Alligator Meat

[DWalt]

Once, at Ralph & Kacoo's seafood restaurant in Baton Rouge around 40 years ago. Sort of in fried chunks, like chicken McNuggets. I don't remember whether it was good or bad, but at least I ate it all so it couldn't have been too bad. I wouldn't repeat the experience today.

 

[tlawler]

I’ve had it many times. Gator bites are served as an appetizer at a lot of the restaurants in my area. We have a locally famous restaurant called “Gatorz”, with chicken wings being their specialty. Whenever we order out from them, the wife and I always get an order of their gator bites to split. Not bad, I guess “greasy spiced chicken” would be an apt description of the taste.

 

[The Last Standing Knight]

Anyone ever had any?
If so, how was it and where did you get it from?

Alligator sausage.
Was very dry and coarse. Tasted like wild pork.
Bought from a local meat market that specializes in game.

It wasn't that spectacular. Now, the bison burgers...that was memorable in a good way!

 

[Kinman]

I've eaten just about every kind of wild and domestic animal and while down in New Orleans had to try alligator. Now I will give praise to New Orleans for their cooking skills and one of the things they know how to do better than anyone is make a sauce...for EVERYTHING. The gator I ate was from a well known local favorite restaurant. It was nuggets that were pan sautéed and had at least six sauces to choose from. On its own it is as good as any of the other reptiles I have eaten, being a large animal the chunks can be larger and tater tot sized nuggets were what I got, it was supposed to be tail meat. It is unique in flavor and texture, much the same way as shark and sturgeon are different from flaky fish, its dense and in larger chunks probably a bit grainy. I liked it enough to want to serve it up for my family and found it could be ordered from "The Cajun Grocer", its a little on the spendy side but for something the kids will go wild over its worth it. Everyone should get a chance at eating Gator. I grilled it over charcoal along with a mess of chicken lightly seasoned and it went fast, everyone like it and there is always the fact that it is different.

 

[03hemi]

I had it in a stew, in a restaurant, but it was so heavily Cajun spiced I couldn't eat it. One bite, all I got was a tongue burn. Sent it back.

Be a good idea to stay away from mudbugs then.

 

[chief38]

I will agree that Gators should be removed from the protect status, but NOT hunted indiscriminately either. They serve a valuable purpose in the ecological food chain.

 

[SMSgt]

Funny how all the northern "transits" freak out over the sight of an alligator. Take all your kids and pets inside, alligator on the loose!

 

[Rustyt1953]

The Bulldogs took care of the Gator problem.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Interesting you should ask this. Last nigt after 4::00 mass me and the wife drove over to St. Johns resturant in St. Martinville and has crab bouillettes and egg plant fries and gor te main course I had the Swamp Platter which was frog legs, alligator bites and catfish fillets all in their deep fried glory. Aligator tastes...well like alligator. Nice firm white meat delicate taste. The frogs legs were absolutely divine! Perfectly fried, you could suck them off the bone. Washed down with a couple od Abita Ambers went home and watched Coach prime get his "Prime" handed to him, and watched the D'backs put a 9th inning pasting on da Rangers.
All in all not a bad night.....
Back to the question at hand. Problem with alligator is sometimes you get the tough cuts which is all chewy. This in the most common complaint I hear. The alligator I had lst night was Not chewy but really quite good. They definately did not use the cheap cuts.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Figured the Caj would know.
I’ve had a bunch of things in Louisiana Restaurants including Gator but never Frog Legs.
The only time I can remember having Frog Legs in a Restaurant was in Mexico!

 

[Leslie Sapp]

I've eaten a lot of gator over the years. If fresh, seasoned, dusted in flour and deep fat fried, it's very tasty. Many of the guys I know run it through a cuber to cut down on the chewiness.

I used to be part of the crew that cooked the gatortail for the local Education Foundation's "Wild Beast Feast" fundraiser. We would fry over 300 lbs of de-boned, ready to cook gator meat , along with 900 quail, 30-40 deer, 300 swamp cabbage and sundry other species that various people had donated.

This was an "all you can eat" affair and we found that if we did not not spread the serving of the gator out over a couple of hours, it would all be gone in the first 30 minutes, and late arrivals would not get any!

"A cross between chicken and turtle" is a very good description of what good gator should taste like.

 

[CH4]

Gator McNuggets. It was fine and would do it again. Kind of a novelty. FWIW, mountain lion McNuggets are great, especially if have a snoot full of Canadian Mist onboard.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Alligator meet takes like whatever season it with..........By itself it would taste like a cold baked potato.

 

[StephenWhoDat]

1 yes
2 nothing special, bland.. boiled pork?
3 street food in New Orleans, so it may or may not have been real gator...

It was real gator tail meat, mixed with pork.

 

[StephenWhoDat]

We eat a good bit of gator down here (Southeast Louisiana) regularly. But you really only want to eat the tail meat. That's the best part of the gator and easiest to cook and season to your liking. I personally love fried gator, gator sausage, and tossing some gator into a big pot of gumbo.

 

[MP-5]

Gumbo Slice!

 

[Bald1]

Certain parts of SW Florida are over run with them. They sun themselves on my dock in Naples. The water is brackish so they thrive. Yes they should be removed from endangered list.

 

[charlie sherrill]

Phil's Marina Cafe in Slidell, La, last exit going South on I 10 before you cross Lake Ponchartrain, has the best gator bites I've tried, including some of my own. They fry them and then soak them in what looks like some kind of Thai sauce. They are sold as an entree for $11.00. I usually get two of them and a large bowl of gumbo and a salad and don't order a main dish. Rouse's supermarkets are found in many parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. You can get a pound of gator tail for around 10-12 bucks and come up with your own concoction. I often fry them with local fish that we caught. Another good dish is an alligator kubiyan (sp?) which is done with a good sauce piquant. A layer of sauce, a layer of alligator tail. Continue until you fill up a large pot, depending on how many people you are feeding, and cook on low heat, usually for hours, while sipping your favorite libation. When done the meat should be almost falling apart. Serve over popcorn rice with veggies ( I like fresh sweet corn on the cob and spicy purple hull peas).

 

[SteveA]

Had it many times. A little dive bar and grill near Beloit, Kansas served them in bite sized, deep fried chunks. We'd always get a couple of orders during the annual pheasant hunt. A buddy I hog and turkey hunt with is a retired firefighter from Shreveport. He always brings along a mess, along with other foods native to his locale.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Big issue with gators is that the market for wild hides is pretty much gone. The buyers want the farm raised hides as they are more uniform. Not as much incentive to hunt the wild ones any more. The big business now is harvesting the eggs and then transporting them to the farms for hatching and raising. Law says they have to return 30% of the hatchlings to the wild. The problem with that is that although the farmers are supposed to scatter the hatchlings over the marsh, a lot just dump them in one spot and let them figure it out on their own. And yea..we are overrun with the critters. But they were here first.

Here's a receipe for the adventurous to try
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