Cook who served kangaroo meat no longer employed by western Nebraska school

[Omaha Steve]

Kangaroos in their native Australia. An Omaha chef who has eaten kangaroo meat said it is “dark red, faintly gamey-flavored.”

AUSTRALIA TOURISM BOARD

By Joe Dejka and Bob Glissmann / World-Herald staff writers 6 hrs ago

The cook who served kangaroo meat to students at a western Nebraska school without telling them no longer is employed by the district.

Some students at the junior-senior high in the Potter-Dix district unknowingly ate kangaroo last week when the school’s head cook added it to some chili. He told the school district’s superintendent that he had done so “because of its nutritional value and because it is a very lean meat,” the superintendent, Mike Williams, wrote in a letter to parents.

Williams said the school, which is in Potter, has 87 students in grades 7 through 12. Potter is about 20 miles west of Sidney in the Nebraska Panhandle.

In the letter, dated Wednesday, Williams apologized to parents. He wrote that if foods or ingredients are out of the ordinary, “they should be listed on the menu so that the students and families are aware of what they would be being served.”

FULL story: https://www.omaha.com/news/education/cook-who-served-kangaroo-meat-no-longer-employed-by-western/article_2c26793c-b6dd-54b4-9ec2-d61846b82c16.html

[Vinca]

1. Firing seems a little harsh. He should have told them what he wanted to do, but

it's no different than serving up a cow and it sounds like it might be healthier. I remember eating eel at a science fair in junior high and gagging appropriately for the age.

[brooklynite]

2. I've had kangaroo medallions and emu carpaccio. Food is food.

But to be safe, let's stick to uniquely American food products: fish sticks and chicken nuggets.

[Thyla]

3. Best red meat around...

I love it but you don't see much of it in Spain.

And yeah I'd be a bit shitty too if he added it to chili, that is no how you cook it.

Personally I'd prefer if regular food not out of the ordinary was listed on the ingredients as well.

[jberryhill]

4. WTF?

If it is legal for human consumption and doesn't raise any particular health concerns relative to other meats (both conditions of which are true), then WTF is the problem here?

It's not as if the chili was going to be kosher or satisfy any particular religious requirement in the first place.

WTF is the problem here?

I have zero clue what was in the pepperoni served on pizza in my high school, nor would I care to know.

[USALiberal]

5. It is not a common meat in the usa, doing it with no notice was the issue. Nt

[Tanuki]

10. Would you say the same if it had been dog meat (assuming it was legal)? I would say the problem is

that some children think of kangaroos as charming animals that they have encountered only in zoos and would be upset to know they had inadvertently eaten one. I am aware that they are eaten as meat in Australia, but dogs are eaten some places in the world and most Americans would be upset to be served one as a meal covertly. I would not want to eat a kangaroo, just as I would not knowingly eat dog, monkey, giraffe, or many other meats if I had a choice to do so if I traveled somewhere where they were on the menu. I would definitely not want unexpected meats to be slipped into my meals and I think that the school children and their parents should have had the same choice. You may find it hypocritical and intellectually inconsistent for a non-vegetarian to object to one meat and not another, but I think it could be traumatizing for a child to know they had eaten certain types of animals that they have not been socialized to think of as appropriate for food.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

27. Oh, come on. Some think of chickens as charming.

And, hold on, some are actually vegetarian and don't like eating animals, but have to be exposed to dead animal flesh in their schools, but nobody gives a shit about that.

As a vegetarian for over 25 years, this is stupid.

[Tanuki]

28. I am sorry you can't disagree without calling me "stupid."

[Iggo]

30. Well, if you think he was calling you stupid and not the idea of kangaroo-meat outrage...

[Tanuki]

31. As he was replying to my post in particular, and not the OP.....

[jberryhill]

54. I think the idea of this person losing their livelihood over it is stupid

C'mon. It's not as if he's going to cook undisclosed meat again. This guy lost his job over what some consider to have been a single instance of questionable judgment, which did no actual harm to anyone. Okay, once bitten twice shy.

Why does EVERYTHING have to be hanging offense.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

33. I didn't call you stupid.

I called "this" stupid. In no sense does the word "this" refer to a person. I meant the uproar about this.

since we are being passive aggressive (for the record, I AM calling you passive aggressive)

[Iggo]

37. Told ya.

[jberryhill]

52. I have no idea whatsoever went into many cafeteria items I ate in K-12

The mystery of not knowing what it might be made of is one of the few alluring aspects of school cafeteria fare.

I certainly had things that we never saw on the table at home (although, to be fair, my mother was an Austrian who spent her early years in this country in North Carolina, so what we ate could range to such oddities as goulash with black-eyed peas).

The thing is, one of the key words in what you said is "knowingly". And here again, my working assumption from the earliest years of grade school up was that it is most probably best not to know what is in school cafeteria fare. It is one of the few propositions where ignorance is indeed bliss.

[Codeine]

6. Arbitrary lists of animals

who are acceptable targets for killing and eating vs those who are unacceptable targets for killing and eating is absurd. For a person to lose their livelihood for it is an offense.

[USALiberal]

7. So dog ok? Cat? Raccon? With no notice to the parentss? Nt

[treestar]

14. Made me wonder who would eat cat

http://www.whateats.com/what-eats-a-cat

Even animals, but there are a few at that link - foxes, coyotes and eagles.

[LanternWaste]

22. Arbitrary lists of underage v. of-age...

seem little different in form or format.

Should you dig deep enough, the entirety of the human condition is predicated on arbitrary lists that we currently and consistently defend as magically necessary.

[DFW]

8. Reminds me of when I was in school in Spain 50 years ago

A friend and I went out to the old town and tried various tapas. we had no idea what calamares were, but they tasted great. We looked it up in the dictionary afterward, and said, oh, OK. Then one day at lunch, we got served "calamares." Everyone thought it was good, but the rest of the class didn't know what "calamares" meant. The few of us who knew waited until all the preppie types had cleaned their plates, and then said, "oh, wait, I know what they're called in English. Squid." About half of them ran to the men's room to barf up their lunch. The non-preppies among us laughed our heads off.

[MineralMan]

11. I used to order squid and chips at a seafood restaurant

near where I lived in California. Tiny squid, lightly battered, fried and served whole, tentacles and all. Yummy stuff. My wife always said, "Ewww..." as she gobbled down her medium-sized arthropods and chips. "Well, dear, you're eating bugs, after all." She stopped saying "Ewww...," but didn't stop ordering shrimp and chips.

[dalton99a]

17. They used to have Italian-style calamari salad at almost Safeway in the Bay Area

Now they have a Thai version

[treestar]

12. It's interesting how psychological it is

I decided to try a soup with snake meat. I could hardly eat it. If I had not known what it was, it would have been fine.

[MineralMan]

18. One summer in California, I worked with a older Mexican immigrant

doing ag work. We were clearing brush one day when we heard a rattlesnake. My co-worker dispatched it with his hoe. Then, he skinned it and cooked it over the small fire he built every day at lunchtime. He shared it with me, and I shared half of my bologna sandwich on white bread with him. I don't remember feeling queasy about eating snake. We traded lunches most days. He liked my mom's bologna sandwiches and I liked the beans his wife sent with him.

Great guy. I learned better Spanish from him and he improved his English that Summer.

[treestar]

20. Es bueno

Very cool! Right from the wild, too!

[MineralMan]

23. He built a fire every day for lunch.

There was a shotgun in the truck we drove around in. It wasn't at all uncommon for him to cook a couple of quail or a rabbit on a stick over that fire. He even cooked gophers and ground squirrels. "Quieres un poco de conejo?" "Do you want a little rabbit?." He always had beans and tortillas. For some reason, though, he loved my white bread sandwiches. That was fine. I was always willing to trade.

He thought I was a funny young Gringo, and was always playing jokes on me. I was a skinny 16-year-old, but never got tired, so I got to do a lot of the physical work. Got to. He was a very nice guy, and as my Spanish improved, we had some good conversations.

[Separation]

24. The cuter the animal is

The less a person wants to eat it as well.

The way meat is packaged has become so sterilized (both literally and figuratively) people no longer think that a living animal is in that vacuum sealed plastic-wrapped package.

Being in the military, I've had to opportunity to travel across the world and eat animal protein that most Americans would recoil in disgust. I'm also a subsistence hunter and provide my family with meat (our only income is my VA disability and Social Security). My wife was not a fan of it in the beginning. She wouldn't eat rabbit, or deer meat because of the cuteness factor of where the meat came from. When she was confronted with how the meat is butchered (me hanging the deer from the garage ceiling), I asked her how this was any different than what the hamburger, pork, or chicken meat that we may buy from time to time. We are very lucky (in some ways) to live in an area that we know exactly where our beef comes from (right down the street where the cow was grazing last week) or where our eggs come from (right in our backyard).

I think if most Americans were confronted with how their food was processed, they would either become a vegetarian or decide to get their animal protein as I do.

[shanti]

34. Cute little guinea pigs

are eaten regularly in Peru. They are called cuy. Don't think it would go over too well in the States though!

[Codeine]

45. You can find it in ethnic markets in Los Angeles.

Meat is meat, right?

[trackfan]

42. This happened with my in-law a few years ago.

We had been with them in restaurants several times where they ordered calamari. One day I made it at home, and they were enjoying it there too. Then, I made the mistake of asking if anyone wanted any more squid. They both got a strange look on their faces, kind of pushed their plates away, and said no. And that was that for calamari for them.

[DFW]

53. Use the Ialian word for food and you have a delicacy. Use English at your peril

You can go the freezer for ice cream or go out for some gelato at three times the price (gelato is Italian for ice cream).

You can order shrimp scampi (scampi is Italian for shrimp).

And, of calamari, which taste MUCH better than squid, right?

[NightWatcher]

9. Sounds like the parents were hopping mad.

Really, no one else went the way of the obvious pun here?

[treestar]

13. Makes me miss pinboyneiner

who would have jumped on that immediately, creating a whole subthread of contributions!

[robbob]

15. We're going to have to send you outback...

[treestar]

21. lol

good one!

[Codeine]

47. Don't be roo'd. nt

[NightWatcher]

55. You had to reach for that one, but it worked.

[WeekiWater]

16. Guess he should have given them a bit of notice.

I think it's a bit comical how we view different meat sources.

[TheBlackAdder]

19. Anyone who ate steak from the 70s-90s ate kangaroo and horse meat multiple times without knowing it.

.

Australia has been shipping this shit to America for decades, under the guise of USDA Beef.

It's almost as bad as all of that mis-branded fish, such as Yellow Fin Tuna, that is being sold around the country.

.

[Ms. Toad]

26. Most of that myth (as to steak) has been debunked. n/t

[TheBlackAdder]

38. No it wasn't. Australia ships thousands of tons to Russia, Europe and Japan each year. US got some.

.

There were shipments that got stopped at the port, because it happened too many times.

Sometimes, meats today are horse meat, if shipped from Europe, including Ikea Swedish meatballs.

.

[Ms. Toad]

39. meatballs are not steak.

Anyone who ate steak from the 70s-90s ate kangaroo and horse meat multiple times without knowing it.

Ground meat (i.e. the kind that is included in meatballs and other things made from ground meat) is harder to track, but even so the problem with boneless meat was never as dramatic as you suggest. And, once the contaminated meat was identified, DNA testing has dramatically reduced even that small occurrence.

Your claim was specific to steak - and any claims related to steak have been debunked. The actual problem was - from anything I am aware of, or could find easily - was always limited to boneless meat.

FWIW, your IKEA example is from 5 years ago, and the meatballs never reached the US, and was recalled overseas when they were found to be contaminated with horsemeat.

Aldi horsemeat false (as to the US)

Wendy's horsemeat - false

[TheBlackAdder]

40. Yeah, I was at the Port Elizabeth Ikea when the recall happened. It was around 20 years ago!

.

The steaks were not debunked - EVER!

And, yes. You can provide links to Aldi and Wendys, but this was back in the 70s-90s before they DNA tested things.

That Ikea one from 5 years ago was another instance.

.

[Ms. Toad]

43. How about a link - both to the stakes and an older IKEA

There's not a hint of anything about IKEA meatballs prior to 2013.

There are referenes to instances of boneless meat in the 80s (which I linked to). They did not (at least in any article I've seen about that contamination) include IKEA or anything other than boneless meat.

I've provided several links debunking the wildly exaggerated rumors about horse and kangaroo meat, and you've just made assetions.

[TheBlackAdder]

44. All your links are recent. I'm talking about stuff that pre-dated public internet.

.

I'm not spending an hour searching for stuff because you say it didn't happen.

.

[Ms. Toad]

48. So the internet is a big black hole, containing no history at all of what occurred

before the late 90s?

The very first link I gave you discusses the 80's contamination - and has no mention of IKEA.

ETA: Here's a link to an abbreviated history of IKEA - it would be extremely uncommon for an article discussing company scandals not to mention an earlier, identical scandal - in addition, none of the articles I've seen reference this being the second such scandal. Reporters are always digging for connections and trends. I find it highly suspicious that there would be two identical recalls in a company history and that none of the articles about the more recent one mention the first one.

[TheBlackAdder]

49. Here's a couple of links. If you wanted to find them, you would have.

.

I can scrounge some more, but I have things to do.

https://books.google.com/books?id=oUUgcV-wr6wC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=1980s+australian+importing+horse+as+beef&source=bl&ots=YNo8i075GF&sig=h5FkiI1wAPjyYhfzd76BPfnVEK8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjw2_aLxJPeAhWEZd8KHRpZBpIQ6AEwCXoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=1980s%20australian%20importing%20horse%20as%20beef&f=false

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/skippy-meat-scandal-became-global-joke-20121117-29jp2.html

.

[SoCalNative]

56. I've had horse meat before

If I would have gotten that instead of a regular steak I would have known the difference.

[Ms. Toad]

25. Seems a bit harsh.

All meat comes from dead animals. Aside from companion animals (which kangaroos are not), I don't see any moral reason to notify regarding the source of the meat. I can't think of a health reason to make a general announcement - but the ingredient list should be available to anyone who asks to confirm it will not conflict wtih dietary restrictions. (E.g. my daughter would have asked about the source of the meat, as she does with all meat not obvious from the cut because poultry sets off her ulcerative colitis and she knows not to eat any mystery meat without confirming that the animal from which it came did not have wings.)

That issue, aside, he spent $9/pound on the meat. When I was in school in Nebraska, $9/lb would not have been in the budget for chili meat . . . so I wonder if there isn't more to the story.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

29. Here's a picture of the cook:

[JCMach1]

32. Seems harsh, kangaroo is tasty and nutritious

Should be sentenced to hop around the kitchen 3 times and recite 30 times, thou shalt not serve marsupials without permission...

[Takket]

35. People should know what they are being served

But firing someone for this is stupid. There was no risk to any of the students.

[kwassa]

36. Tie me kangaroo down, sport.

So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde, and that's it hanging on the shed.

Altogether now!

[GulfCoast66]

41. No shit. I was served mystery meat my entire school life.

It was sure no beef, pork or chicken I had ever had.

Of course, being from Louisiana the list of meats I eat is way longer that the list of those I don’t!

[dembotoz]

46. Now working at ihop

[xmas74]

50. Schools are required to list the ingredients

In case of an allergy or for religious reasons. If he's added this what else has he added to menu items, without listing it? It could be something that causes a serious allergy.

It's not as though this was a leftover in the walk in. He had to bring this in to cook. What conditions was it processed, stored, etc?

[saidsimplesimon]

51. In America it is wild horses on the menu.

[Major Nikon]

57. Parts is parts