Keren
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- Joined
- Jan 21, 2006
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I just got home from a week in Armidale, where I participated in the Australian Intercollegiate Meat Judging competition. I understand that meat judging is a pretty big thing in the states so our competition is tiny compared to yours. But I had an amazing week. This year we were lucky enough to have Dr Tom Carr bring a team from the University of Illinois (sorry if I spelt that wrong). Dr Carr is amazing and it was great discussing with the team the differences between Australian and American agriculture. I must say my eyes have well and truly been opened. I had hoped to make it into the top five competitors, who then get a trip to America but unfortunately did not make it. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every bit of it. I had a ball listening to the American competitors talking about your country - we heard about Lamberts where they throw bread rolls at you, and another restaurant (I cant remember where or the name) where you are challenged to eat a 75 ounce steak :shock: There were some funny moments due to cultural differences too - one of the blokes from U of I was so desperate for ketchup he bought a bottle of tomato sauce and a bottle of vinegar and mixed the two together!
I was really interested to hear that Dr Carr had never tasted lamb until he was university age, and that the U of I students might eat lamb once a month if they are lucky. Thats amazing, considering most Australians were brought up on lamb, and I myself will have lamb around 3 or 4 nights a week. It was also interesting to note the vast differences between your meat grading system and ours - yours is a lot more mathematical.
Anyway, I reckon I haven't even skimmed the surface as to what I learnt this past week. I haven't even processed all of it yet.
It was great!
PS By the way the U of I team completely dominated the competition, with one of the girls winning heaps of the classes and the team winning the shield for the champion team - they will be taking it back with them to America. We also had a Japanese team in the competition, but unfortunately didn't learn quite so much about their agriculture and cultural ways, mainly due to communication issues!
I was really interested to hear that Dr Carr had never tasted lamb until he was university age, and that the U of I students might eat lamb once a month if they are lucky. Thats amazing, considering most Australians were brought up on lamb, and I myself will have lamb around 3 or 4 nights a week. It was also interesting to note the vast differences between your meat grading system and ours - yours is a lot more mathematical.
Anyway, I reckon I haven't even skimmed the surface as to what I learnt this past week. I haven't even processed all of it yet.
It was great!
PS By the way the U of I team completely dominated the competition, with one of the girls winning heaps of the classes and the team winning the shield for the champion team - they will be taking it back with them to America. We also had a Japanese team in the competition, but unfortunately didn't learn quite so much about their agriculture and cultural ways, mainly due to communication issues!