So I was in the local supermarket and spotted some crocodile fillets on the meat shelves, and thought, why not? I remember eating crocodile precisely once before in my life, in of all places Varaždin in October 1998 (a wedding anniversary excursion, which is why the month sticks in my memory). I thought then that it was a bit like chicken but more fishy. So, could I rise to the challenge myself?

Extensive research on the internet, as far as I could do that standing in the doorway of the supermarket, suggested that the easiest thing to do is to chop it up, marinade it in lemon juice and minced garlic for an hour and then then fry it, so that’s what I did. I added some soy sauce at the end because I was a bit worried that it needed a bit of extra oomph, and rather unadventurously accompanied it with rice, beans and carrots.

Reviews were fine. Young F said that he thought it was a bit like chicken and a bit like fish, which is basically what I thought before he was born, and given the relative taxonomic places of birds, crocodiles and fish it seems a bit right. Fortunately he likes both chicken and fish, so this was a positive reaction. I think less soy sauce and more lemon would have worked better. But it was tasty enough and gives the impression of being nutritious.

I won’t buy it every week – or indeed every month – but I will definitely try it again, perhaps with more forward planning next time.