BU Abroad: Hoppy Meals

Meet Australia’s favorite low-fat marsupial

Get the Flash Player to see this media.

In the video above, Lyle Moran (COM’10) talks about his love of kangaroo meat.

Which national symbol of Australia hops around, has a pouch — and is 98 percent fat-free? Correct. And some Aussies will tell you that kangaroos are as delicious as they are cute. While down under last spring in BU’s Sydney Internship Program, Lyle Moran’s appreciation for kangaroo meat blossomed into a weekly routine of feeding his friends and proselytizing about the marsupial’s culinary merits. And, oh yes, price: at $2 a pound, kangaroo is a good fit for a student budget.

“I consistently got it at least once a week,” says Moran (COM’10), a print journalism major. “Sometimes I got it twice. I just figured I wasn’t going to have kangaroo back in the U.S. and that was the time to get it in.”

Some of Moran’s favorite variations on the steak-like meat — kangaroo must be seasoned well to overcome its gaminess — include filets, kebabs, and stir-fries.

“I miss kangaroo very much,” says Moran of the sad inevitability of returning stateside. “Just walking down the grocery store aisles isn’t really the same knowing there isn’t kangaroo at the end of the aisle anymore.”

For better or worse, since he returned to the United States, Moran’s interest in cooking for friends has waned.

“Eating kangaroo was emblematic of my desire in Australia of trying new things, which carried over to the food realm,” says Moran. “Now I’m definitely more reserved in the kitchen. I don’t have that unique delicacy to work with. That excitement is gone.”

“I make breaded chicken, but is that kangaroo? Definitely not,” he says. “If my journalism career does not pan out, I plan on starting a kangaroo shipping business.”

Alan Wong can be reached at alanwong@bu.edu.

Additional videography by Chris Palmer.

Read more at BU Abroad.

Have a study abroad story to share? Let us know in the comments below.

This Series

Explore Related Topics:

  • Share this story
  • 7 Comments Add

Share

BU Abroad: Hoppy Meals

Share

  • Alan Wong

    Executive Producer

    Alan Wong oversees a team of video producers who create video content for BU's online editorial publications and social media channels. He has produced more than 300 videos for Boston University, shuffling through a number of countries in the process: Australia, Argentina, Peru, Ireland, China, and Cambodia. He has also bored audiences in Atlanta and Boston giving talks on video for higher ed. Profile

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 7 comments on BU Abroad: Hoppy Meals

  4. Kangaroo is actually a very ecologically sound food option. Very little energy and resources are required to raise these animals, as they are highly adapted to the harsh Australian environment. Unlike cattle, Kangaroos need very little water and no habitat alteration. In addition, Australia suffers from a rampant over population of Kangaroo. As a result there they have imposed a strain on the environment. Eating Kangaroo is not only delicious but actually better for Australia, and the earth in general, as compared to consuming cattle or pig livestock.

    Reply
    Link

  7. It’s blatant rubbish that kangaroos are over-running Australia; propaganda pushed by the kangaroo killing industry. There has actually been a collapse of kangaroo numbers, caused by a catastrophic drought and a commercial kill of over four million in 2009 (up by nearly 500,000 on the year before). Official figures show that there are less than half as many kangaroos in Australia today as there were in 2001. It is continues at this pace, extinction isn’t far off for some species – and Australia has the unenviable title as being the king of extinctions.

    The industry also has hidden victims – about 440,000 a year. Baby ‘joeys’, which make no money because they are too small, are killed by being stamped on, smashed against wheel braces, by being decapitated or left to die of starvation in the bush.

    Don’t buy roo meat.

    Reply
    Link

Post a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest from BU Today