2005/06/04 23:21:42 GMT
BBC News
Hungry punters visiting a food festival in Kent on Sunday will be able to try the unlikely dish of squirrel.
The owner of the Tapster and Ardennes restaurant in Newnham said he wanted to try the dish after reading glowing reviews of it in two national papers.
The restaurant will be showcasing its squirrel dish at the Flavours of Faversham festival on Sunday.
Restaurant owner Mitch Spooner said he thought squirrel could become a popular delicacy across the UK.
He told BBC Radio Kent: "I've never tried it before at all, it's our first venture into squirrel.
"Reading the national papers recently we've seen it advertised quite a lot.
"The Times has done a feature on it and so has the Daily Mail, with some of the Conran restaurants serving it now, so we feel we're coming in at the right time."
Mr Spooner said he would be cooking saddle of squirrel, served with a nut sauce.
But he added: "We do realise some people might be a bit squeamish about this so we thought we might do a pate so it's not so obviously squirrel meat."
He said he thought British people were always willing to try new things so the dishes could become a national delicacy.
I have a pair of squirrels in my front garden who I throw a slice of bread to every time I open my breadbin, they wait for me when I'm making breakfast in the morning and sit there nibbling on it. I'm a total hypocrite tho for getting mad about eating those cute little tree-rats bcz what's to say that a cat/pig/dog/lamb squirrel etc is incapable of having a personality so what's the difference really? If someone can eat one, why not the other?