Australian Hotel Lets Guests Cook, Eat Kangaroo

An Australian hotel is treating guests to an unusual, interactive BBQ experience — cooking kangaroo.

Guests at the Ayers Rock Resort, located in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, in Australia’s Northern Territory, not only get to enjoy dining on kangaroo meat, but they have the opportunity to cook it themselves first. At the property’s Pioneer BBQ and Bar, guests can select cuts of fish or meat, including that of a kangaroo, before grilling it.

Recently, travel writer Will McGough described the experience on HotelChatter, explaining that “those of you who try kangaroo meat will find it to be very lean, much like venison here in the States. Because the Ayers Rock Resort is isolated in the outback, we found the laid-back atmosphere of grilling our own meat while chatting up fellow guests to be a nice touch, one that captured the vibe of bunking up in the bush.”

Travelers should not feel like the cliché “when in Rome…” applies here. Kangaroo meat, which is low in fat and high in protein, is a byproduct of animal-population-control efforts, and while Australia’s Chinese population enjoys devouring the tail and sometimes steak, most Australians refuse to eat the animal, according BBC News. In fact, the country exports more than 70 percent of its kangaroo meat, and Chinatown is one of Sydney’s few places where people can buy it.

Nonetheless, several years back, a Sydney group of kangaroo — or rather, kangaroo meat — enthusiasts were eager to promote a diet consisting of the animal and vegetables only, according to The Telegraph. While the diet’s name originated as a joke, “kangatarianism” slowly percolated into the Australian lexicon.

[Photo: iStock]