Ever since, wild meat has only been popular in extreme food shows such as Andrew Zimmern’s World’s Most Exotic Food and the likes. Restaurant menus has dominated by people’s beloved cuts of steak and countless food iterations of the chicken breast.
However today, more people are becoming more adventerous and restaurants getting out of mainstream in its quest to become unique.
And you’ll hear a different story: From five-star restaurant serving ostrich filets to lowly fastfood restaurant serving kangaroo burgers, alternative-meats are now becoming popular in restaurants around the country due to its taste that will make you forget about beef.
1.) Venison (deer meat)
A very low fat meat with tons of nutrients make venison the best alternative for beef eaters. This wildmeat can also be cooked the same way as beef—venison or deer meat most commonly makes appearances in the form of steak, rare-seared braise and eveb ground-up meat for burgers. The taste varies depending on the deer’s diet and can range from tasting eerily like a filet mignon to having a pronounced gamy flavor.
2.) Wild Boar
Basically a wild, free-roaming version of a domesticated pig, wild boar meat is has darker color and nuttier in flavor but packed with nutrients (especially iron) than your everyday pork chop. Don’t be fooled by how lean it is though—provided they’re not being cooked past medium, cuts of boar can be treated exactly the same as their porcine counterparts.
3.) Ostrich
This flightless cumbersome bird might obviously classified under the poultry meat category, but has surprisingly rich and sweet flavor of its meat bears a strong resemblance to an extravagant cut of premium beef. Moreover, ostrich meat has very less fats than the chicken breasts you’ve been buying typically at the grocery store, providing the best of both worlds. You’ll most commonly find ostrich meat sold in fillets or even ground.
4.) Rabbit
You might remember the rabbit as your cute cuddly childhood pet or favorite cartoon character, but hear us out on this one.
It used to be a mainstay of European cuisine, rabbit meat is similar in flavor to the chicken but with leaner and darker meat. On restaurant menus, you’ll usually find this little fellow roasted or braised.
5.) Pigeon
Pigeon or dove, this plump bird, once considered a high-end delicacy in the ancient times, particularly with the Greeks. It has been making its way to more casual restaurant menus as an equally affordable alternative to chicken but organic and thus healthier. And doves can be prepared in the exact same manner, its flavor is often described as being an “extra-chickeny” chicken (not a scientific term).
