Feature. scene of blood-drenched hooks, rancid stench with a one-eyed butcher didn’t materialise. Instead, the surfaces sparkled, livestock pens were warm and spacious, and employees friendly and professional. Every stage of preparation is systematic and meticulous — even dead animals are treated with care. This is a serious set-up determined to bring back local produce to a market that often buys elsewhere. “To just get steak out of the packet from Victoria or Queensland is far more disjointed than knowing the farmer and having an understanding of things,” says James. “It’s been very easy for us to lose touch of where we get our food from. But people are realising now there are better ways to do it.”
Humans have been eating fresh meat, particularly of the cow variety, for a good while now and will probably keep doing so unless Spam makes a comeback. Just like we’re encouraged to buy hormone-free chicken and organic vegetables, quality beef that comes from a welltreated cow seems to be the way to go. It might seem slightly more expensive and time-consuming to some, but considering there’s a whole industry working damn hard to serve our meatist tastebuds, everyone should seek out a good bit of beef at least once. And with happy cows all over the state, you won’t need to look far. So without sounding like an ad for Tourism Tasmania, we have it all here and you should be grabbing it with both hands and throwing it on the barbie.
Without driving to an abattoir every week, how do we go about sourcing the good stuff? Why, your local butcher of course! There’s something about a butcher shop: the freshly carved, plump-looking meat is lined up neatly and just screams, “Take me to your oven!” The smell is delicious in a strange vampirish way and standing behind the counter is usually a friendly man in an apron. He knows his stuff and can trim up a bit of porterhouse in no time. James Bracken of Greens Quality Meats in Sandy Bay is one such man. He also assures the meat at the butcher can be customised to suit budgets and is free from excess fat and various other yucky bits often found in supermarket cuts. James suggests scotch fillet (from the shoulder) for flavour, eye fillet (inside muscle of vertebrae) for tenderness and a rack of lamb at 180 degrees in the oven for half an hour for date night. He says students should know coming to a butcher is probably just as cheap, if not cheaper, than buying at the supermarket. “For the same grade eye fillet, you could buy it cheaper with us,” says James. Bonus points for Greens, who will be introducing student discounts very soon. Still can’t comprehend paying more for a bit of beef than you would for a meal at McDonald’s? Never fear. There are ways to keep up your protein, iron and calcium intake without breaking the piggy bank. Foodie extraordinaire and star of SBS’ Gourmet Farmer, Matthew Evans, says if you’re on a student budget, cured meat is the way to go. “It seems expensive, but a little bit can go a long way,” says Matthew. He says a couple of sausages can feed a few and by squeezing the guts out of one you get a flash pasta sauce. Of course, Matthew is very much on the ‘buy local’ bandwagon and genuinely believes we have some of the yummiest produce in Tassie. “The lush pastures mean animals have a bountiful diet and aren’t stressed which means there is heaps of flavour.”
Claire Todd I would never light up unless you turned me on. 42