mystery meat - but of course!

Quiz time! Here's some mystery meat for you - something I'm guessing not all of you have given a try yet. Or seen sold as food.

Ok ok, here's a hint - what's four-legged, hangs out in the desert, and has one or two humps on its back, varying by region?

If you answered anything other than camel, you were totally wrong! It's totally camel.

double the hump for double the flavor!

I got this in a seal-pack from a friend who claims it's common eating back home. It was heavily salted, but rather palatable. I would say it tastes a lot like kangaroo, but since that may not be very helpful to some of you as a description, I will say it was similar to a fat-free and somewhat coarser lamb shank.

We had it pan fried with a simple stir-fry that utilized the vegetables around the house at the time. By the way, back home for my Uighur friend is a city in the Xinjiang region of China, an area of what used to be the Silk Road. Apparently camels are used not only for packing, but raised as we raise cattle as a source of food.

It was a first for me, and I'll be sure to ask what kinds of recipes camel tends to be used in!