Nutria burger is the hottest food in Moscow right now

quote:

---

Eating rodents might conjure up images of starving peasants desperate to survive, or Soviet citizens grimly making it through the siege of Leningrad, but 35-year-old chef and restaurateur Takhir Kholikberdiev has other ideas. He serves up nutria burgers and a whole range of other rodent-based dishes in a sleekly designed eatery right in the centre of Moscow.

---

quote:

---

The recently opened Krasnodar Bistro, named after the southern Russian city from which Kholikberdiev hails, is marketed at the new breed of middle-class Muscovite with broad culinary horizons, and fits into a recent trend among Moscow restaurants of focusing on high-quality local ingredients. Those who are a little freaked out by the idea of munching on rodent are simply misinformed, says Kholikberdiev. “It’s a really clean animal; not only is it a herbivore but it washes all its food before it eats. And it’s very high in omega-3 acids. A lot of doctors and dietitians recommend it.”

The nutria burger at Krasnodar Bistro is pale, juicy and fairly bland, somewhere between turkey and pork. It came in a soft bun, with plenty of relish and served on a chopping board. It tasted pretty good, though while chewing on the meat the diner may get mental flashes of quivering whiskers and nattering orange teeth. A generously sized nutria burger cost 550 roubles (£6.90).

---

quote:

---

In Moscow, eating nutria was unheard of, but that is changing, although rat on the menu takes a little getting used to. The website Afisha, a bible for Moscow hipsters, wrote in its breathless review of Krasnodar Bistro: “Just to reiterate this: it’s 2016 and you can eat a rat burger just a few hundred metres from the Kremlin!”

---