Top Lakeland restaurant serves up Peking duck-style squirrel pancakes

 

Last updated at 14:41pm on 16th October 2007 Comments

Nuts: Grey Squirrel is served in canapes

 

A top restaurant is serving up free grey squirrel pancakes to hungry diners.

Peking duck-style squirrel wraps are being offered to diners at The Famous Wild Boar Hotel.

The restaurant at Crook, near Windermere, in Cumbria, is giving diners the chance to try the canapes free of charge.

The grey squirrels were caught in the hotel's 72-acre woodland grounds and have been prepared by head chef Marc Sanders.

Hotel general manager Andy Lemm said: "Although we do still have red squirrels, the greys are everywhere.

"Our diners seemed to enjoy the squirrel pancakes and I thought they tasted rather nice, a bit like rabbit."

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Nibble: Wild Boar Hotel head chef Marc Sanders with the Peking duck-style squirrel treats

 

Lord Redesdale's Red Squirrel Protection Partnership specialises in trapping and despatching greys to protect the reds.

The partnership has killed 4,521 greys since January, and Lord Redesdale said: "The problem is that when we catch and despatch greys, there is nothing we can do with them.

"We would like to be a supplier of grey squirrels. With an estimated five million greys in the country, there are enough of them to go round."

James Cookson runs the Flying Fox sales and marketing venture for food and rural businesses, based near Morpeth, Northumberland, which also features the Comfort at Meldon Park restaurant.

He said: "Grey squirrels can be eaten and there is no reason why they shouldn't be eaten.

"It makes sense if you are catching something to make use of it.

"We have some grey traps set at the moment and I would be willing to try it, without a doubt.

"If we could get enough greys and a suitable recipe then I can see no reason why it shouldn't be on the menu.

"Our reds are disappearing, and perhaps the more greys that are eaten, the better it is for the reds."

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Endangered: Red Squirrels are under threat because of a burgeoning population of greys

 

Carri Nicholson, manager of the Save Our Squirrels project based at Northumberland Wildlife Trust, said: "It is far more ecologically and environmentally sound to find a use for what is being trapped.

"A number of places in Northumberland are thinking of having grey squirrel on the menu.

"I haven't tried grey squirrel but people I know who have say it tastes like chicken used to taste when it tasted like chicken.

"The Americans have numerous recipes for grey squirrel, with the most popular being Brunswick Stew, which is casseroled squirrel."

Last year Lord Inglewood, who lives near Penrith in Cumbria, warned the red squirrel will soon become extinct if the non-native grey population is allowed to go on increasing.

He suggested then that one way of dealing with the problem would be to foster a market for grey squirrel meat.

He said: "What about celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver promoting it for school dinners? I have never actually eaten a grey squirrel but I am prepared to give it a go."

Long live the red squirrel!

Hahahahaha!

reillllyyyyyyy :kiss: if it is really you

Hey!

 

Yup its me!

really? :o reilly is back *waves*

 

i did magic when i saw you online on msn the other day then :wink3: don't leave us man. :kiss:

 

long live to red squirrell :cool4:

 

but poor grey squirrell, served on canape :cry:

Are grey squirrels just universal bullies then? I know they have a problem with them further south... around here we just have red squirrels (though a totally different kind than that picture)

Are grey squirrels just universal bullies then? I know they have a problem with them further south... around here we just have red squirrels (though a totally different kind than that picture)

it happening since few years that there are a lot of new bullies animals that are invading areas in europe and destroying the species from the area (crickets, beatles, crabs... (in Spain there are few original river crabs :cry:))....

 

are you sure that there are red squirrells there then? :thinking: can you post a pic of them?

 

(i love squirrells (used to have an avi of them) :nice:)

are you sure that there are red squirrells there then? :thinking: can you post a pic of them?

 

(i love squirrells (used to have an avi of them) :nice:)

 

Yeah, I think there's a family of them living in or near my backyard, actually, they're around alot, they're noisy, and they drive the cats crazy...

 

hmm... pictures

 

can find pics here too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:AmericanRedSquirrel.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/rb_stern/ns_scenery_and_nature

oh is a red squirrell anyways, american one, but are red squirrells. cool pics. :cool:

lucky you you have them near you, i don't :cry: i only have birds :nice:

 

do we had a squirrell thread somewhere i think, it needs to be bumped now. :wacko:

(like 2 years ago i was obsessed about squirrell, planing to have one at home, althought is not easy as they need a lot of space and domesticated ones can't be in freedom again (laws here don't let people have native squirrels), that i joined a board about squirrels :p, i don't get there so often now... :uhoh:)

Oh sounds delish!!

Lots of people in Louisiana eat squirrels (myself not included). Anything recently deceased is fair game for a meal in Louisiana. :laugh3:

Lots of people in Louisiana eat squirrels (myself not included). Anything recently deceased is fair game for a meal in Louisiana. :laugh3:

 

I'm from SC and people eat them here too. Pretty gross although those pictures are really funny

I eat baby koala.

poor squirrel and koala :cry:

I don't really. I have eaten crocodile, emu and goanna before though. Emus are yum!

what's goanna? :thinking:

 

poor animals, i'm not veggie but... well we eat animals that are grown to be eaten, not wild animals. :(

 

and doesn't eaten koala is forbidden? aren't them in danger or something like that, like panda and lynx?

Yep, they're endangered.

 

Goannas are giant lizards.

Yep, they're endangered.

 

Goannas are giant lizards.

and so you eat it anyways? :o :(

 

never heard of goannas before.. :thinking:

 

but you ate them to try them, right? you don't eat them often? :thinking:

Haha, no I was joking about the koalas.

 

There is a restaurant near my town that specializes in native animal food. Oh yes, I had kangaroo there too!

Haha, no I was joking about the koalas.

 

There is a restaurant near my town that specializes in native animal food. Oh yes, I had kangaroo there too!

 

:o

 

lol strange restaurant that one :o ... and those kinds of restaurants are common in Australia? :thinking:

 

i think you would win an awards of different meals here... if we would had that category.. :surprised:

I don't think they're too common. I've only ever come across a few. If ever you're in Australia you should go there. It's in the Grampians...which are like mountain ranges but they are tiny compared to the rest of the world's mountains!

I don't think they're too common. I've only ever come across a few. If ever you're in Australia you should go there. It's in the Grampians...which are like mountain ranges but they are tiny compared to the rest of the world's mountains!

wow you are close to 3000 posts :dance:

 

Grampians? is a mountain or a restaurant? :thinking:

i would like to go to Australia, i suggested it as degree travel but it will took us a lot of time to get there :( but i really would like to go there one day and to NZ too. :cool4: but those restaurants are scaring me a bit, may be the food taste good but, i prefer them not to tell me what i'm eating then. poor animals. :cry:

The Grampians are mountains :D

 

Yeah Australia and NZ are so far away from everywhere. :( But I recommend coming anyway! I personally would love to go to Spain!

The Grampians are mountains :D

 

Yeah Australia and NZ are so far away from everywhere. :( But I recommend coming anyway! I personally would love to go to Spain!

i know very few about Australia geography :embarassed:, although i was pretty interested in that country, really.

 

yes are so far, but i hope i can go there soon. :)

yes Spain is cool too, but now i'm thinking to visit other european countries. :)