Offline
If this food fad spreads worldwide, it could become a great new export industry for Louisiana! (Or the subject of a trade war )
Hot rat is so hot right now: Moscow falls for the rodent burger
The nutria, or river rat, is the victim of the Russian capital’s most challenging current food craze | The Guardian
Hot rat is so hot right now: Moscow falls for the rodent burger
The nutria, or river rat, is the victim of the Russian capital’s most challenging current food craze | The Guardian
Forget kale, forget quinoa. This season’s foodie craze in Moscow is homegrown, affordable and full of nutrients. It’s rat.
Well, not quite rat, but nutria, a giant orange-toothed rodent also known as coypu or river rat, and indigenous to southern Russia. The furry, whiskered beast is finding its way on to plates at several Moscow restaurants this autumn.
Eating rodents might conjure up images of starving peasants desperate to survive, or Soviet citizens grimly making it through the siege of Leningrad, but 35-year-old chef and restaurateur Takhir Kholikberdiev has other ideas. He serves up nutria burgers and a whole range of other rodent-based dishes in a sleekly designed eatery right in the centre of Moscow. The recently opened Krasnodar Bistro, named after the southern Russian city from which Kholikberdiev hails, is marketed at the new breed of middle-class Muscovite with broad culinary horizons, and fits into a recent trend among Moscow restaurants of focusing on high-quality local ingredients.
The nutria burger at Krasnodar Bistro is pale, juicy and fairly bland, somewhere between turkey and pork. It came in a soft bun, with plenty of relish and served on a chopping board. It tasted pretty good, though while chewing on the meat the diner may get mental flashes of quivering whiskers and nattering orange teeth. A generously sized nutria burger cost 550 roubles (£6.90). . . . Other nutria delights on offer at Krasnodar Bistro include nutria hotdog, nutria dumplings and nutria wrapped in cabbage leaves.