Kudu Jerky from South Africa

My good friend Elizabeth The Vegetarian recently returned from a trip home to her native South Africa with a nice little weird meat treasure for me. She offered, which was generous and thoughtful considering that she's a vegetarian, and considering that the piece of meat could have looked suspicious to the customs people here. Elizabeth The Vegetarian, as it turns out, is one of Weird Meat's greatest fans. Now she's joined the cause, even though her chronic vegetarianism won't allow her to partake in the tasting. Fine, more weird meat for me.

So what did she bring me? I'm told it's "kudu" meat. Dried, smoked and spicy. I'd never heard of a Kudu before, but it appears to be the most attractive buck in the bush:

"The greater kudu is considered by many to be the most handsome of the tragelaphine antelopes, which includes the bongo, eland, nyala, bushbuck and sitatunga." - Wildlives

I've never heard of any of the other antelopes either, but I'm glad to know Elizabeth The Vegetarian appreciates the handsome looks of the kudu above the rest. I've never known anyone to choose their meat according to the attractive looks of the animal, but then perhaps that explains Elizabeth's vegetarianism. Hmm.

Well anyway, this week she met me at a party, and reached into her purse and pulled out a used yellow plastic shopping bag. Inside was a dry, hard, 6-inch stick of Kudu jerky. Just like that, no label, no ziplock. Weird meat.



I was instructed to use a sturdy knife to hack off bite-size pieces and eat the thing with a beer. That's what I just did. It was pretty tasty. I've had wild-hunted North American deer jerky, and this reminded me of that in flavor, texture, and according to the pictures, handsomeness. It's also the only animal I know that has a radio station named after it: KUDU-FM Namibia

The meat was hard and stringy and I used 3 toothpicks and floss to get the stuff out of my left top molar, but I would not recommend it with a French amber ale. (Actually, I believe the Belgians are the only ones making good beer on the European continent.) I liked the kudu jerky, and now I'm looking to see where I can order some more weird jerkies online.



Speaking of South African vegetarians, if you're in San Francisco, check out Joubert's the South African vegetarian restaurant. The food's fabulous and the brothers who run the place are the nicest fellows in town.

Chicken Feet

I guess this one is a no-brainer. I'd eaten chicken feet long before the Weird Meat project began, so I sort of forgot about it being a "weird meat." But you know, if your average suburban American person thinks it is gross to eat, it's weird meat. Of course, your average suburban American person thinks it is gross to eat green vegetables also. What do these average suburban American persons eat, anyway?

So here's the deal. Lots of Chinese restaurants, especially Cantonese dim sum ones, serve chicken feet as a popular small dish. Usually for brunch. They are prepared in different ways -- from plain steamed, to fried with a slightly spicy black bean sauce. My favorite is braised. They're a little tricky to eat at first. Veterans can chow through a foot in about 5 seconds, spitting out each "digit" of chicken toe bone in rapid fire, or just in one bunch. You savor the soggy skin and chewy cartilage.



I've gotten better at eating these in the past year in Shanghai. I can gobble up a chicken foot in about a dozen seconds. It takes a little practise and refinement to hold the slippery foot with chopsticks, and nibble the skin and munchies off the little bone bits. The thing to know is, you just pull apart each "digit" of the toe. Don't try to leave them attached to each other -- you'll get no meat and embarrass your fellow diners. That's what I did at first, but now I know better.

Try the chicken feet, I think you'll like them!