Buffalo

Once slaughtered to near-extinction - and for hides, not food - SHAME! - bison have made a comeback as a trendy new beef alternative.

As Jeff Tiedman, of the Grand Forks Herald says:

Buffalo meat has a rich, beeflike taste. Nutritionally, it's lower in cholesterol and calories and higher in iron and protein than beef. In fact, buffalo has less cholesterol than chicken with the skin removed or even most fish.

Buffalo also is very versatile. It can be used in a variety of dishes from stir-fry to stew to pot roast. And with summer just around the corner, don't forget burgers, steaks and kabobs on the grill.

I remember the halcyon days of my youth, when my dad daringly brought home buffalo chuck for dinner. On our creaky, yet potent, charcoal grill, it went from chuck to briquette in about fourteen seconds - a tough sell when everyone in the family demanded medium rare (except for my sanguiphobic mom, but that's a different story).

I've revisited buffalo since then (most notably at Lon's in Phoenix), and found it yummy. Like venison, it lacks the fatty marbling that brings the juicy flava (hard to form an 'r' when you're drooling), but still makes for good - if lean- eatin'.

The Tiedman column gives a similar warning - don't nuke the bison. When we read in our Social Studies textbooks about the noble Native American using every part of the buffalo, it's worth footnoting probably used overcooked bison-burgers as dining tables, or, at the least, flatpacked TV tables.

Tiedman ends on a worthy quote from Jack Peterson, a Minnesota retiree that he cites as a worthy carnivologist. It's applicable not just to buffalo, but to meat, and - dare I say it? - all of life.

"If you overcook it, you just kill it," [Jack] says. "You never make the meat wait for people. You make people wait for the meat."