Mardi Gras gator a big hit at Slovak American Club in Tarentum

If you want to celebrate Mardi Gras with a genuine Louisiana delicacy, you don’t need to go to Bayou country to enjoy it.

Over the weekend, the Slovak American Club in Tarentum brought a full-grown alligator to its headquarters on West Seventh Avenue for its Saturday night Mardi Gras celebration. The club had never prepared a gator before. So why here? Why now?

“Me and my fiancee are New Orleans enthusiasts, so we decided to do a New Orleans party,” said Slovak American Club president Scott Nowacki.

And, apparently, you can’t do a New Orleans party without cooking a gator.

Nowacki’s fiancee, Jennifer Olczak, 53, of Brackenridge said it was about doing something fun and different.

“I really wanted to get people to try something that they had never tried before,” she said.

But now that the wave of Pittsburgh-area gator sightings from a couple of years ago has subsided, where do you find one?

“I found a website that would FedEx me a whole alligator, and here we are,” Nowcki said.

Exactly how do you FedEx an alligator?

“It comes in a big styrofoam cooler with dry ice. It’s dead, but it still has the head on it and the feet and the skin. They freeze it and ship it overnight,” Nowacki said.

This particular alligator happened to be a female and weighed 29 pounds. And, apparently, nearly the whole gator is edible, including the tail, the jaws and the ribs, which Nowacki describes as “delicious.”

As for the gator meat, it’s white and flaky and tastes like — wait for it — chicken. Well, sort of.

“Everybody says it tastes like chicken, but it’s more like a fish or a frog leg,” said Nowacki, who has been to New Orleans several times and first tried alligator six years ago.

For those who can’t imagine ever even trying gator, the way Nowacki describes the preparation and cooking process makes it sound good enough to eat.

“We injected her with butter and garlic and Cajun spices and seasonings, and I wrapped her in bacon and wrapped her in foil, put her on the grill and barbequed her,” he said.

Nowacki admitted to getting help by watching some YouTube videos.

The gator was free for the Slovak American Club members to consume. About 100 of them stopped in and seemed to enjoy it, including Robert McBurney, 49, of Tarentum, who had never eaten alligator before.

“I kinda wanted to try it. I’m not a seafood person, but gator is a little different,” he said. “I tried a piece, and it was really good. And I went and got some more and had a whole plate full. The texture and the flavor was very good. I enjoyed it.”

Dave Ludwig, 57, of Natrona Heights had eaten alligator before and said it was good this time, as well.

“The first time I had alligator, a friend of mine had brought it back from Florida and deep fried it. This was a little different, but it was alligator. I wouldn’t say it tasted like chicken, but it’s a light white meat, and it’s a little gummier than chicken. It’s chewy, but it’s good.”

For his part, Nowacki hasn’t quite committed to making barbequed alligator an annual event at the Slovak American Club. But for many of its members this weekend, the somewhat intimidating southern creature just became the new white meat.