interesting meat.

[smilingcat]

We don't eat much meat. What we do consume tends to be turkey cause its cheap, chicken well its chicken. And occasional salmon. Hay, we live in PNW now and its a regional thing. We do the local things ya know.

We don't eat beef. Instead, we normally have buffalo meat when its available. Avoid, drugged bovine, corn fed bovine... We went to buy some buffalo meat but the purveyor at the open air market (local farmers) didn't carry. Instead, they carried yak meat.

Have you every tried yak? not sure what it looked like either. So we googled. They are listed as vulnerable in conservation status. OMG!! well the vulnerable status is for wild yak not for domesticated yak.

It was good eats. very lean. very tender... better than hormone, anti-biotic, chemical beef.

Cute animals... I think we'll stick with buffalo, turkey, chicken and fish.

[Owlie]

Yak?! That's a new one. There's a massive...I hesitate to call it a grocery store, because that doesn't do it justice...food-based tourist attraction near my hometown that has everything from beef and chicken to kangaroo and camel. I don't think I've ever seen yak, though.

(And I don't think I could eat a kangaroo.)

[grey]

I won't eat any of it, being vegetarian and all. :-D
all joking aside, yak is a new one on me!

[rubysoho]

edited because I wasn't reading for comprehension...

Yak is new to me! How cool that you have producers nearby with such a variety. I buy beef from a local farer who has an open door policy to his farm. The family he uses to process the meat would also let me watch start to finish if I wanted.

[OakLeaf]

Interesting! I've never heard of that either.

Only, I wouldn't count on any meat being pasture raised and hormone and antibiotic free just on account of its species. The Alberta industry association recommends feedlot finishing of bison, and there was a recall of CAFO bison just last year. (And there's nothing that I know of that's environmentally or nutritionally wrong with occasional consumption of local, pasture-finished, hormone-free beef.) Know yer grower ...

[MomOnBike]

I've had it. A family friend raises the critters. The time we had it, it was pretty good. Richer, to my taste, than beef. I don't think I'll go out of my way to buy it, but if our friend brings more over for us, I'll help with the eating.

[gnat23]

I've tried camel, but not yak. Now I'm curious, tho...

-- gnat! (I just learned to make sausage, too, so maybe YAK LINKS!)

[sempronialou]

You can try all sorts of exotic meats from this place: http://www.exoticmeatsandmore.com/

We had ostrich burgers at restaurant a few years ago, and it was very good. Sadly they stopped serving them and only have buffalo burgers now.

[Velocivixen]

I live in Beaverton, so where did you find yak?

[Brandi]

I have never tried yak. SOmeone offered us snake a couple weeks ago. I couldn't do it. I have a hard enough time with weird food as it is. Still going to do my month long experiment on cooking nothing but Indian food though.

[smilingcat]

Hi Velci,

We normally go to the open air market on Saturday in Hollywood area. 43rd SE between Sandy and Halsey. There is an organic/holistic butcher.

Yak is in the same genus as cow so its very close to beef. Whereas true American buffalo, Bison belongs to a different genus of Bison. A lot of bison have cross bred with European cattle so if you look into bison information, its a hot topic. Anyway, Bison meat does taste different than beef or yak meat. More gamey.

We didn't try yak just to say we eat exotic meat. But rather we want to stay away from CAFO/grass finished animals. The bison meat came from a rancher near Reno Nevada. His herd are range raised on 100+ acre. We had an invite to visit his operation.

The yak came from an organic/holistically raised farm.

Thanks Oak. Scary to find that Bison being treated just like steers. That is horrible.

If I learned anything from raising our own chicken is that, chickens do have feelings. They get mad, they get happy/excited, and they get sad/depressed. It's not a way to raise an animal in CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feed Operation). Or to raise chicken in battery cages.

We do notice the superior taste of the meat when it is free ranged or raised in more natural manner. Because of this we use far less meat for our dishes so it makes up for the premium price we pay for the privilege of having more holistically raised animals.

[Owlie]

DBF says rattlesnake was actually pretty good. We also had fried alligator in New Orleans. It wasn't bad, just weird--it has the texture of chicken, but tastes vaguely fishy.

[OakLeaf]

Yeah, I don't much like 'gator. But everyone thinks they have to try it when they visit Florida for the first time. Never had any kind of snake.

[wackyjacky1]

Yak Links...

[bmccasland]

Alligator andouille sausage is very good. Especially in gumbo. I may have to order some from a grocery store in New Orleans.

Have had rattlesnake (fried) too. Reminded me of something between fried chicken and fried clams.

I used to work for a southwestern state natural resource agency (game & fish), so have had: javelina (a piggie like critter that's acutally in the rhino family), bear, mountain lion, and deer meat (venison).
Growing up have had: squirrel, rabbit, snapping turtle, caribou, and mountain goat (Dad and various uncles were hunters). The snapping turtle made the fatal error of attacking Dad's fishing line, but good meat is not allowed to go to waste.
Lived in an Indian Reservation in Arizona: elk, and antelope. Elk is stronger flavored, makes great stroganoff, not so good in Chinese food.

I'd eat any of it again.
Should I also list ducks, dove, quail, and wild turkey? Did I mention that Dad and various uncles were hunters?