Eating the bizarre in Czar, Alberta

"I am eating snake pythonit's very, very good," says Lloyd Hoff, a regular at the Fireside Grill in Czar, Alta.

Adds Selena Redel, another regular customer: "I have tried the wild boar one time, and the kangaroo."

Four years ago, when Chris and Beverly Van Hoek decided to build an addition onto their roadside diner, they also thought they would expand the menu.

Standing at his grill in the restaurant's hot kitchen on a busy lunch hour, Chris explained how the unusual business approach came about.

"Anybody can flip burgers," he said, "so I thought, 'Why not try some of this weirder stuff?'

"Sold out of kangaroo the first day. Second day I tried alligator, sold out of it that day. Ihad people phoning me asking if I could save some for them for the next day."

The Van Hoeks havesince added turtle, yak, shark and other exotic burgers to the menu and the Fireside Grill has become a big draw for the village along Highway 41, 45 kilometres south of Wainwright.

Tyson Motley has tried everything except for the ostrich.

"My favourite is python," he said. Asked to describe the taste, he drew a blank.

"I don't have any idea, it just tastes like python burger."

Regular dinerMckenzieBerry said the restaurant is "special and good for a small area" like Czar, population 170.

"I've done the camel burger, I've done frog legs and the turtle soup once. They were all very delicious."

Some of the food is local. The yak, for instance, is fromLloydminster. Butmost of the exotic meatis from suppliers in Edmonton and British Columbia.

Co-owner Beverly Van Hoek said business is good.

"We sell a lot, some people just ordered python and shark, those ones are good," she said.

"But the weird one is turtle. I will admit, I haven't tried that one, It scares me." She walks away laughing,

"It scares me!"