Ten Questions: Florida Monkey Squirrels. Have you ever heard of a monkey squirrel? Sometimes they are called monkey face squirrel. Most of you haven't, but many people who live in Florida know of the monkey squirrel. Unlike the squirrels familiar to any urban back yard, the secretive monkey squirrels are very picky about where they'll live.
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Now, you might ask: When was urban squirrel-eating a thing in the first place? Or: How do you legally kill one within the city limits? And for those questions, and any other queries into the niche world of urban squirrel eating, we point you to this week's, which today published a definitive guide on the subject. The alt-weekly's Mike Sula details everything from the typical diet of an urban squirrel (the cover suggests hot dogs), along with recipes, cuts of meat, and the sticker price for having a private, state-licensed company do the killing for you. But the question everyone wants to know the answer to is, How does it taste? Apparently it isn't all that bad. Here's what Sula's dinner guests say:'It was so good that I got kinda depressed,' my neighbor e-mailed later.
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'There are so many people who don't get enough protein and here is this menacing squirrel, there for the taking.' If I hadn't known in advance,' said another, 'I doubt I would have been able to tell. But I tasted the cheek and even that, while incredibly delicious, tasted like something between pork and lamb. I never would have guessed it was squirrel in a blind tasting.'
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Most guests communicated a general surprise that city squirrels didn't taste like the wild muskiness of bigger wild game. I don't think that's an indication that it was overseasoned. I think it's because squirrel doesn't have an assertive flavor to begin with, at least not one that corresponds with its brazen behavior.Proverbially, it tastes like chicken.For more squirrel-related intelligence, read Sula's entire primer on the subject.This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.We want to hear what you think about this article.
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