Steak Desert Style: Camel Kebabs

DAMASCUS, Syria, May 31, 2006 -- There's no question about the type of meat served at the Camel Gathering Place restaurant.

Camels -- stuffed and in pictures -- are everywhere. Half a dozen men wait to order camel at the popular little neighborhood restaurant; the line stretches out the door. Behind the counter a man works feverishly, squeezing ground meat onto skewers. Waiters glide by carrying plates of grilled camel, bread and roasted vegetables.

The Camel Gathering Place is so popular that the manager says it sells meat from one camel a week. That's a lot of meat, considering the desert animals weigh up to 1,000 pounds.

Camel is beloved in many Persian Gulf countries for the same reason Americans love hamburgers -- it's cheap and tasty.

The kebabs served at the Camel Gathering Place have all the consistency and juiciness of a medium-rare steak. The meat's mild flavor resembles that of filet mignon, and camel is lower in fat than other types of meat; many locals opt for camel over the favored lamb.

But it's not exactly fast food.

Camel meat is slow to cook. When someone takes a long time to prepare a meal, locals might quip, "What are they making back there, camel?"

"Productive animals are not usually the first choice for slaughter," says Anthony Bennett, dairy and meat officer for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

But the Camel Gathering Place, where an animal's productivity is measured not by how many people it can carry but how many it can feed, serves camels slaughtered at 18 months old.

The camel's most distinctive feature doesn't get cast into a sand dune, either. Some say the hump -- which is made up of fatty tissue, not water -- is the most flavorful part. It's so delicious that some people prefer to eat it raw.

"Camel milk is very healthy. It is like liquid Viagra," says one fan of it, smiling mischievously.

"Some cultural beliefs would appear to support this belief," says Bennett. "But I am not aware of any scientific research which supports the claim."

While camel milk may or may not enhance one's sexual experiences, it has three times the amount of vitamin C when compared with cow's milk, and it contains less fat and lactose. The nutrient-rich milk also packs a punch with iron, unsaturated fatty acids and B vitamins. All this comes in handy for those baby camels, who grow up in harsh desert conditions.

Some research suggests that camel milk antibodies can help fight diseases like cancer, HIV-AIDS, Alzheimer's and hepatitis C. In Kenya, studies are under way to determine the effect of camel milk on diabetes and heart disease.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization hopes that camel milk will catch on in the West. This would provide camel-breeding nomads with an additional source of revenue, a kind of "cash camel."

"The potential is massive," says Bennett. "Milk is money."