Not a dilemma that I ever thought I would have.
I’m a reformed vegetarian.
I elected to have a “white meat only’ diet when I was in college and was in a relationship with a vegetarian for over 20 years. My children are vegetarian. I am only just learning to cook meat and really have issues with anything that is a little like entrails or resembles too much something that was once alive rather than looking more like a lump of tofu.
So I thought.
Yesterday I ate ox liver.
Today I ate at a restaurant that had told our host that it guaranteed at least two South African dishes.
This one I spotted immediately:
OSTRICH FILLET:
Red wine and black pepper marinated ostrich fillet served with butternut fondant. Grilled brown mushrooms, marinated beetroot, and creme de cassis jus.
However I did not immediately spot the South African animal in the one below. It is a little like the Monty Python “Crunchy Frog” Sketch, where the lark’s vomit was in the very fine print… I don’t know about you, but I don’t immediately associate Umbria with Springbok…
UMBRIAN DELIGHT:
Marinated Aubergine and black mushroom layered with grilled peppers, springbok carpaccio, parmesan & rocket, topped with basil pesto and pine kernels *contains nuts
So, I ordered the ostrich fillet, but of course without the beetroot, because one really needs to draw the line at something that creates evil purple ooze.
The special, which was not on the menu, was a piece of gemsbok. Yes, something that looks like this in the wild. (Something I had not seen on photo-safari yesterday, so somehow more acceptable to be eating..).
Greg ordered this and I agree with his judgment that it was amazingly tender meat. The texture was like the difference between a rough clay pot of a steak compared to a very fine porcelain. I am sure that it was not flavoured with lavender, but it certainly seemed to be, or some kind of sage. Yes, one of the most delicious meats I have eaten in my life.
The ostrich? OK. Bland. Beautifully cooked and flavoured with a lovely sweet sauce. If you can imagine a chop or steak where there was all texture but not taste, but not in an unpleasant way, then you would get an idea. Certainly it did not taste like a large chicken or turkey.
Anyhow, it seems to be customary in South Africa for dishes, where there is more than a certain proportion left over, to be presented in a leftovers container on leaving. So – here I am at 11:45pm at night, leftover container in hand, in a hotel room without a fridge, wondering where I should put my ostrich.
So there is something that does not taste like chicken then. That’s quite a lifestyle change after so many years of vegetarian dining.