Have you eaten an a reptile?

Gator tastes _mostly_ like chicken, but not _exactly_ like chicken. There’s a distinct note of gamieness (much more pronounced in wild caught compared to farmed), and also notes of whitefish. Texture-wise it’s very difficult to distinguish from chicken though. That said, ‘tastes like chicken’ is a cliché for a reason. Almost all reptiles taste ‘like chicken’ to a similar degree to how all birds taste ‘like chicken’, because the taste results from shared biochemistry that originated after synapsids (the ancestors of mammals) and saurposids (the ancestors of all modern reptiles, including birds) diverged from each other, but before lepidosaurs (the ancestors of modern lizards and snakes), archosaurs (the ancestors of modern crocodilians and birds), and testudinates (the ancestors of modern turtles) diverged from each other. Snakes and lizards generally also taste ‘like chicken’, turtles somewhat less so. Oh, and depending on where you are you either won’t find gator at all except possibly as a special order, or you’ll have to go to a fishmonger instead of a butcher (for example, where I live in Southwest Ohio the only place I could get gator meat is the good fishmonger in town).