Dr. John A. King hunts a goanna in the Australian bush with a boomerang, then cooks the tail with his sister-in-law Nangala using native lemon myrtle, garlic, and butter. He explains that goanna fat is prized in bush medicine for muscles and ligaments, and the cooked meat tastes like a mix of seafood, chicken, and seed food.
So I got my stuff ready for the— I'm heading out looking for Goanna. Hat, number 7 boomerang, must have, maybe a busted bird. First aid kit, water for, uh, for at least a couple of hours. I'll head north a couple of hours and come back. First aid kit, sensible shoes, pants for the spinifex. I'm gonna go over there somewhere, where the fuck that is. Look at these, they're beautiful. And they're on this bush, and you can see them all over, and they're standing up, and there's this most incredible fragrance. It's just, it's just beautiful. I came across a fire trail, so that's good. There's a break in the ridgeline there. It's rid of some sacred men's sites. I'm probably going to go up there and introduce myself to some elders, some ancestors, see what's up there, see who's up there. Fire devastation over the last little bit. You see some green starting to come back down. It'll all come back once the, uh, once the rain comes. We're close to the wet. Either a firebreak's gone in, or this is where we had the fires a couple of weeks ago. It's fantastic. Hear it in the wind? There's a goanna there. How the actual fuck do I do this? I've got no idea. Did you see it? See ya, Pearl. I got him. I got him by the tail. And I have no fucking idea what to do now. Not a fucking clue. So now I'm bloody lost. I don't know what to do with the bloody thing. So I'm gonna hit it on the head with a tree. Or hit its head on a tree and then take it back and figure if I can figure out how to cook it. So I hit him on a tree a couple of times, but then he started to move again. They told me that. So I hit him with a number 7, and then I got his feet tied. I'm gonna tie his front feet, And I'm going to just carry him back. Didn't quite get to where I wanted to go, but I'll come talk to the old man tomorrow. I think gonna cook a goanna. So I made up a bit of a sling of some rope I brought, and I'll just try and keep those claws away from me because apparently they just come back to life. I don't know if this guy would. I thumped him pretty hard. Anyway, lunch. There he is, my own goanna carryall. Apparently the fat. Is highly prized for bush medicine, for muscles, ligaments, and a range of other things. This is Nangala. Bungee is my sister-in-law, and here she is just being awesome. And so it's eaten something we just found.
Yeah, another goanna.
Another little another goanna.
Yep.
Bastard.
Garlic and onion.
Here we go. So what was that? What you're saying about goannas?
So goannas taste seafood. Like fish, but they have the texture of chicken. So we're going with some native lemon myrtle.
Perfect.
Garlic, onion, and lemon.
Bada bing, bada boom.
And we'll put some butter over the top of him and sprinkle him with some salt.
It's like a It's like a 4-hour takeaway meal, isn't it? There we go, goanna tail.
Cut.
Bloody hot, but isn't it? All right, here we go, first time goanna. It's a little chewy, but she's right, it's like, it's a combination between, um, chicken and seed food. It's bloody nice.
