I’m doing this restaurant review as a page so that it won’t show up in the main feed, as I know that it will squick a lot of people.
In Sedona today, I passed by a restaurant called The Cowboy Club, which announced on its bulletin board that it serves rattlesnake. One of my culinary bucket list items is to try snake meat, so I did some quick research into the restaurant’s quality and prices, was pleased with what I saw, and went in.
There was only one rattlesnake option, an appetizer for $16 plus tax. I asked the server about it and she explained the dish to me thoroughly, saying that it could possibly make a full meal for someone. It actually sounded like a lot, so I decided to go ahead and order.
The presentation was lovely and appetizing and the server explained everything to me. There is a sweet dipping sauce (I forget what was in it) to be paired with the two skewers of snake meat covered in a cilantro lime batter.
Above the sauce is ‘southwest peanut butter’ to be slathered on the fried cilantro flat bread in the middle of the plate. Next to that on top is a riblet topped with BBQ sauce and below that is a sausage.
I dove right in with the sausage. It was very mildly flavoured and delicious. I mean, it’s sausage. Sausage by definition is scary stuff in a case made delicious with seasonings! I had a few bites and moved on to the skewers.
The batter was fine. I’m just not a fan of deep fried stuff. Inside the batter was very tender and moist meat with barely any flavour. It’s definitely nothing like chicken. I’ve had frog and that’s the closest I can get to describing the moist stringy nature of the meat and barest wisp of an aquatic flavour. Visually, the bits of skin were off putting, so I just closed my eyes. 🙂
Finally, I tried the riblet. As the server said, it’s really there to prove that you are eating snake meat as you get a bit of the spine and tons of bones. It was a pain to eat and not very rewarding meat-wise. I felt like a real western gal as I picked and sucked at those tiny pointy rattlesnake bones! 🙂 Thankfully, there were two nice long strips along the top of the backbone that really gave me a sense of the flavour. I like that the BBQ sauce did not completely mask the snake taste, but rather enhanced it.
I alternated between all three presentations, finishing with the sausage, which was a very generous portion. I really enjoyed the snake meat and would most definitely try it again!
But I’m afraid that the highlight of the meal was the flat bread and southwest peanut butter! OMG, I could have that for breakfast every day for the rest of my life and never get sick of it. The peanut butter was a little sweet and full of cumin and cilantro. I’m finally at the point where cilantro doesn’t ruin a meal for me and can sometimes enhance it. That was certainly the case today.
I gave the server a slightly better than 20% tip, so the meal came to $21 even. It felt worth every penny, from the service, taste, quality of the food, and quantity. I came out of there stuffed!
Next culinary bucket list item: insects. I know I can knock that off the list in Mexico. I’m fine with the idea of eating the bugs, I just don’t feel like picking their legs out of my teeth…
