Hey Kiwis!

[ssullivan]

Does anyone from New Zealand know of a company called Broadleaf Game? They consist of 4300 game farms across South Island.

I ask because we recently discovered we could buy venison in the local market, and we have basically given up on beef because of it. Here's why:

Fat in Salmon: 18gm
Fat in Chicken: 7gm
Fat in Extra Lean Ground Beef: 4gm
Fat in Ground Venison: 4gm
Fat in Veinson Steaks: 0gm!

And they taste MUCH better than beef.. it's like filet mingon x 10.

Ok... enough of a commercial. But still... have any of you Kiwis heard of Broadleaf Game and is it producing good food on good land?

Here's their link: http://broadleafgame.com

Thanks for any input on these folks.

Interesting factoids Sean. Of course, if you remove the skin from chicken, it drops the fat content lower than beef. Also, the only reason ground venison has fat is that it is unusable unless fat is added. It will not stick together, however, if you are using it in ground form such as in a maranara, it can be used fat free.
That brings me to my main point, no matter what you start with, it is the preparation that makes the difference. A recent example, the local news did a comparison of fast food meals. Since all the fast food places now have salads available, they compared a fast food salad to, I believe, a quarter pounder. The quarter pounder had fewer calories. They did not compare how many were from fat, but the findings were still interesting.
Another little fast food factoid, a Double Whopper has 2 GRAMS of salt. YIKES!
How's that for thread wander

[Alan Wheeler]

I have never heard of Broadleaf Game here. I imagine it is the name of the marketing company Only. Looks like that could be purely a US name and could be sent out of NZ under a different company, and it maybe that there are that many farms that supply meat to the company. The rest is just marketing.

If it IS NZ Venison, then it will be high quality. All Deer farms are outside. Nothing is ..umm.. what would you guy's call it... Barn reared?? Or grown inside in otherwords. All NZ export meat, no matter what it is, has to go through the most rigorouse quality control standards. We simply can't make it against the rest of the world with trying to market cheap meat. So the only way to survive in the big world is to market only the best that can be and go for the Neich markets.
Andwhat's more, I simply can't say enough about the flavour of NZ vension. It is damn expensive, even here in NZ, it tends to be top shelf price, but mate, what a taste.
Sean, the most amasing meal of venison I have ever had was on a stone grill. It is a thick flat stone of granite that they heat up in an oven to real hot. They bring out your meal and a slab of raw venison and the real hot slab of rock sprinkled in crushed salt. You place the meat on the stone and cut small pieces off it as it cooks away on the table right in front of you. It was just plain superb. Maybe not so easy to do on a boat, but mate, it's something else. Dang, now I am hungry again.

What I am most surprised at, is your figure of fat in Salmon. I would have thought there would have been little or none like Venison.

[NoTies]

Hey Sean, when I saw your subject line I thought you must be trolling. Then I realised I wasn't on SailingAnarchy
I'm sure Alan is correct, simply a marketing name. Very common for NZ companies to do this, Montana Wines realised they couldn't use this name in the US as nobody wanted wine from Montana State so they came up with another name (Brancott?)
Depending on your tastes the wild venison in NZ is superior to the farm raised but obviously harder to get. I'm so damn broke after buying the boat it's off to Fiordland as soon a possible with the carcass sling, rifle and boning knife. Plenty of fish and deer down there so should save on the groceries.
Kai Nui Chicken without skin!!! What's the point?
I guess all the fat in Salmon is the reason it tastes so good.
Sean. I would like to say that the NZ Bambi should be served with a good NZ merlot but unfortunately have to admit we can't do full bodied reds anywhere near as good as the Aussies. Blow them away with our Pinots though.
There I go with alll the caffeine again.

[Alan Wheeler]

Hey Pete, watch out for that moose down in Fiordland
Hey Sean, what's all the worry about fat anyway. Fat, as long as it is moderation, is very good for you. You get vitimims and minerals from Fat that you don't get very well from anything else.
It's not what you eat or don't eat, it's what you do afterwards.

Hey, now what about the overweight person that goes to McD's and asks for two burgers and fries and then asks for a Diet Coke?!?!?!

[ssullivan]

Kai Nui: Yes, it's amazing how much fat is in a McDonald's salad. (haven't eaten there in close to 10 yrs)

And I definitley understand about the salt. I had to eliminate that from my diet, or at least have it in normal amounts. It was raising my blood pressure. Now it's back down to normal levels.

Wheels: Thanks for the info. Since we were eating so much of this venison now, I wanted to be sure it was of a good quality. The taste is (like you said) out of this world!

I can help clue you in on why Americans are worried about fat intake. It's because we have been fooled by large food companies into eating food that is extremely bad for you. More of us die each year from heart attacks (lack of exercise, stress and eating like crap) than any other disease. So, as a start, people watch out for saturated fats now. Our dietary issues are more complex, but I didn't want to bog the board down with all that. ha ha ha. Suffice to say, average americans eat some horrible stuff. Mono and diglycerides, which are worse than saturated fats for clogging arteries, but conveniently aren't listed on the "nutrition information" chart on the back of our food. They eat at fast food places like McDonalds, and get ridiculous amounts of sodium, saturated fats, and chemicals. They also have to sit in a car many hours a day driving to a job where they sit at a computer the rest of the day. Often the do this from 7AM to 7PM, with the only break being a big, nasty grease bomb from McDonalds for lunch.

So... with so many people dying of heart disease here, people have become concious of at least one factor - saturated fats. I think this is probably the least significant factor, but it's one that people have latched onto.

Personally, I eat only real butter (margarine is just a tub of those diglycerides), and am not afraid of fat. Our beef is fed so much junk, including other cows! (and raised in complete captivity) that the fat content in the meat is off the charts. The cows are not allowed to exercise, they get fat and nasty, and pass this poor health on to us. That's why venison is so much better. It runs free and is lean, so the meat is top notch!

Ok... so that's a bit of a ramble... but just thought you might be interested since you asked why all the concern about fat.

Our food has been low quality for generations, and people have been fooled into letting marketing and commercials dictate what they eat.

It's sad, really. Captialism run amok.

[Jentine]

No fat, no flavor. Americans are not succumbing to heart attacks from eating meat, but from eating too much of everything and not exercising.

[ssullivan]

Um.... that's what I said. Getting in a car to go sit behind a desk for hours and hours while also eating things humans did not evolve to eat. Not sure where you thought I said we shouldn't eat meat??

Our species developed as a foraging omnivore, that ate a lot of whole grains, plants and some game when we could catch it. We did not evolve to eat the levels of fat/sodium/sugar (cardiovascular disease/high blood pressure/diabetes) that we eat in a typical American diet.

Bull?

And sorry... I also have to disagree with the "more fat more flavor" part. This is only the case when you start with inferior ingredients. For instance, take a filet mignon. Then take a good cut of venison. BBQ as you would normally, and do a blind taste test. Venison has no fat, but tastes a hell of a lot better.

[BC Mike]

There are differences in the meat from wild deer and captive deer.
Not a huge difference. Has to do with diet and activity.
You can get leaner beef from private ( small ) farms that use mostly grass for the cows to graze, and slaughter at about 800 pounds total weight. Cows can start to gain fat when over about 1000 pounds.
Michael

[Alan Wheeler]

I have to agree, Fat doesn't give meat a "better" flavour. It may add another flavour, and whether that flavour is benificial or not, is to the individual.
But also, Eating Fat doesn't mean you will gain weight and not eating Fat doesn't mean you will lose weight. It's all about Calorie intake and the amount you burn during the day. A Glass of beer has more calories than a fatty piece of meat and drinking a lot of beer, can add far more weight than a fatty diet.
Now, colestral is the dangerouse part. Found in many different foods, but very high in Fatty foods. That's the one you have to watch for.
Interesting though, the Eskimos eat an extremely high amount of Fat. Yet they have a very low Colestral reading. Scientist believe it has something to do with the cold they are living in, but still don't no why.
Salt, yep, it can be deadly. Like all minerals and elements, we need a certain amount to survive and grow correctly, but too much can be dangerouse. Actually, there is enough salt in one slice of breed to sufice for our minimum daily requirement.

You are right about the fat issue not being the cause of our health problems. a hundred years ago, one of the most common ingredients in any recipe was lard, yet the instance of obescity was much lower.
Any one notice that the increase in obescity, heart disease, and other such health problems has increased proportionatly with the popularity of the internet?

[CaptainK]

I can vouch for Kai on the internet part.

My brother and I have gained weight, especially after using the internet alot.

Being inactive and staying more indoors will have that effect on any human being. I used to be a very active person. Especially when I was in the military!!

And unfortunately. Both me, and my brother love the fatty foods. Pizza. Hamburgers. Mexican Food. Italian Food. Etc.

[Alan Wheeler]

Or the Sea food Diet. Sea (see) food and eat it.
Hey Kain Nui, what does Kai Nui mean? Is it Hawaii'n?
There are many similar words in the Maori language.
In Maori, Kai means Food and Nui means Big.

Hmmm, and I sitting looking at the internet. Think I'll go for a walk.

Well, the story is this, The Hawaii translation is "Big Water". I bought a little 28' wood boat a few years back named Kai Nui. She was as solid a small boat as I could ever hope for, and I saw some fairly big seas in that boat. In fact, she handled 20' seas better than calm. I grew rather attached to the boat, and after I sold her, I just sort of held onto the name. Now that I have another boat to name (the trimaran), I will continue the tradition with Kai Nui III. Seems appropriate for a multihull
So that's my story, and I'm stickin to it.

[BC Mike]

Kai as a verb is eat, as a noun is food. Nui is an adjective, large, abundant or great. So big is okay. The Maori language is probably better documented than Hawaiin. I can not prove that, just going on my own observations. The Hawaiins were not allowed to speak the language ( for some time ) by the US government. When I was there in 1968 there were Maoris at the Polynesian Cultural Center teaching the Hawaiins the language and other lost stuff.
Small is iti and ship is kaipuke. My hotmail address is kaipuke@hotmail.com
Michael