I recently paid another visit to the island nation of Aruba, where an assortment of lizards maintain permanent residence. This includes a lot of rather large iguanas. To my American experience, they’re reminiscent of squirrels, at least in terms of how common they are. But when iguanas run, it’s much, much funnier. Plus, every iguana looks like a little dinosaur who’s displeased with you:

While out to dinner one night, I spotted “iguana soup” on the menu. Though it sounded pretty awful to me, I’m told iguana tastes “chicken-ish”, as most meat does. As I waited for my decidedly non-iguana food to arrive, I got to wondering, how exactly do they obtain that meat? Are iguanas farm-raised? Are they trapping wild iguanas? If an American restaurant wanted to serve squirrel tartare, how exactly would they source it?

Iguanas are an invasive species in Florida, but the Sunshine State occasionally gets cold snaps, and iguanas are cold-blooded. The result is that they freeze up and fall out of trees, which is a story every time it happens. Apparently, some people then harvest these fallen iguanas from the ground for food. This has all been a roundabout way of sharing with you the following phrase: “Chicken of the trees”.