Video: Reporter Katie
Alston tries out the new menu

by Katie Alston

A taste of the exotic is now
on offer in the unlikely setting of the Royal Oak in Blean.

Roast dinners are being replaced
with wildebeest and kangaroo, and ploughman’s lunches with
crocodile, python and zebra as customers gobble up the rare
opportunity to taste a long list of unusual meats.

The new menu, introduced last week,
has so far had a positive response. The idea came from landlord
David Russell who took over the boozer in Blean Common two months
ago.

After living in Australia for seven
years and travelling around the world the 47-year-old, who manages
the pub with partner Helen Tanton, 45, decided to offer his
customers the opportunity to try something a bit different.

He said: “As far as I know there is
nowhere else locally that sells such strange food. The new
menu has certainly got people talking and in the pub industry that
is never a bad thing.

“It is important to create a unique
selling point and I think it can be safely said that this is
ours."