Florida has a great food scene when you need a little snack. A Cuban sandwich, a gas station empanada, a Publix sub you swear tastes better because you ate it in flip-flops. Florida man Gray Davis chose none, though, and instead went with a different local delicacy.
In a viral TikTok, the creator films himself collecting a cold-stunned green iguana that fell from a tree during a cold snap, then turning it into tacos. Most people see “raining iguanas” and think, wow, nature is so wild. Davis saw it and thought, yum, free groceries.
“Whenever we have these cold fronts, and they start falling down, a lot of people will go out and collect them to help control the number in the population,” he says. Then he goes for the selling point that made half the internet gag. “They do have the nickname ‘chicken of the trees’ because they’re absolutely delicious. So rather than let this one go to waste, we’re going to make tacos.”
Green iguanas count as an invasive species in South Florida, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has allowed residents to remove and dispose of cold-stunned iguanas without a permit during the cold snap. Davis took that “dispose” part as “make dinner.”
He shows off the iguana he picked, but he doesn’t show the dispatching or cleaning. He does share a detail that launched its own comment-section meltdown. Davis says he found 20 eggs inside the iguana. “So by removing this one iguana, we actually saved the environment from over 20 iguanas come spring,” he says.
Then comes the cooking content. Davis simmers the iguana meat with onion, garlic, bay leaf, and salt. The eggs (all 20 of them) get soft-boiled and blended with avocado, garlic cloves, olive oil, salt, and lime to make a sauce. After that, he crisps the meat in a pan with his seasonings and builds the tacos.
“Now that right there is a Florida man taco,” he says. “If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em.”
Viewers did what viewers do when confronted with someone doing something this insane. “Sorry, you lost me at blending 20 iguana eggs in a blender to dip their mother’s body into,” one commenter wrote. Another went straight for the big-picture horror. “21 souls in one meal is crazy.”
Still, Davis actually received some props. Some people praised the eco-minded angle, with one commenter saying, “This is literally just living sustainably, and he’s protecting the environment.”
Davis later posted a follow-up about ethical eating and acknowledged that not everyone wants to take a bite out of Florida’s invasive species problem. “I totally get if you just won’t eat an iguana taco; everybody has their limits, that’s fine,” he said. “Rather than let the one that I found go to waste, I decided to make tacos,” adding, “I would argue that it’s the most ethical taco you could possibly have.”
I get the logic. I respect the commitment. But, that’s a no from me, dog.
The post Frozen Iguanas Are Falling From Trees in Florida—So This Guy Made Them Into Tacos appeared first on VICE.
