Aspects of Herpetophagy
My statement in these notes last week that snake tasted like eel has brought sceptical letters from two readers. " Has Strix ever tasted boiled krait ? " asks Mr. J. M. Reilly of Beaconsfield, and goes on to describe a rather macabre gastronomic contretemps. One of these small poisonous Indian snakes fell, unobserved, into a pot in which French beans were being boiled, and in due course Mr. Reilly, who was dining alone and reading while he ate, put the krait into his mouth with the beans. It had," he recalls with feeling, " the most horrible flavour of anything I have ever tried lo eat, arid did not bear the slightest resemblance to eel." My other corre- spondent, Mr. H. S. W. Edwardes of Fordingbridge, writes: " I tried python in Africa and it tasted like dull tough cod. . . . Crocodile was much the same." Neither of these inter-. esting sidelights 'titers my contention that the right sort of snake, prepared for the table by the right sort of cook, does taste like eel and is very good to eat.
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