Every April, Bull City Burger and Brewery in Durham, North Carolina, celebrates what they call “Exotic Meat Month.” The annual event allows diners the opportunity to experience unusual food selections such as alligator or ostrich. As part of the tradition, the restaurant also offers more adventurous customers a chance to eat a very unique item – a hamburger topped with a baked tarantula.
Dubbed the “ Tarantula Challenge ,” Bull City added the spider burger to the yearly event three years ago. However, as reported by Fox News , not every customer who wants the dish can get it.
Diners with a craving for cooked tarantula must enter their name into a raffle and wait. The winner of the daily drawing has 48 hours to respond to the challenge and schedule the spider chow down. Failure to claim your meal will result in forfeiture, and the oven-roasted tarantula will go to someone else.
In addition to a “free-ranged” tarantula , gruyere cheese and spicy chili sauce add some more flavor to the sandwich. On the side, the customer receives some “dirty fries” to eat alongside the exclusive spider offering. Consuming the whole burger earns the lucky diner a nice T-shirts emblazoned with Bull City’s logo.
Bull City began serving strange food about seven years ago after restaurant owner Seth Gross wanted to offer items not typically found in the U.S. Elk, crickets, and chocolate-covered bugs are just some of the options customers can choose off the menu.
I ate a tarantula and I got a t-shirt @BullCityBurger #wral pic.twitter.com/hlH5Ydw38r
— Kathy Hanrahan (@WRALeighWood) April 12, 2018
According to a Live Science report, Bull City’s “ Exotic Meat Month ” isn’t all about tarantula burgers. Other special menu items include a camel burger, python curry, and a rabbit meatball sub.
Daring others to try it, customers who were awarded the chance to eat the tarantula burger say it tastes a lot like crab or shellfish and is slightly “metallic-y.” Yet, they noted that different parts of the spider offer different flavors.
Six Bull City diners have completed the “Tarantula Challenge,” and more are scheduled to participate. Anyone wanting a chance to taste a spider sandwich or any other uncommon meat item can do so by visiting the restaurant before the end of April.