That does not, of course, translate into an invitation for big-game hunting. Ashutosh Chakradeo, business head, Hypercity in Malad, claims that the mall’s Meat and Fish section, is the only one in the city to offer the bird.

“We introduced emu as one of our specialty meats almost eight months ago. It’s another healthy option to red meat,” he says. Chakradeo’s initial dilemma was convincing his staff that such a bird actually exists, a situation you can test for yourself by bringing up emu meat in a casual conversation. “People were surprised that such a bird existed; we then featured Emu Rogan Gosh as part of our recipe of the month initiative. Every customer walking into our meat section was given the option of emu,” he says.

Brainard Colaco, corporate executive chef of Mocha, turned up as one such customer. “I’d tried it in a dhaba in Kamshet. The menu had Emu Biryani and Emu Tikka—all sorts of chicken variations. Back in Mumbai, I saw it in the mall and decided to pick it up,” he says.

The biggest challenge for the bird is convincing a populace that is wary of experimenting with food about its excellent taste and health benefits. This is one of the biggest reasons it hasn’t featured in city restaurants yet.

Nachiket Shetye, owner and chef at the Pan Asian restaurant, East, at Kemps Corner, agrees that people in Mumbai do not have versatile palates. “Our menu had quail and wild boar but people want their standard chicken and lamb. Emu is really far fetched,” he says.

Emu meat is high in iron and protein, low in fat and cholesterol and popular in a health conscious society. In fact, so favourable is its reputation that the Oberoi hotel even considered it as an option for beef (when the meat became tough to source) a few years ago.

“I would compare emu meat to tenderloin beef. It can absorb flavours and spices and tastes best when slow cooked,” says executive chef Joy Bhattacharya, Oberoi.

Bhattacharya is uncertain if the bird is still part of a government list of banned birds, which has deterred other hotels like the Taj and Intercontinental from serving it. The rise in the number of open emu farms at Baramati in Maharashtra and other states like Karnataka, with government loans, hardly seems like activity befitting a banned substance.