Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa, FL

A few months ago I was asked by a group of people visiting Florida where they can eat alligator ribs. I didn't have an answer for them. All I ever see on menus is gator tail, but no other part of the alligator. They said they saw alligator ribs on a food show, and some Googling brought me to this clip from Man Vs Food visiting Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa:



A few months later, I found myself in Tampa a few miles away from Skipper's Smokehouse at lunchtime. The restaurant looks very haphazard from the outside, with all sorts of random buildings all put together to make up a compound that includes the restaurant, bar, and concert venue.

I already knew what I was ordering. The alligator ribs came with two sides (I had beans & rice and steamed vegetables) and hush puppies. The ribs had a tasty barbecue sauce on them. In terms of consistency and taste, I'm not sure if I would have known they were alligator on a blind taste test. With the sauce and smoked meat flavor, they tasted like pork ribs to me. The consistency was a little tougher, almost like pork ribs that weren't smoked for long enough. The bones in the ribs gave away that I was eating a different animal, appearing much skinnier than a typical rib.

I can now cross reptile ribs off of my food list. These alligator ribs are probably the closest I've tried to a Florida style BBQ, because you can't get much more Florida than alligator. They were good, but if I returned to Skipper's Smokehouse, I think I'd try some smoked fish next time. I'm a big fan of smoked fish and their smoked mullet was calling out to me as I was reading the menu!

Lone Cabbage Fish Camp in Cocoa, FL

I ate lunch at the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp, located on 520 between Cocoa and Orlando. It's one of those places that reeks of classic Florida, located right along the St. Johns River with a constant flow of airboat traffic going by.

 As I was exiting the car, I spotted this concrete gator:

Then I walked down to the river and saw this gator peeking out of the water. Is it strange that while looking at this guy in the river, I decided I wanted some alligator for lunch?

Once inside, I started looking over the menu and decided to do one better than just alligator. I ordered the combo which consisted of not just one, but three river dwelling creatures. The combo came with alligator, frogs legs, catfish, hush puppies, cole slaw, and fries.

Everything on the plate was deep fried (except the cole slaw). It was far too much fried food and I ended up leaving some of it over. The gator was the best meat on the plate, with the catfish being tasteless and the frog legs being far too slimy for me to eat more than one. I would even say the frog legs were undercooked based on the consistency. I've only eaten the meat a couple other times though so I'm no expert.

Overall, the food was actually pretty bad here. The gator meat was the only thing that had any flavor in my plate. Normally with fried foods, the flavor is in the batter, but this wasn't the case here. Really though, you don't come to a place like the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp for the food. You come for the riverside dining environment. You come for views like this:

Gatorland's Gator Hallow

I went to Gatorland for their Gator Hallow Halloween event. Since no visit to an alligator farm would be complete without tasting gator meat, I ordered some Fried Gator Nuggets from the snack bar before tour left (it turned out Gatorland doesn't actually raise alligators for meat). I really liked the deep fried alligator, especially with hot sauce. The saying goes that gator tastes like chicken, but the truth is that it really does. In terms of taste, consistency, and look, gator tail and chicken does look a whole lot alike. Not too surprising though since reptiles and poultry aren't that far off. Chickens are a close living relative to the Tyrannosaurus Rex...

Once I finished eating my alligator, the tour started. While I was disappointed by Halloween Horror Nights at Universal this year, I was surprising pleased with Gator Hallow. For $10, they gave a really entertaining tour that was really well done. Having a tour with different guides along the way to move the story along definitely adds something to the experience that you don't get in the standard Halloween maze where you just wander through while people jump out and shout boo. Gatorland had plenty of hoards of zombies, aliens, bigfoot, and of course, gators...


I'd gladly do Gator Hallow again next year...

Cajun Food on Fat Tuesday

Happy Fat Tuesday!

In celebration of today being Fat Tuesday, the last day of Mardi Gras, I'm posting some previously unpublished Cajun food that was eaten before the existence of this blog. This is an Andouille Sausage Sandwich with peppers and onions and a plate of Shrimp Gumbo. These were eaten at Universal's Mardi Gras event, where along with the fun parade and concerts, they also set up several food stands throughout the park selling Cajun food that isn't half bad. I especially like their Jambalaya, complete with whole crawfish, but unfortunately, I don't have any pictures.

Of course, for more Cajun food in Orlando, I really liked the jambalaya and po boys from the Crooked Bayou.

To get closer to New Orleans for today's Cajun theme, I dug up some pictures of food from a trip to Memphis, TN in 2006. Here is some Alligator Gumbo that I ate at the Rum Boogie Cafe on Beale Street. From what I remember, the alligator gumbo tasted great. The problem was with the amount. What I ordered was considered a dinner, but the amount of gumbo that was actually served was kind of sad. They put a little pile of iceberg lettuce next to a cup of the gumbo and charged double the price of just a cup of gumbo alone. Eating outside at the restaurant along Beale Street was a great environment, although it didn't make up for the horribly slow service in the restaurant.