Frog: Sushi, Liver, Legs, Arms and Torso

A while back Andrew had an experience I was green with envy over. He went to Chinatown in Los Angeles where he found some live frogs for sale. He bought one and took it back to his home where he cleaned and ate it. He invited me to come down some time so he could duplicate the experience and we would do it together. I couldn't wait. I thought it was pretty bizarre to prepare frog legs killed and cleaned by someone else. However, this was taking things to a whole new level. Saturday morning I picked Andrew and Lauren up in Santa Monica and we headed for Chinatown. We found the store that sold live frogs. I'd never seen anything like it before.

Giant frogs were swimming around in murky water. Bigger frogs than I've ever seen before.

All I can say is, bizarre!

The store owners were supposed to kill the frogs, but we asked them not clean them as that is something we wanted to do. However, when we got them to Andrew's place, they were all still alive.

I would have given anything as a kid to have a pet frog as big as these things were.

Andrew struggled holding them - they were pretty active.

Two together.

A backside view.

Amazinlgy large legs.

Another view.

These frogs were large enough that we not only were able to use their legs, but their upper body and arms as well. I remember seeing Andrew Zimmern on Bizarre Foods eat frog sushi. So I decided to give it a try. I cut off a piece of thigh meat and ate it raw. It was a little chewy, but it didn't taste bad at all.

We also kept and cooked one of the livers. You can see it below in the pan toward the front. After cooking it for awhile I had some of the liver and it wasn't bad. It didn't really have a liver taste at all. It was very mild.

We coated the frog pieces with flour and cooked them in butter and oil.

The three frogs actually provided quite a bit of meat. The front legs were large enough to enjoy and I found that I liked the torso best of all.

The meat is very mild. It is hard to compare this meal with many others I've ever had. It is one thing to cook a meat that has already been prepared. It is quite another thing to have to gut and prepare the meat yourself. I actually got off easy. I took pictures while Andrew did the actual work.