koko > wrote:

> I've been reading here the different opinions lamb from Australia,
> New Zeland and USA.

The best lamb - and mutton - I have tasted has been from the Caucasus
and the Middle East, but that was some years ago. Very little of it is
exported, it seems. With so many Turks living in Germany, one can
occasionally get good lamb or mutton in Turkish groceries or
restaurants, with restaurants being a better bet. It used to be fairly
easy to get very good mutton kebab, labelled as lamb usually, but very
obviously mutton - and one that never tasted remotely gamey or musty, or
even fatty - but now it's getting increasingly harder to find.

Otherwise, the best lamb I know is pré-salé lamb from Normandy and
Brittany - and also from Kent. Its production is minuscule, though, and
90% of what is claimed to be pré-salé lamb is anything but. You can
still buy it in the area if you know your way around, and you can still
get it in good, expensive restaurants (which generally serve lamb from
around Coutances, as other lamb is not nearly as good) - otherwise it is
anything but easy to find. It is no different with Pauillac or Sisteron
lamb, which can be very good, too.

A lot depends on where you buy your lamb. If you buy it in the
immediate area where it was raised, chances of getting good quality are
much better. Otherwise, what you get are lambs who get shipped vast
distances, usually with neither food nor water provided. This causes
stress, which has a direct impact on the taste of the meat. In New
Zealand and Australia, they may produce very good lamb, but what we get
here in Europe - and probably what you get in America - is frozen, of
course, and it almost always lacks the specific lamb taste, the aromatic
spice of the best European lamb. Often, it seems to be almost a kind of
generic meat, as does a lot of European-produced lamb.

Victor