We don’t really know how else to break it to you but eating rat meat is a now thing in Russia.
Well, not like a street rat, but nutria, a 4 kilo rodent with big orange teeth you can find running around riverbanks in southern Russia. According to reports the furry pest is finding its way on to plates at an upmarket eatery in Moscow and reviews aren’t that bad.
Disgusting as the idea might seem, if you can stomach it there’s a few benefits to eating nutria says chef Takhir Kholikberdiev.
The 35-year-old has been serving up nutria, as well as other rodent-based dishes in his restaurant Krasnodar Bistro in Moscow and says that it’s a meat choice that has a lot of merit.
“It’s a really clean animal,” Kholikberdiev told The Guardian. “Not only is it a herbivore but it washes all its food before it eats. And it’s very high in omega-3 acids. A lot of doctors and dietitians recommend it.”
A generously sized nutria burger will set you back about $12 from Kholikberdiev’s restaurant and according to The Guardian’s Shaun Walker who reviewed the dish, the meat was “pretty good” and tastes “somewhere between turkey and pork”.
We’ll just take your word for it buddy.
