First, catch your cane toad...


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i'll eat almost anything, at least once. i will not eat cane toad. 

The Glamorous Australian Guide to Eating Invasive Species

An edgy new cookbook has recipes for camel, cane toad, and feral cat.

by Anne Ewbank

May 22, 2019

 

Many of Eat the Problem's recipes are monochromatic, such as this dark take on river trout. All photos courtesy Mona Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

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When my high-school biology teacher rolled in a TV trolley one afternoon, we had no idea that instead of an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy, we were about to watch Cane Toads: An Unnatural History, a surprisingly well known documentary about invasive cane toads in Australia. Imported from Hawaii to curb a beetle devouring sugar cane in Queensland, the toads procreated furiously, polished off native bugs, and poisoned other animals that tried to eat them. After all, cane toads are toxic.

Nevertheless, a new Tasmanian cookbook contains a recipe for sweet-and-sour cane toad legs. Its name, Eat the Problem, announces its straightforward solution to invasive species, and the cookbook consists of 500-plus pages of essays, art, and recipes whose star ingredient is a plant or animal overtaking ecosystems in Australia and around the world.

On the left, sweet and sour cane toad. On the right, rabbit saddle.

The project is a brainchild of Kirsha Kaechele, an American artist and curator. Kaechele was inspired by the enormous nutria rodents laying waste to New Orleans, which locals have tried to hunt and eat into submission. The volume was released in March by Tasmania’s edgy Museum of Old and New Art. (The owner, David Walsh, is Kaechele’s husband.) On its rainbow-hued pages, chefs apply their talents to invasive plants and animals. Chef Dominique Crenn takes on wakame, a type of invasive seaweed, by applying it to root vegetables, and Philippe Parola of New Orleans contributes a recipe for Asian carp amandine. Along with lustrous photography and recipes, the pages are filled with art and offbeat musings from a host of contributors on food, history, and the natural world.

A literal spread of possum, salt-baked vegetables, hazelnuts, and wild rice.

The point of the book, writes Kaechele in a foreword interview, is to glamorize the devouring of invasive animals and plants—she also describes an earlier attempt to pitch nutria fur to fashion houses. Many recipes are accordingly glam both in ingredients and technique. Not all of the recipes in Eat the Problem, which is as much art book as cookbook, are advisable to make, such as whole roasted camel (Australia has a feral camel problem) and hemlock cocktail. While the recipe for cane toad uses only the legs, which lack toxic glands, it also comes with a note from a chemistry professor warning against eating “any amount.” Recipes for feral cat (“Tasmanian-style,” and in tamales) push the envelope of social acceptability, although it’s undeniable that cats threaten Australian wildlife and have hunted many native species to extinction. Since people cause so much destruction worldwide, a recipe for human, cooked with garlic cloves and bay leaves, is also included.

A recipe for prickly pear fruit margarita (the plants once almost consumed Queensland and New South Wales).

Human is not on the menu at upcoming Eat the Problem events at MONA, which range from Sunday lunches to smaller tastings. With monochromatic, invasive-species courses served atop the world’s largest glockenspiel, the meals do not come cheap. Neither does the book itself, which lists at a luxe $277.77. Proceeds from book sales, though, help fund Kaechele’s kitchen-garden program for schools in Tasmania and New Orleans, appropriately called 24 Carrot.

Pheasant with onion cream, wild fennel, and pollen.

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23 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

again, don't understand why the pics did not copy over. shame as there were some excellent ones. 

You have to save and upload the pics separately, Ken. Then insert them into the post. They won't copy & paste like text.  

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Just now, MoeFOH said:

You have to save and upload the pics separately, Ken. Then insert them into the post. They won't copy & paste as such. 

thanks. odd - sometimes they come up without a problem and other times, not so. 

so, looks like we are proceeding sans pics then. that is all too difficult. 

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43 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

thanks. odd - sometimes they come up without a problem and other times, not so. 

so, looks like we are proceeding sans pics then. that is all too difficult. 

Ken we'll have to get you into an apple store to do a beginner class with the oldies

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Just now, bayala said:

Ken we'll have to get you into an apple store to do a beginner class with the oldies

ben, i am assuming that such a class is in some way relevant to the disappearing photos but i have no earthly idea how. 

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Just now, Ken Gargett said:

ben, i am assuming that such a class is in some way relevant to the disappearing photos but i have no earthly idea how. 

How to use your phone and laptop 101

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15 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

i don't have an apple laptop. your old man tried to get me on one years ago, or someone did, and it was a disaster. 

I converted my since past Father to an IMac after my mom past away in 2012 and it took him a few weeks to get the hang of it, but he was 86.

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3 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

When my high-school biology teacher rolled in a TV trolley one afternoon, we had no idea that instead of an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy, we were about to watch Cane Toads: An Unnatural History, a surprisingly well known documentary about invasive cane toads in Australia. Imported from Hawaii to curb a beetle devouring sugar cane in Queensland, the toads procreated furiously, polished off native bugs, and poisoned other animals that tried to eat them. After all, cane toads are toxic.

I have fond memories of that documentary, Cane Toads: An Unnatural History. !! :rotfl:I remember watching this back in my Uni days, with my house mates, and rolling around on the floor laughing at the guy swerving all around the road trying to pop the toads, the guy who was drying out cane toad skins and smoking them to get high, and the old couple of completely wacky North Queenslanders sitting on their back porch explaining how they loved the sound of the cane toads mating at night. I think that at least part of its appeal was the way it unintentionally became a very funny mockumentary on North Queenslanders.

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6 hours ago, MoeFOH said:

You have to save and upload the pics separately, Ken. Then insert them into the post. They won't copy & paste like text.  

No, you don't.... well, not always. I just pull up the article, copy and paste the text, then copy and paste the pics individually. If an error pops up, then I save the pic and upload manually.

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7 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

No, you don't.... well, not always. I just pull up the article, copy and paste the text, then copy and paste the pics individually. If an error pops up, then I save the pic and upload manually.

ta Fuzz. well done.

perhaps you could offer to give Ben those lessons he was bandying about so cavalierly. 

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And "bandying about so cavalierly" wins today's Phrase of the Day comp. Well done Mr G. your prize will be lost in the mail.

Sent from 47171 Lempo 

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9 minutes ago, Akela3rd said:

And "bandying about so cavalierly" wins today's Phrase of the Day comp. Well done Mr G. your prize will be lost in the mail.emoji119.pngemoji119.pngemoji119.png

Sent from 47171 Lempo 
 

many thanks. it seemed apt.

i've been on this damn forum since day dot and never won a thing. way back in the first year or two, rob used to hold an annual awards dinner.

i supposedly won best member or something - there were not many members back then. for which the prize was a silver cigar rester thingee. i looked at him and said that he surely remembered selling me one of those last week. after a moment, he did remember. promptly announced that i would not be needing it (i have guests - they could have used it) and nominated someone else for the award.

on that occasion, it was i who was most cavalierly bandied about! 

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Fully in favour of eating our way out of invasive species problems.

It drives me nuts that there are Invasive species in the UK like the Chinese Mitten Crab, that apparently cant be sold because it's not the "standard faire".   It's utter nonsense, people need to grow up. 

I remember seeing a news piece about a fish and chip shop in the UK that got into trouble for selling Talapia as Cod.   One of the locals was disgusted, and said something to the effect "I don't want to eat some ugly alien fish"......they asked her "what do you think a Cod looks like".....she was stumped.   Anyway they pulled out a full Cod out of the fridge, and she ran screaming from the shop.   God knows what she thought they looked like.   some headless, boneless, tail less fillet fish, that just floats through the Bering sea

Sadly we just need to blend up all of these invasive species, and turn them into deep fried nuggets.......as it seems to be the only form of food many in the UK will give the thumbs up to

All of this said,  there is a guy called 'Crayfish Bob' who runs a pop up restaurant selling American Crayfish hauled out of the Thames............errrr!??  I'll pass

http://crayfishbob.co.uk/

 

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7 hours ago, 99call said:

All of this said,  there is a guy called 'Crayfish Bob' who runs a pop up restaurant selling American Crayfish hauled out of the Thames............errrr!??  I'll pass

http://crayfishbob.co.uk/

 

Why? Crawfish, Crayfish, Crawdads etc... are fantastic. They are a classic ingredient in many Creole/Cajun dishes (etouffee, gumbo, jambalaya, etc...). Or simply a crawfish boil which is great fun as well as delicious (which is what I believe Bob here is doing).
And from what I know the Thames is very clean.

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3 minutes ago, BoliDan said:

And from what I know the Thames is very clean.

Maybe the part of the Thames thats out in the countryside, but I think part of the original social media buzz about 'crayfishbobs' pop up restaurant. was that he'd actually fished out of the Thames running through London!!.     I love crawfish, but not one's fed on babies nappies, and hyperdermic needles!

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14 hours ago, Fuzz said:

No, you don't.... well, not always. I just pull up the article, copy and paste the text, then copy and paste the pics individually. If an error pops up, then I save the pic and upload manually.

Thanks, Fuzz. Didn't realise that. I don't repost many articles, but always had issues with the images when I tried copy & pasting. Found saving them was the only sure method. 

Sorry for the bum steer, @Ken Gargett. That said, not a great deal of difference and either method means a bit more work.  

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12 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

i've been on this damn forum since day dot and never won a thing. way back in the first year or two, rob used to hold an annual awards dinner.

i supposedly won best member or something - there were not many members back then. for which the prize was a silver cigar rester thingee. i looked at him and said that he surely remembered selling me one of those last week. after a moment, he did remember. promptly announced that i would not be needing it (i have guests - they could have used it) and nominated someone else for the award.

I suspect payback for the crystal ashtray incident......

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Just now, Colt45 said:

I suspect payback for the crystal ashtray incident......

oh, it was not crystal. honestly, looked like some dodgy havana flea-market souvenir. and that was after i was unawarded as well. and his employee and relative directed me to it. 

talk about the weight of the world. 

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11 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

oh, it was not crystal. honestly, looked like some dodgy havana flea-market souvenir.

Kind of like the humidor he unloaded on you.

11 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

and his employee and relative directed me to it.

Mini-smithy was the best!

11 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

talk about the weight of the world. 

Heavy is the head what wears the crown  :jester:

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16 minutes ago, Colt45 said:

Kind of like the humidor he unloaded on you.

Mini-smithy was the best!

Heavy is the head what wears the crown  :jester:

that humidor!! what a disaster. when it went belly-up, it soaked a box of cohiba LE DCs from 2003, the cohiba special release box with those 30 mixed cigars and another that escapes me. that was way back when i could afford cigars in this country. 

and mini-smithy is greatly missed. i still get the giggles every time i think about him selling box No 1 of whatever special releases they were, by accident. 

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