"When you eat steak, you're eating blood, you're eating blood vessels.Some people can identify a defining moment in their childhood - an incident that brings an idea to mind which is then indelibly fixed in the psyche. "The whole thing is completely cultural," she says. "But those of us with European parents still think of it as a good thing to eat." Rollins, for one, has little patience for the squeamish. "Eating offal grew out of the Depression when people couldn't get good cuts of meat, so it lost favour in the '50s when people had more money," she says. There's an element of snobbery in Australians' broad dislike of offal, says Louise Fox, a screenwriter. "In China, South America, other cultures, they eat everything and nothing goes to waste." "Westerners are so dissociated from their food and where it comes from," Popper says. The result, along with a huge amount of waste and a good deal of pet food, is a decent offal export market to countries that prize the bits we throw away. Offal, once a regular feature on Australian plates, was pushed off the menu as the industrial food system made chicken and beef muscle meat much more affordable. "It's given its life for us the least we can do is use all of it." "It's really important we respect the animal," he says. New recruit Grant Hilliard, a provedore of sustainably raised meat, ate offal as a child and was re-converted after becoming a butcher. "That's where it started." Most OC members just like the taste but the ethical issue of not wasting parts of an animal is also a factor. "I used to get fed braised kidney as brain food the night before exams," he says. Hris Hine, an engineering consultant who cooked the Sumatran dinner, was raised on the stuff. Her husband, David Jayne, says: "If there's offal on the menu, it's definitely my first choice." "I remember when I came to Sydney I'd go to the cheap Italian restaurants and they'd serve liver lightly grilled it was perfect." "Different cultures cook offal better," she says. While in Japan, autism specialist DrJacqui Roberts ate a meat described as "uterus" and, albeit mistakenly, lungs (known as "the lights"). They have their limits tonight's bull testicles were originally accompanied by a bull's penis, which was discarded ("we didn't want to do anything with that," Popper says) and a pig's spleen at a previous dinner was considered "extremely strong" (its smell when cooking cleared the house). (Her partner declined to join.) Since then, the group of about a dozen regulars has feasted on bone marrow soup, suet pudding, Sumatran-style offal kebabs, stuffed pigs' trotters, tripe dishes and much more. Popper, a film producer, responded enthusiastically, rounding up her offal-eating friends for the first OC dinner at Rollins's house. Rollins got the OC going when she remarked at a dinner party how much she enjoyed offal and loved to cook it but no one would eat it. "What's the point of being in a club like this unless you try everything?"ĭishes are often served blind for members to guess what they are eating. "The rule is you have to give it a go," says founding member Jen Rollins, a speech pathologist.
There are only two rules in the Offal Club: you have to try everything kidney, liver, tripe, intestines, spleen, trotter, heart, balls and bone marrow if it's known to the Italians as quinto quarto (the fifth quarter), it's on the menu and you must be willing to host a dinner. "I would say the consistency and taste was kind of like brains," Popper says thoughtfully. What did the Rocky Mountain Oyster taste like?
They had a trial run last week to test the recipe. He drops a chunk, muttering, "slippery little suckers". "Cowboy fare," Oxenbould says over his shoulder. It looks a bit like sliced lychee meat, swimming in a pale pink juice. The whitish, soft flesh is marinating in a bowl of beer as the oil heats. That's bull's testicles, skinned, sliced, dipped in batter and deep-fried. Right now, Oxenbould and Popper, who are the cooks for tonight's American-themed feast, are wrestling with a delicacy known as the Rocky Mountain Oyster. His wife and children, who stick to "muscle" meats, have cleared out for the evening. Tonight it's at actor and voiceover artist Jim Oxenbould's house in North Bondi. It's Saturday night dinner with the Offal Club, affectionately known as "the OC".įormed about 18 months ago by an eclectic group of Sydney friends and acquaintances connected by a mutual love of offal and sweetbreads, they meet for a multi-course offal extravaganza at each other's houses every few months. "CHICKEN heart?" says Tamara Popper, proffering a plate of the little organs, pan-fried in cajun spices with toothpicks sticking out for easy handling.