Over the weekend I had to drop into the supermarket for supplies...those supplies may or may not have been Lindt chocolate, I shall neither confirm or deny, but the point of it is I was there so decided to wander around to see what other supplies I may need on the spur of the moment.
My local supermarket is one of those gourmet ones, slightly more expensive than others but has an incredibly diverse range of products from all over the world. They don't have three hundred different versions of each product like some of the mainstream supermarkets though, endless shelves of fucken cornflakes for instance, but their range is vast and the quality high. The supermarket has just won an international award, retailer of the year, and I can vouch for why; it's an awesome supermarket. Anyway, I'll move on.
I wandered into the frozen product section to get some much needed sugar-free ice creams when I came across a product I'd not seen before...fucken camel milk of all things, produced by a local business called Humpalicious.
I know camels are not an animal most would associate with Australia but in truth there's a lot of them here, over a million roaming free in the central regions of the country actually, but they're not a native species.
Back in the early 1800's the British explorers were ranging into the central parts of the country to explore and map for roads, telegraph and such things; many came to grief. The expedition of intrepid explorers Burke and Wills is one such example.
Australia is an unforgiving place and for the ill-prepared...it's deadly. These fellows died of thirst and starvation and that's not a good way to go. Anyway, it was soon discovered that horses were ill-suited to the extreme conditions and so cameleers from Afghanistan were brought in along with their animals and things were back on track, the explorers ranged out far and wide. The problem was that they were let go or ran away from time to time and over a hundred and fifty subsequent years have bred to the number we have now. (They are often culled as they damage the delicate balance of the land.)
Anyway, we have fucken camels here ok?
I've eaten a camel, not the entire thing just a steak, which I did at a pub in Alice Springs which sits right in the middle of the outback in the centre of the country; surprisingly it was tasty and I'd eat it again. I've not had camel milk though and, to be honest, was quite surprised to see it in the supermarket and that it's made right here locally. I didn't buy any, it was $19.95 for a 1 litre container and I'm not inclined to pay that much for something I may not like, but I was curious so did some research on the interwebs and discovered it has some pretty decent health benefits.
I'm not sure if camel milk is delicious, or humpalicious, as I have not tried it so maybe someone could enlighten me.
Australia is a very culturally diverse country and we can get pretty much anything we could want or need here, foods from all over the world, and I think that's a good thing. I am old enough to remember when it wasn't quite as diverse and options were limited but these days if I want it I can get it and I often do.
It made me think about other places and what may be, or may not be, available. If you're inclined you might like to comment below and tell me about a food product you have found in your own location that you never expected to see or some weird or obscure food you've run into. Did you try it and like it or do you choose not to? Feel free to comment if you'd like.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Image(s) in this post are my own
