Ode to Australian Food

One of my favorite things about traveling is trying all the fun, crazy, and different food. The Australians have retained some traditional british foods like meat pies. While much more delicious than those sketchy frozen chicken pot pies we used to eat when I was younger, it was hard to justify such a large number of calories just for pie. I preferred to use up my 'empty' calorie budget on lamington squares. They are simple white sponge/angels food cake coated in chocolate (or srawberry or lemon) icing with coconut flakes. Nothing special, but I like them. Competing for favorite dessert would have to be tim-tams- chocolate coated chocolate cookies with chocolate icing. How could you go wrong with that combination?

Meat: As soon as my partner got to australia, I was relieved of all cooking duties which was fine with me. I was having a meat craving (it happens) and so we went to buy some chicken from wooly's. Somehow we got sidetracked and stumbled on kangaroo. At almost the same price, it seemed like a way better deal- it's very lean, way better for the environment, it's completely free range, no hormones or sketchy additives, etc. And so began our interest in interesting meats.

Next, we bought some crocodile. It looked more like fish, but tasted more like chicken. Unlike the kanga-saurus, the crocodile was not so tasty without massive marinating or sauce. The Aussies (sort of understandably) have a mental block against eating kangaroo despite its obvious advantages. We talked one of our aussie roommates into trying both kangasaurus and croc. He said the 'roo was really good and he would eat more if he didn' know what it was. He agreed with us on the croc. We did have some croc wontons at a restaurant which were good, but the flavor definitely came from the sauce.

Finally, at a nice dinner in Cairns, we tried emu. We've done less research on the merits of emu meat, but it was really tasty. IT was served with a mac nut crust on top of mashed potatoes with rocket (arrugula) on top.

I think that the most interesting thig that I ate was a green ant. We were told that they were really sour so the next time we saw some, we unknowingly at the whole ant. Apparently just the backside is sufficient. Oh well, it was really bitter but cool to just pick up a bug off of a tree and eat it.