Adventurous Diners Are Enjoying Emu, Ostrich, Kangaroo, And Other Unusual Meats

How could anybody eat one?

You wonder that the first time you see an emu, a long-legged, floppy-feathered bird that can't fly and hovers somewhere between cute and ugly.

But adventurous Seattle-area diners are eating emu - and liking it.

A growing number of local restaurants and a few markets offer this and other offbeat meats - ostrich, kangaroo, venison, buffalo and more.

To meet some emu first hand, we visited the Bothell-area emu ranch of Dave and Linda Olson, home to nearly 300 of these ostrich-like birds with the inquiring E.T. eyes.

The experience yielded this tip should you ever wander into a crowd of emus: Hide your spiral-bound notebook. One of them is sure to try to snatch the shiny metal spiral out of your hand with its big beak. Same with your belt buckle or other sparkling attractions.

Emus, native to Australia, aren't unfriendly - just curious, assured the Olsons, who sell their Heart Smart emu meat both retail and to restaurants.

Emu offers solace to red-meat lovers who've cut down on beef because of the fat - but miss it. Emu meat is red and beef-like in taste but about as low-fat as skinless chicken breast.

The fat in 3.5 ounces of meat, uncooked: Just 1.7 grams in emu thigh vs. 14 grams in untrimmed beef bottom round or 6.4 grams in the fat-trimmed beef cut. (The emu figure is from the industry, the beef figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.)

Big bird

Ostrich, emu's larger cousin from Africa, has similar meat qualities. Opinions differ as to which of the two has the stronger flavor. Seattle Times tasters thought emu had a milder taste, but liked both when they were prepared in The Times' test kitchen. Ground emu didn't go over as well, although it was served without the condiments that usually accompany ground meat. Emu sausage won approval.

You'll pay a pretty price to satisfy your curiosity about either emu or ostrich. At one local outlet emu steak was $17.99 a pound and ostrich steak $13.99 a pound. At the Olsons, emu fan filet goes for $13.20 a pound, and emu roast $9.15 a pound. They also have emu sausage and ground meat.

Shoppers found ostrich too pricey when Larry's Markets offered the meat for a time last year, said spokesman Larry Andrews. "It simply did not work," and the stores dropped the product.

It's fared better in restaurants; perhaps people are willing to spend more when they eat out. Washington has 60 to 100 restaurants serving ostrich - a high number per capita compared with most states, says Antonia Valentini of Valentini Ostrich Ranch in Arlington, an ostrich processor and distributor.

Washington also has more ostrich growers than you might expect - close to 200 by one estimate, with the number of birds at each ranging from a handful to several hundred. Nationally, there are about 5,000 growers.

Emu on the menu

Emu is newer here and less well-known, but both of the big birds, members of the flightless ratite family, have their loyalists in the kitchen.

"The fine thing about emu is, No. 1, it sells," says Chef Gregory Epstein of The Cloud Room restaurant in Seattle. "I've roasted it and put it on a jalapeno bagel with alfalfa sprouts, Swiss cheese and avocado. It sold. It was terrific." He's sampled ostrich, but likes emu better.

Chef Laurel Davis of Emory's Lakehouse in Everett has ostrich on the menu and will soon introduce emu, which she thinks tastes beefier. She plans a mixed grill of emu sausage, venison chop and kangaroo medallion.

Ostrich gets the vote of John Howie III, senior executive chef at Palisade Waterfront Restaurant in Magnolia. "It's a red meat that I think eats like filet mignon," he says.

The chefs prepare it various ways, such as lightly seasoned, flash-seared on a flat-top grill, then served over a barley-porcini risotto.

One of the most popular appetizers at the Top of the Inn restaurant near Seatle-Tacoma International Airport, says chef John Fisher, is a skewer of ostrich meat, kangaroo steak and venison chop served over couscous with fruit salsa.

Fisher has long experimented with unusual meats, including kangaroo, another low-fat red meat that tastes something like beef but is sweeter to some palates.

In their native Australia emus aren't a menu item for most of the population but they are a traditional meat of the aborigines said Olson.

Ungainly but fast

The Olsons clearly adore their emus, which crowd around anyone who walks among them, pecking curiously at any bright objects. Adult birds can weigh up to 150 pounds but usually top out at about 125. They stand 5 or 6 feet tall when their curved necks are outstretched.

They're ungainly - a bundle of drooping feathers atop long, skinny legs and three-toed feet - but they can make tracks when they've a mind to, accelerating to 30 miles an hour in 4 seconds.

Stranger still are their sounds: guttural grunts from the males and a low-pitched, beating sound from the females, calling to mind distant jungle drums.

The Olsons didn't start out to raise emus commercially. They've long loved exotic animals, and on their carefully tended 18 acres of meadows and woods they keep alpacas, miniature deer, miniature donkeys, white peacocks and guinea hens.

They first acquired emus for their oddness, then began to breed them for sale - as breeding pairs or for their meat, feathers, hides and the thick layer of fat that forms across the emu's back and is used in cosmetics.

Despite that fat layer, there's almost no fat in the meat itself, increasing its health appeal.

Green eggs

There's even a market for the deep-green eggshells, about the size of an oval grapefruit and prized by egg decorators.

Don Pringle, who distributes emu, ostrich and other alternative meats though his Marysville company, DFS National, contends the two large birds are more environmentally benign than conventional meats because they require fewer resources to raise. They're also given no hormones.

"I'm looking for food sources that are healthy and environmentally sound. That's my passion," he says.

A breeding pair of emus used to fetch about $30,000, but their increased numbers have reduced the price to $4,000 or $5,000 dollars, Linda Olson said.

Rising availability should eventually lower the meat prices for both emu and ostrich, say those in the business. And that, they're convinced, will put these birds on more American plates.