Standard tries London’s latest exotic menu - crocodile

LOOKING for a dish with a bit of, well, bite? This could be just the thing.

London restaurant-goers are used to having their palates challenged - offal, ostrich, kangaroo and reindeer have all appeared on menus in the capital - and now they are facing up to the culinary challenge posed by crocodile.

Diners at pan-Asian restaurant Taman Gang in Park Lane are going crazy for a dish made from fillets cut from the predator.

At £15.50, "XO Crocodile with vine tomatoes and mixed peppers" is made from thinly sliced and marinated cuts of meat flown in from Australia.

Head chef Ricky Pang created the dish after deciding the white meat was lower in fat and calories than chicken and just as moist and tender.

Alex Chin, 35, was at the hob when the Standard's man called in for lunch. He said: "The crocodile is cut into small pieces and stir-fried. It is tasty, very tender, and a lot like chicken. It is more expensive than other meats as it is harder to get. But it is very popular."

General manager Baton Berisha 28, who has worked for Gordon Ramsay, said: "People are curious. They want to say they have been out for dinner and eaten crocodile. People want to try it because it is unusual. But they are cleaning up their plates."

Maybe. In many years of sampling London's most outré foodstuffs for the Standard, your reporter has eaten camel pie, kangaroo, wallaby, rook pie and a £100 soup made from sea urchin. But where are those dishes now?

So how does it taste? Like chicken, of course, nicely seared and tender. Maybe Mr Pang should expand his repertoire: Croc au vin, perhaps?