Aruba Ostrich Farm: everyone gets fed!

Pop quiz, hotshot: you have a rental car, a small island and five hours of free time. What do you do?

Answer: eat ostrich.

Okay, it was more like "drive around with a map listing the island's major highways (1 through 7) but not the dirt roads, try to find the donkey sanctuary, give up, go to the ostrich farm."

Before we ate, we visited our victims.

Actually, the boids on this farm are for show (and for edumacational purposes); the meat comes from the owner's other farm on Curaçao. So we we able to look these guys in the eye, guilt-free.



And we learned that:

• Ostriches can grow to be nine feet tall and (in captivity) live to be 80 years old!



• They only have two toes!



• If you clap your hands at a female ostrich, it drops to the floor and you can climb on its back!

Only after she'd invited me to mount the bird did our guide explain that the female had assumed the position. And there I was, crawling all over her. Bow-chika-bow-wow!

Then she handed The Boy a bowl of food and made him stand next to a corral of hungry one-year-olds. ('Scuse the sound; that's the gentle breeze whipping across the condenser mic.)




And then it was our turn to feast.

First up, ostrich carpaccio, smoky and tender, with a drizzle of bright pesto as a foil.



And then The Boy had bird burger and I had bangers and mash, ostrich-style (see, there they are! The omnipresent veggies!).



Why isn't ostrich more prevalent? We occasionally find steaks at WholeFoods, but otherwise it doesn't get much play. It's a great alternative to beef; it's lean and cholesterol-free. Manly, but healthy. Renaissance meat.