First it's lionfish in Florida waters. Now it's iguanas on Florida land. The Perennial Plate chef Daniel Klein offers this segment on our invasive predator the iguana and how one guy prepares it for a snack.
The locale is Boca Grande, where iguana owners during the 1970s released pets in the wild, only to find that, 30 years later, they've taken over the island. "Tens of thousands" of iguanas live on the island these days and have wreaked enough havoc on native species that guys like George Cera are called in on lizard patrol to shoot them and, ultimately, cook them for dinner.
"I hate killing them," says Cera. "But I know that for every one that I
take, I'm saving a native." Cera says he killed 16,000 in 18 months,
observing that birds and flora are coming back as a result.
Eating iguana isn't new as unusual as it may sound. "Iguana stew with roasted Muscovy duck is delicious," iguana hunter Selene Cohen tells a Miami New Times reporter. The commenters for the article suggest that the writer is full of shit. Perhaps this video will confirm otherwise.
"It very much tastes like a chicken wing," says Daniel Klein after Cera prepares his iguana.
"Would you eat it again?" asks Cera.
"Oh, yeah. I would eat that any day."
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