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| Franziska Macho from Germany enjoys a slice of crocodile tongue. |
While this is only a tiny cut of the tons of other kinds of meat
sold weekly in KZN’s capital, the demand for almost four tons of crocodile meat
a month did not exist two years ago.
Now the constant queue at the relatively new Dan Crocodile Meat
Butchery on Boom Street has inspired the owner, Dan Ndlela, to open his next ingwenya shisa nyama 700km away, in the metropole of Soweto.
“We are preparing a shop much like the model I use here [in
Pietermaritzburg] and I hope to sell a ton of crocodile meat each week in
Soweto, starting in April,” Ndlela said.
One tourist at Dan Crocodile Butchery, Franziska Macho from Germany, said the crocodile tongue was surprisingly tender and very tasty.
This includes not just the tail tjops and tongue, but a croc goulash and Ndlela’s delicious crocodile sausage, which has the aficionados licking their fingers. Ndlela said he sells about 150 kilograms of his croc boerewors a week.
This includes not just the tail tjops and tongue, but a croc goulash and Ndlela’s delicious crocodile sausage, which has the aficionados licking their fingers. Ndlela said he sells about 150 kilograms of his croc boerewors a week.
Asked if the boerie contained any pork, Ndlela was indignant. “This
is a crocodile butchery, we only use the best crocodile cuts,” he said.
He buys all his meat from Brandon Pentolfe, who raises 10 000 Nile
crocodiles at Shallow Drift near Pietermaritzburg.
Earlier, Africa's oldest newspaper, The Witness, reported that Raphael Tsaurayi, Shallow Drift abattoir manager, had approached
Ndlela with the idea of marketing crocodile meat to local consumers.
Pentolfe had told The
Witness that when the economy in Europe collapsed in 2008, they stopped
exporting the meat and tried selling it locally. At first they sold only 50
kilograms. Last year they sold up to five tons of crocodile meat a month.
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| Dan Ndlela |
The crocodiles at Shallow Drift are “free range” and kept in big
open pens with large tracts of grass and large pools to bathe in. They eat
offcuts from butcheries.
Ndlela said he was initially keen but unsure how locals would take
to the meat of the mighty carnivore. He has since learnt the taste always wins
over those who are squeamish.
Pentolfe said Ndlela has now succeeded in pioneering a new and thriving market for crocodile meat and has become his main client, buying about 70% of his
stock, with the rest going to a shop in Newcastle and specialist
restaurants.
Asked what made crocodile meat special, Pentolfe said crocodiles
had survived without much change since the late Cretaceous period, over
65 million years ago; and scientific research has shown the prehistoric
reptile’s fat cells to be very rich in antibodies, which act like bactericides.
“Oriental cultures have long believed that eating crocodile is not just tasty,
but very healthy,” said Pentolse.
Braai-master at Dan’s shisa nyama, Zamo Zondi, had a
slightly different reason for the rising popularity of the croc cut. He said men
liked to buy crocodile because it was the most meat available for the money,
“but some ladies come to buy our frozen packs of crocodile tail for their
husbands”, he added with a wink.
A 100 gram fillet of the Nile crocodile farmed in South Africa
typically contains 415 kilojoules, which is the lowest energy count of the six
meats sold in SA, including pork and venison.
Yet the protein count is 21,5 per gram, which is higher than beef
and only 0,5 less than pork (Source: izintaba.com).
