How adventurous can your palate get? What's the most exotic food have you stuffed yourself with? When I was a gawkish teenager in our hometown in Quezon, I "accidentally" ate asuzena (dog meat) and that was the "weirdest" thing I'd ever had..till last Friday. My office pal Pam and I decided to go out for lunch. After minutes of walking under the noonday sun, we found ourselves at Wilcon Depot, inside Nueve Cafe which serves croc meat. Yup, you read it right. Crocodile! Remember "Lolong", the over 20-foot saltwater crocodile that landed the Philippines in the Guinness Book of World Records? Hehe. Pam told me she couldn't and wouldn't eat croc meat out of respect for the memory of the former world's largest crocodile in captivity. Haha! But I couldn't be at this restaurant without trying croc meat. I had to have my croc! Haha! But before I impress you with having an adventurous palate, let me admit that I was only feigning courage. Hehe. Truth was I shied away from pure croc meat by looking past the Dundee Burger, Croc Katsu and worst, Sesame Croc Ribs (I wouldn't want to be staring at crocodile ribs and scrape the meat off it too and eat it!) in the menu. Instead, I ordered Croc Carbonara because I knew that once I mixed the pasta and sauce all together, I wouldn't taste croc meat in all its pureness. Hehehe.
Here are Pam and mine's orders:
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| My Croc Carbonara, P135. See the crocodile meat toppings? |
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| Pam's Arrabiata, P120. |
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| Tuna Clubhouse, P185. We shared this. |
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| Our drinks: Mango Juice and Dalandan Juice, P40. each. |
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| Inside Nueve Cafe. |
Pam and I both loved our pasta and the clubhouse sandwich too. If you're curious how the croc meat tasted, I tell you I'm not sure, I didn't want to concentrate on it for fear of losing my appetite. Hahaha! But Pam opined that it tasted like longganisa and I agreed. Anyway, I asked the server where they get their croc meat and she shared that Nueve Cafe is owned by Wilcon Depot and that they have their own crocodile farm in Teresa, Rizal. By the way, Pam and I "pitied" the server because she seemed to be the lone crew so she also was the cashier and the one who prepared (the sandwich, at least.. not sure if she cooked our pasta too!) and served our food. I cheerily added that maybe, she was also the one who caught the crocodile for my order. Hehehe. (Joke lang!) I liked her though because even if she was multi-tasking, she was still friendly toward us..until she told me I couldn't take a picture of the counter. Grrr..hehehe. The owner forbids it, she said. Oh well, I'm glad I was still able to take a picture of the cafe's interior. (I hope the server doesn't get a memo for this).
Nueve Cafe has three branches that I know of - Visayas Ave., Libis and Alabang Zapote. I'm not sure if there are others besides these and so is Google.
Dare munch on croc meat today?
