Beef: It's Not for Dinner!

Beef is an interesting thing in South Africa. Beef is not always beef. As Kendra and Micah know from their visit, you never really know what you're getting when you order a burger. In fact, I've learned that I can buy my beef mince (aka ground beef) from only two of the many grocery stores, otherwise it just doesn't taste right. It's not that it tastes bad per say, but it clearly isn't all beef. I'm actually not convinced that most South Africans can even tell the difference since they're used to whatever the "beef" is that they buy at the store. (Btw, I am not passing judgement, SA friends. ;) One time the package that I picked up smelled so much unlike beef after I cooked it that we literally threw it out because (A) we didn't know what we were eating, and (B) the smell on the repulsive side. I think "beef" here has other red-meat-types in it--of which I really have no idea. Whatever counts as a filler??

On my birthday last year a few friends and I ate at a super cool restaurant down the street. It's so cool that I hardly belonged there. Anyway, I ordered the Classic American Burger. And it was good. The meat tasted like beef--although whoever named it the Classic American has obviously never eaten a burger in the US. The mustard was dijon, not yellow mustard, and the bacon was more like a soft Canadian bacon than crispy American. Whatev. No biggie. ... Went back there a few weeks ago, and the beef from "happy, lazy, grass-fed cows"--as the menu touted--tasted more like some wild buck trying to get the heck away from a hunter. Or something in a feed yard trying to get away from imminent slaughter. Or something.

Today at the grocery store Eland and I picked up a package of ostrich meat. [Side note: We saw 25 live and very active lobsters in the lobster tank today. Now I know when buying lobster--for whenever Uncle John and Aunt Elaine teach us how to cook lobster?!?!??--buy on Mondays.] Back to the ostrich. There are tons of ostrich farms here and it is supposedly a really great low-cholesterol red meat. So I bought about a pound of ostrich "goulash" (chunks), I imagined what I'd do with a package of beef chunks, and cooked it accordingly. We ate ostrich stir-fry for dinner tonight and it was good! Good enough that I'll make it again. The flavor was pleasantly mild and it fit into the stir-fry quite nicely. Paul, I hope you're reading this. Love you!

This darling ostrich girl will never be eaten. She lives at a petting zoo near Stellenbosch and was totally digging my camera.

(Btw, I suppose I could just buy beef in solid pieces and not as mince. That would solve my problem.)