Wizards of Oz: Australia on the menu at Billabong

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/04/2012 (5300 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bad news for joeys: a recent report lists kangaroo as one of 2012’s so-called super-foods.

The study, which also praises the benefits of pomegranates, black garlic and hemp hearts, states that “nutritionally, kangaroo is about as good as red meat gets,” and that ‘roo is a great source of iron and potassium.

“It’s very lean — it contains about one per cent fat — and tastes a lot like steak,” says Erin Keating, general manager and co-founder of Billabong Bar & Bistro, an Australian-flavoured restaurant in Osborne Village that serves imported kangaroo meat in a variety of its dishes, including its Down Under Eggs Benedict.

Keating, a staunch conservationist who is also the executive director of the Lake Winnipeg Foundation, says that kangaroos are far less harmful to the environment than cows, which emit vast amounts of methane and are “almost worse than the auto industry.

“Kangaroos don’t use land the same way,” says the mother of two. “They’re very efficient in terms of what they eat. So if anybody wants to start farming kangaroos in Manitoba, I’d totally support that.”

Remember how the movie Australia — the one starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman — was a sweeping romance that spanned years and thousands of kilometres? Same thing with Billabong.

After graduating from Grade 12, Keating, 34, headed to Europe to backpack. One of the first places the Fort Garry-ite visited was Edinburgh, Scotland. And one of the first people she met there was Peter Keating, a native Australian who was in the midst of his own adventure.

Erin and Peter ended up travelling the continent together for about a year. After their odyssey was over, they bounced back and forth between Winnipeg and Bendigo, Peter’s hometown, for five years.

Erin and Peter got married in Bendigo in January 2002. They spent the next six months apart — she in Winnipeg, he in Australia — until Peter’s paperwork came through, and he was allowed to move to Canada permanently. (In July 2002, the couple traded “I do’s” again, this time in front of friends and family who hadn’t gone to their Australian wedding.)

Fast-forward three years, to January 2005: Peter is working at the Velvet Glove as a server, his wife is an accountant for a firm that is about to get bought out and Owen Degen, Erin’s brother who travelled to Australia numerous times to visit his sister, is a manager at the Blaze, in the Delta Hotel.

“Peter and Owen had been talking about opening up something of their own for a while, and the idea of an Australian bar and restaurant was coming up more and more,” Keating says. “We were all still relatively young, so our thinking was if things don’t work out, it’s not going to destroy our lives.”

One of the first available spots they looked at was a restaurant at 121 Osborne Street called the Village Donair, which served Turkish kebabs. “The guy selling it was explaining to us how to make donairs. But we weren’t really paying attention,” says Keating. “We were too busy deciding where we’d put the bar, how many tables we could fit… that sort of thing.”

Billabong opened in March 2005 as a one-room, 50-seat venue. (The restaurant doubled in size three years ago, when it expanded into space formerly occupied by The Friendly Florist.) It didn’t take long for ex-pat Australians to pop by, say “G’day, mate,” and stick around for a Coopers.

“You would not believe how many Australians live in this city,” Keating says. “Or people who come in with friends who are visiting from Australia. Which always makes me laugh, because I figure if you’re on vacation from Australia this would be the last place you’d want to visit.” (As for non-Aussies, Ice Road Truckers star Rick Yemm and political pugilist Justin Trudeau have both been spotted at Billabong.)

“For many of us, it bridged the gap between here and home,” says Jenny Gates, the communications director for the Down Under Club of Winnipeg. “Members eat there regularly and occasionally we’ll organize a club event, especially on important days like Australia Day (January 26). Or when the rugby’s on.”

Gates, who moved to Winnipeg from Sydney, says that lamb, shrimp and Aussie burgers (a beef patty topped with a fried egg, slice of pineapple and beet relish) “are mainstays back home, but were hard to get here, done the way we like.” (Many of the recipes at Billabong are ones Peter grew up with. One appetizer — Mrs. Keating’s Old Fashioned Sausage Rolls — is named for his late mother.)

Finally, Australia may be home to some of the most dangerous creatures on Earth — including six of the 10 most venomous snakes — but luckily, the only thing you’ll have to contend with at Billabong are the Dundee-wannabes.

“Ohmygawd! I can’t count the number of times somebody has asked me to ‘throw another shrimp on the barbie,'” Keating says, rolling her eyes. “Or better still, told me that a dingo ate their baby.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca