.25 pounds of food) in a single sitting. How does it feel to be an eating champion, and how did your stomach feel immediately after completing the challenge?

• Christopher Huang: I’m absolutely positive that 7 Don Juans weigh more than 7 pounds. I have eaten those 6-pound “party size” trays of Stouffer’s lasagna more than once, and the Don Juans stuffed me way more than those lasagnas ever did. I was in a lot of discomfort upon finishing. I couldn’t bend over to any degree, so I had to have a friend drive me home.
   
  Holding the record is great, because it’s one of those things that I can use to make myself sound less boring. It’s more of a conversation piece than it is a pure source of pride. It does makes you anxious though, because I know people out there want to beat it. So I periodically check in to see how the challengers have fared. I’ve heard that nobody has yet to eat 5 since I set the mark. But that anxiety does translate to me wanting to break my own record so as to ensure that I stay on top.

TB: What was your motivation for conquering the Don Juan eating challenge? Was it for the love of food, or are you just in it for the fame / glory?

• CH: I originally decided to do it on a whim. I felt like eating a Don Juan (make that two, since I always eat two), and I was trying to convince a friend to come eat with me. So I thought I’d entice them to join me by deciding to make the occasion more exciting by, well, breaking the eating record. It IS a rather tasty dish, so that is always a plus.

• The now famous Don Juan

TB: Speaking of challengers – I’m a big fan of the show Man v Food but you totally owned Adam Richman in the Juan in a Million eating challenge which is impressive, considering his full time job is to travel around the country for the purpose of eating large quantities of food. Despite his apparent advantage, he only ate 4 tacos vs your 7 – Where did he go wrong?

• CH: You know, after I heard about the show, and Adam Richman’s obviously enviable job description, I looked into a couple of the episodes and results. I feel like it’s not so much his technique or anything, but perhaps his threshold is just close to 5 pounds of food. He’s not the biggest eater, which probably works for the show, since it would get boring if he beats every challenge out there. But I think someone with my capacity would have a slightly higher victory rate across the nation, since Richman is getting his butt kicked more often than not.

TB: How do you prepare for an eating challenge and do you have a specific eating strategy?

• CH: I don’t do much preparation. A lot of people, on the topic of eating contests, spend time discussing the methods and merits of stretching out your stomach or how long you should refrain from eating. I think that it’s 10% physical. They did an X-ray of a Japanese female competitive eater once, before and after consuming something like 10 pounds of food. The “before” picture showed a stomach of normal size, and the “after” picture showed the stomach pretty much crowding out the rest of her internal organs. So your stomach should have a decent amount of elasticity. I spend the day before eating not too big of a meal, and I don’t eat anything the day of. I also make sure the “bottom pipes” are clear, so my stomach has room to expand. Then it comes to the 90% mental part where I tell myself to keep going and that I’m not full.

• Adam Richman from Man v Food on the Don Juan Wall of Fame

TB: You’ve worked a lot of jobs in the food industry. Did that in any way help you break the Juan in a Million taco eating record?

• CH: I’ve spent a lot of time in the food industry because I love food so much. I once had a phone interview with a firm that could have offered me a desk job. They were baffled at why I kept returning to the restaurant biz in between jobs, and declared that I had no ambition in life. I then realized that the difference in my desire for food versus the average businessman’s is wider than the gulf between a real eater and a vegetarian, and I’d be better off dealing with the kitchen than a phone on a desk.

TB: Do you have plans to take on other eating challenges in the future?

• CH: There have been a few attempts by others to take down the Don Juan record by others (thankfully no professionals), but I’ve heard that nobody has really gotten past even 5. So my plan is to attempt to break my own record. I attempted once before, right after attempting to run 200 miles non-stop, but that severely affected my rate of peristalsis, so whatever I was eating was staying up top, and I couldn’t swallow after 4 Don Juans myself. The next attempt will find me in much better physical shape. That said, I always seem to hear about local eating contests AFTER they occur. How do people know about these things?! Will you let me know if you hear of an event in the area?

TB: Sure! After some research we found a list of all of the Texas eating challenges and contests here. You said that being an eating champion has made your life more interesting and it’s a great conversation starter. Has your eating prowess ever helped you out with the ladies?

• CH: I seriously am convinced being a big eater is like owning an old-school, right-hand-drive Nissan Skyline. It’s cool, it’s a conversation piece, and women couldn’t really care less about it. But every dude wants to know all the little details. If I was gay, I’d probably be rolling in phone numbers now (never mind the fact that I ate a bunch of tacos rather than hot dogs and buns).

TB: Haha. Thanks for the great answers Chris! Best of luck to you in the future.

TastingBuds photos Courtesty of Peter Tsai Photography