Good Food Blog
Big bird
Posted at 11:30AM, 17 October 2008 by Graham Holliday - Blogger
We've blogged about big food before. And today, it appears there's a new contender on the block. News just in from a food festival in Tehran tells us that today Iranian cooks will attempt to create the world's largest ostrich sandwich. The record breaking bid is an attempt to help the burgeoning ostrich farming industry in the Islamic Republic and to promote healthy eating.
Observers from Guinness World Records will be present to watch them try to smash the existing record of 1,378 metres, the Iranian news agency ILNA reported. More than 1,500 people will participate in the attempt, which will start before dawn and is scheduled to be completed - appropriately - by lunchtime.
The cooks will use 1,000kg of ostrich meat to make the corker sandwich
The cooks will use 1,000kg of ostrich meat to make the corker sandwich although it's not clear quite how many it will feed. The belief is that ostrich meat is far less fatty than the chicken, beef, lamb and camel commonly consumed in the largely meat based diet of Iranians.
Ostrich has been compared to a very good fillet steak and it's not too uncommon to find a British restaurant serving meat from the world's largest fowl. Also there are plenty of suppliers who are more than willing to sell you ostrich, along with many other exotic meats, but, what exactly - beyond a sandwich - can you do with ostrich meat?
It is a famously lean meat and the Alternative meats site suggests we simply pan fry in olive oil, but bloggers have a different take. Fraser, the A-Z meat eater on Word of Mouth had a bash at ostrich combined with octopus while Rosa eats it raw as an Ostrich Tartare. But I think the No Nice Time blog comes up with the best thus far, Ostrich fillet with braised endives although he does have a warning,
"The flavor and texture is similar to beef but it does have a slight gamy aftertaste. It's versatile like beef and I don't see why it couldn't be subsituted for beef in most dishes. You do have to show caution when preparing ostrich though because it doesn't cook like beef."
Good luck to the Iranian chefs today and if you have an ostrich recipe you'd like to share, I'd love to hear it.
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