Camels are useful animals. They retain water for a damn long time and are a great mode of desert transportation. Yet, while their alpaca cousins in South America make for some good eating, camels haven’t exactly been big on the plate outside of the Middle East. Yet, that seems to be changing.
According to news.com.au, the camel is finding its way through the desert and onto the menu in Sydney, Australia. If it catches on, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that meat coming to the USA. Apparently it tastes similar to beef, but is a whole lot leaner than cow. Because of this, it probably makes a much better burger than steak, since a burger can be combined with other fats to keep it from drying out.
I, for one, would love to try me some camel. I’ve been on a couple camel rides, as evidenced by the pictures in this post (yes that is an adorable seven year old version of me above), and while those were great, I got no culinary pleasure out of them. Plus, I ate myself some alpaca back in the day and imagine it would be pretty similar.
So I’m hoping camel makes its way to the USA soon, and more specifically to California (although I could see it showing up in Michigan first because of the high population of Middle Easterners). What do you think? Would you eat a camel burger? Would you care whether it was dromedary or bactrian? I’m thinking that extra hump might be all the difference.
(via news.com.au)