I became an Australian citizen in the middle of last year. Near the end of the citizenship ceremony, someone from the stage shouted out loud “Aussie Aussie Aussie” and most people (over 1000) in the audience seats shouted back saying “Oi Oi Oi”, except for me of course.
I looked around and thought ‘what monkey noise is this??? Huh???’ I really didn’t know what was going on. The next day, I told my colleague about my citizenship ceremony and at the end of the conversation she shouted to me “Aussie Aussie Aussie”. I looked at her with a very puzzled face and said “What was that for? I think I heard the very same thing yesterday. Crowds of people made a very weird monkey noise too.” At my response, she burst out loud with laughter and then she explained to me what was going on. She told me that I was supposed to respond back by saying “Oi Oi Oi” at the ceremony and to herself. Because that’s what TRUE AUSTRALIANS are supposed to say when they were called upon!
Today is my first Australia day (26th January) as an Australia citizen. One of the popular activities Aussies do on this day is having a BBQ with family and friends. So I wanted to come up with a recipe that is something Australian and Korean, then Kangaroo meat bulgogi came up as an idea.
I didn’t know until I came to Australia 6 years ago that you can actually eat Kangaroo. You might also think ‘What!!??’ I thought it is a very cruel thing to do. Why on earth do you eat Kangaroo? Aren’t they like a pet? Apparently they are a very healthy meat with a very little fat. But still, I have to say I am not very comfortable having Kangaroo meat. What is more it was even harder for me to convince my little sister visiting Australia for a holiday and who recently got acquainted with Kangaroos at Australia zoo to join me at this BBQ party.
Anyway, I still wanted to give it a go but I only made a small quantity of Kangaroo meat bulgogi on an experimental basis. I also separately prepared Beef bulgogi for the majority of the BBQ party needs.
The recipe below is revised from my beef bulgogi recipe to accommodate the different nature of the Kangaroo meat – tough, low fat and known to have stronger smell than other types of red meat.
I was very nervous to taste the Kangaroo meat bulgogi, but more like I was scared. So I asked Michael and my two sisters to taste it first (Cheeky me 
). To our surprise, the bulgogi was so delicious!!! It wasn’t tough nor gamey like most people say. It was so tender even though we cooked it for about 5 minutes on the BBQ (recommended cooking time is about 1 minute for each side). It tasted like boneless Pork Galbi if you know what it tastes like. I hope you get to try my recipe. I highly recommend this. Happy cooking!
Ingredients for 2-3 people
- Thinly sliced Kangaroo meat rump 500g
- A dash of sesame oil
- 5 dried olive leaves
(Top left) Frozen kangaroo meat block (Bottom right) Thinly sliced Kangaroo meat
Marinade Sauce
- 4 ½ tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 2 tbsp rice wine
- 40g grated onion
- ½ grated apple (60g) – I used royal gala apple, very juicy and crispy! Love it!!
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 5g minced ginger
- 10 whole black peppers
Step
1. Mix the marinade sauce well in a bowl. (I used my Vitamax to blend all. It’s very handy!)
2. Rinse the meat in cold water and lightly wipe the water/blood with kitchen paper.
3. Put the meat into the sealable container and add the sauce on the meat, mix them thoroughly.
4. Put the olive leaves on top of the meat, close the lid and leave it for 30 mins at room temperature.
5. Move it to the fridge and marinate overnight. (For your information, I marinated mine for about 32 hours wishing Kangaroo meat to be extra soft and tastier!)
6. Leave the meat out for 30 mins before cooking, add a dash of sesame oil and mix well.
(32 hrs marinated Kangaroo Meat)
7. Cook the meat on a BBQ.
8. Enjoy!
Note:
- I was only able to get the Kangaroo rump meat; however, it would be ideal if you could get striploin (sirloin) for bulgogi purpose.
- I bought my meat from a bucher at Kelvin Grove Market for AUD$15 for 1.34kg. It was packaged by Naturoo.
- I read that as Kangaroo meat is low fat and tougher than other types of meat, it is recommended to cook it to no more than medium rare. However as I explained earlier, we cooked it close to well done and it was still very tender and delicious! Being in the marinade helped keep it tender.
Fat comparison: (Top) Kangaroo meat (Bottom) Beef Bulgogi meat
Additionally:-
If you like, you can read more about “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi” or Kangaroo meat from Wikipedia and Nutritional benefits of Kangaroo meat from answers.com.
Also below links are interesting magazine and new articles about the Kangaroo meat, which might highlight the controversy of eating Kangaroo meat.
Kangaroo: It’s What’s For Dinner (Thursday, Apr. 30, 2009, Times)
Why You Can (and Should) Eat Kangaroo (Aug 31, 2010, Esquire)
Your pictures are beautiful!
[...] and most people (over 1000) in the audience seats shouted back saying “Oi Oi Oi”, except Read More… Published Saturday, January 26, 2013 3:27 AM by My Korean Kitchen Filed under: red meat, Food and [...]