Text 14034, 130 rader
Skriven 2007-04-14 16:45:44 av Glen Jamieson
     Kommentar till en text av Michael Loo
Ärende: DISASTROUS RESULTS 70414
================================
 -=> Quoting Michael Loo to Glen Jamieson <=-

Now back in Adelaide, having survived the 0300 Jetstar flight out of
Darwin, and noting that that airport was teeming with life at 2.00 am,
with flights coming and going everywhere, North, South, East and West.

 GJ> meat is cooked tender.   Another way to cook 'roo  tail is to hack it
 GJ> off from the back of the 'roo, and throw it on a fire.  The fur burns
 GJ> off, and then it is easy to pull of the skin and eat the meat.

 ML> If one is blessed with a whole 'roo, why not carve up the rump
 ML> and eat that, instead of fussing with the tail and its tendons?

Nothing is wasted.  It is aboriginal custom for the tenderest meat to
be given to the tribal elders, who tell the young ones that they have
to eat the tough bits ("...or you will get weak and feeble like me").
For Australians like myself, a little further removed from the tribal
culture, I only have access to the already butchered beast.  As the
tendons cook down completely, and there is no fat to trim, there is
less prep work for me to do on a tail than what would be necessary for
ox tail.   The tail has best flavour of all.
 
 > With numbers for some of the items, the variables ChookEgg
 > and CrockEgg can be quantified, with their difference in
 > value being the premium you would pay for a croc egg garnish.

 ML> Why not just farm raise the things using increasingly
 ML> domesticated reptiles and leave the wild crocs to harass
 ML> swimmers on holiday?

Good point.  The main reason is that crocs take about 20 years to
reach sexual maturity.   The farms do have some of that age, and
collect some of their eggs to put in the incubator, while leaving some
to keep ma croc happy.   It is more cost-effective to steal the eggs
from  a wild mother.  There are always more "immortal" young people
who are prepared to work as egg-harvesters in the flood plains of
Jabiru and other Northern swamps, working from a small "tinny"
(aluminium dinghy), with one person marking and grabbing the eggs
while his mate keeps a look out for big mamma.  They have to be kept
in the incubator the same way up as they had been in the nest.
 
 ML> But the hundreds of $$ are speculative: if one knows the
 ML> anticipated return on a dollar over years of croc raising,
 ML> along with the expenses involved during that period, then
 ML> one can extrapolate back to the value of a croc egg.

It might be worthwhile phoning the croc farm and asking how much a
dozen for fresh croc eggs...  (I'm tempted.)   I guess that the taste
would be similar to turtle eggs, which I used to eat occasionally when
I lived in Lae.

 =
 
 ML> Yes ... if my brother's memories are accurate, it's a
 ML> bullying technique abundantly used against the slightly
 ML> strange. Perhaps some of the perpetrators think of it as
 ML> a normalizing custom, but it would appear to me that the
 ML> general effect is the opposite.

The "slightly strange", who don't fit into any established social
hierachy, are seen as a possible threat to those whose life requires
knowledge of their own niche.   By forcing the "odd person out" to
imbibe to the point where s/he is reduced to babbling incoherence or
up-chucking, the bully is reassured as to his own superiority.  If,
however, the strange one out-drinks the perpetrator, the whole lark
mis-fires.
 
On my last night in Darwin I was taken to the newly re-located "Magic
Wok", which now has two monster burners and woks operating
simultaneously.   The have an interesting pricing system; the customer
chooses his meats and vegetables, placing them on a metal tray.  This
is then weighed, and charged accordingly.   $10.90 minimum for up to
300g of food, with any more at that pro rata.  The choices of thinly
sliced meat for the stir-frying was wider than before, with the
seafood including 2 or 3 kinds of fish, scallops, mussels, cockles,
baby octopus, squid, and the meat ranged from chicken, to duck, lamb,
veal, beef, buffalo, crocodile, camel, emu and horse.  I had some of
the last 4, and 'roo.  The camel was milder tasting than when I had
prevously eaten it, and like the horse was quite tender.  The cut of
croc used was a little tough, but I had asked the chef to cook it to
brown to bring out the flavour.  I had some of my grand-daughter's
roo, which seemed to be gamier than what I am used to in Adelaide, but
that may have only been because of the contrast with the other, milder
meats that I ate with it.

The dessert which I chose was "Two scoops of vanilla ice cream with
the liqueur of your choice poured over it.  I found "Bundaberg Liqueur
Rum" listed, so asked for that.  A middle-aged lady who seemed to be a
sort of waiter said that they didn't have any of that, but she brought
out a bottle with only 100 ml left in it, labelled "Bundaberg
Chocolate Rum Liqueur" (20% alcohol), and said that it was the last
bottle they had of that, and no more was being made.   I decided to
try it, and was given a liqueur glass of it to pour over my 2 scoops
of good ice cream.  It was excellent, with a nice rum bite, and a soft
chocolate overtone.  The only improvement would have been if I had had
two glasses of it over the ice cream.


 ML> Name: David Theodor Schmidt
 ML> Birth Year: 1982
 ML> Nationality: German

 ML> [scheduled at 5:15, he was a good sport and came in at 9
 ML> because of the no-show]

[Etc]

Very interesting reading.  Thanks.

 ML> Name: Sonia Chan
 ML> Birth Year: 1980
 ML> Nationality: Canadian

 ML> Name: Lio Kuok-Wai
 ML> Birth Year: 1989
 ML> Nationality: Chinese

 ML> So we heard 10.5 x 45-min recitals in the space of 10 hours;
 ML> afterward Ella Lou said that she might never go to a piano
 ML> recital again.

And would you?   There have been occasions when the Australian
Broadcasting Corp has unremittingly pounded its devoted listeners'ears
with a couple of days of piano competition for many hours per day.
Quite exhausting for everyone!  Much better to listen to isolated
performances spread out over months.
___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 [NR]

--- FLAME v2.0/b
 * Origin: Braintap BBS Adelaide Australia (3:800/449)