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The Christian Science Monitor reports
Nashville residents who dropped by their local Arby's beginning [the week of November 2] could try the restaurant's limited-time-only venison, or deer meat, sandwich, which the fast-food chain debuted in commemoration of the beginning of deer hunting season.
[...] Many of the Arby's locations that are selling the sandwich are located in more populous or urban areas rather than rural areas where one might expect people to hunt. But Evan Heusinkveld, the president and CEO of the Sportsmen's Alliance, tells The Christian Science Monitor that the urban population is exactly the group that should have the opportunity to try venison.
"Many people who live in the country either have their own freezer of venison or know somebody who hunts", he says, "Selling to city dwellers is exactly what the hunting community would love to see."
While Arby's venison is sourced from farm-raised deer in New Zealand due to USDA rules against serving wild-harvested meat, it will still give customers a taste of what they're missing. The sandwich features a juicy venison steak, crispy onions, and juniper berry sauce.
Arby's venison sandwiches will be offered in just 17 locations in six states (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Georgia) during deer season, with the promotion ending the Monday after Thanksgiving.
So far, the company says the sandwich has been a big hit.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday November 07 2016, @10:14AM
Buffalo you can get all over Western America in the form of bison burgers. It's good, like a leaner kind of beef. Kangaroo I've had in the form of a steak in Sidney, Australia; it's not bad, milder than beef. Alligator I've only ever gotten in southern Louisiana; it's always in spicy sausage or heavily spiced somehow. I feel ill every time I eat it, so I can't really recommend it.
Venison, though, varies quite widely in its flavor. Where I grew up in the Rockies the meat was always quite gamey because the animals were eating bark and pine cones and that sort of thing. Out east of the Divide, in the high plains, they were eating pretty much the same thing as free range cattle and didn't taste too different.
You are what you eat, I guess.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday November 07 2016, @02:56PM
If the kangaroo was milder than beef, then they only told you it was kangaroo. It is a strong-tasting, fairly gamey meat. Emu, however is quite good.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday November 07 2016, @03:49PM
It was at a high-end restaurant in Sidney, across the street from the opera house, so I believe it was actually kangaroo. It might have been fed a special diet to cut down on the gamey flavor of wild caught.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday November 07 2016, @05:14PM
Ah, a high end restaurant. I commend to you an excellent (but very short) book by George Orwell: "Down and Out in Paris and London." [ http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100171.txt [gutenberg.net.au] ]
Also, all kangaroo meat is from wild animals. There are no kangaroo farms, so there would be no special diet. I think it likely that they simply ran out and didn't want to say so. You probably actually got a nice beef steak.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 08 2016, @01:06AM
Age of the animal impacts the gamey flavor. A high-end restaurant could afford to source younger kangaroo with a more mild taste.