Tough economic times might be coming in the wake of COVID-19 but there's one thing that could provide a cheaper option for dinner time.
It's called offal. It's cheap and it's nutritious, but many Kiwis might have trouble getting their heads around it.
Maybe that's because when eating things like beef tongue it seems weird to taste something that might be tasting you back.
But Dariush Lolaiy, chef and co-owner of Auckland restaurant Cazador, says offal is a delicious way to make the most of using all animal parts.
"My parents started [Cazador] in 1987 and we've been a game restaurant the whole time basically - so we focus on wild animals but also whole animals, so that includes all the offal," Lolaiy told The Project.
One example on offer is chargrilled sika deer heart.
"They tend to be really nutrient dense and often delicious. I would take venison heart over an eye fillet anyday. Eye fillet's mince on toast, you know," he says.
"Even skeptics love it because there's no textual oddity to it at all - it's muscle meat."
Another option is venison liver, which Lolaiy says is "healthy [and] high in iron" and goes great in a salad.
Lolaiy says eating offal is much more common in many other parts of the world.
"I think it's the Western diet that's sort of pushed it to the side a little bit and what we don't think about is the pressure that puts on producers to make loads and loads of cheap meat."
Watch the full video.
