If you love eating meat as much as I do, keep reading! In this article I am going to share with you one of my favourite discoveries in Japan…. The Meat Guy!! I will let you know now I am not affiliated with The Meat Guy in anyway. I just love their product; their service and I want to help anyone that does not yet know about these guys.
When I first arrived here, 12 long years ago the first thing that shocked me was the “oven”. It was a microwave oven and a tiny one pan stove. I remember asking “so where is the oven” I laugh to myself because I remember my friend had such a confused look on her face. I then quickly discovered I couldn’t find good meat or should I say “normal size” meat. Also, the selection was very small. I came to terms with it and adjusted my cooking style to suit the food that was available and learn Japanese cooking methods.
A month or so later was Christmas time and being from the UK, I love cooking Christmas day lunch and dinner! Now Christmas in Japan is a strange time because it is just an event here.
In true Japanese style the decorations were stunning, they even had the classic Christmas songs on in every shop. All this made me feel slightly homesick and I needed comfort food! I looked everywhere for a whole chicken and at that time I could not find one. Nowadays there are a lot of places that sell whole chickens and supermarkets have a much bigger selection of meats and of course Costco but I have to say Costco meat seems expensive to me and at the time I wasn’t a member or even knew about it. Also, it seems to be the usual beef, pork, chicken.
So, what was I to do…? I scoured the internet and found The Meat Guy! I remember thinking to myself this cant be true… I was reading the site, looking through the amazing selection of meats as well as other foods thinking to myself “this is awesome” my Christmas is saved!! One thing I remember being so impressed with was the cooking guides, videos, meat storage and thawing guidelines etc. That Christmas I ordered a whole chicken, it arrived frozen (of course) the postage was extremely fast and a very fair price.
Fast forwarding 11 years I recently came across Kangaroo meat on The Meat Guy website. I was very interested in this and read up about it on the internet. To my surprise it is a very healthy meat and honestly, really yummy!! I ordered a Kangaroo striploin steak, Kangaroo mince and Kangaroo Rump steak. Here is a photo of the Kangaroo mince defrosted
My first impression was “wow”! it is so red!! I thought this will be interesting! So, I have decided to share with you my recipe for “The Ultimate ROO burger” The Meat Guy do sell Kangaroo patties already made up so if you don’t have time to put them together yourself, fear not!
Here is a link directly to the kangaroo mince: https://www.themeatguy.jp/en/d006.html
THE ULTIMATE ROO BURGER
Ingredients:
(For the burger)
500g Kangaroo mince
Tbsp of Chimichurri dry rub (you can make it yourself) go online and search for it.
Shallot (or small onion)
Panko / breadcrumbs
Tbsp milk
- Add the finely chopped onion, panko, milk and dry rub to the ROO mince and mix together well.
Grab an amount of the mixture that suits your meaty needs and press together to a lovely shaped pattie. Not too thick as ROO meat can be dry if over cooked. Place them in the fridge covered in cling film and let them absorb all the dry rub flavours. I left mine in the fridge for 2-4 hours.
Cooking method:
Once you are ready to cook these burgers take them out of the fridge and place them into the hot frying pan. I put a thumb dent into the middle of the burger (facing up) it helps with even cooking. Turn once cooked and cook again. Be carful here because ROO meat can be dry very easily if cooked to long so if your burgers are thin, it shouldn’t be an issue, but if they are chunky, I would have the oven on just in case.
Once seared all over you should use a temp gauge to see what the internal temp is. They should be 71 degrees Fahrenheit or above but not below. These are made up from ground meat, so it is not the same as a steak!
If the internal temp has not reached 71 degrees Fahrenheit place them in the oven for 5 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius or gas mark 4 checking the internal temp every 2 minutes. Trust me on this, they can heat up quickly in the oven and if you leave them too long, they will be dry! Once cooked properly you can place one in your choice of bun with cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo! I served mine with simple pan-fried potatoes.
Pros of “The Meat Guy”
English speaking support via email
Very fair delivery cost
Amazing choice
Website has language choice of English and Japanese
Various payment methods
Wholesale for business available
Safety and handling advice
Thawing advice
Cons of The Meat Guy
None!
Please do check out their website if you haven’t already. You can read more about them and what they sell.