Some 20-odd years ago, the neighbor, downstairs from me, had been fishing with his kids when his line got snagged and eaten by a > 20+ lbs. snapper. He dumped out the cooler and flipped the bugger back-ass over (thing didn't fit), counted the kids' fingers and noses and told them to keep it from getting loose in the truck.
He got it home and yelled for me to come on down and help him hang it butt-up in the garage rafters so he could "cut and drain it" (as he put it).
Sum-b!tch was p!55ed!!! We got it hung and he went in for the knife...I decided I did enough and with the kids being about 2cc. short of an adrenaline overdose, I figured there was enough people and craziness going on...I didn't need to be around for the snapper beheading...but I did HEAR ABOUT IT later on...
About that...
Around 1800 or so, I get a knock on the door and there's Mr. Snapper-Napper, standing in nothing more than a "wet" t-shirt and some cut-off shorts, holding a heaping pile of "Snapper-Nuggets" on his wife's fine china.
Needless to say, there was some hesitation on my part after the aforementioned gathering in the garage...thank God there weren't any dogs involved...
Anyways, I reached out and managed to pull out the "nugget" that looked to be more coating than meat and bit into it.
I was surprised! The old addage "...tastes like chicken..." couldn't have been more true, but that old snapper had a "dark meat" flavor to him and just a bit more "earthy" to boot. I had a few more and I'll be darned if it wasn't really tasty.
But, in the back of my mind, I'm sorta' glad I didn't wait around in the garage for the "deed" to be performed.
That would have been a bit too close to seeing how sausage is made, than I'd like to be.
