My latest Vue Weekly submission, on newstands now, is, well, different. The wine columnist and I were given the challenge by our editor of pairing our favourite beverage with four exotic and unusual meats: python, alligator, muskox and kangaroo.

I am not kidding.

So I took my best shot at it, suggesting beer that I thought might work best with these unusual flavours. The good news is that almost nobody is going to be in a position to challenge my choices.

Did you know that alligator tastes like chicken? I didn’t. It does, although not quite; it also has pork-like qualities. Who knew it was such a versatile beast. So my suggestions? How about a rauchbier or maybe Alley Kat’s Smoked Porter. Or (and this is my personal favourite idea) Aventinus Weizenbock. Think about it for a second (not that I expect you to spend a moment of your life thinking about what beer goes with alligator) and I think you will agree that its rich maltiness and complex clove and fruit flavours will nicely contrast the quiet alligator-ness of the meat (did I really say that?).

I personally think my suggestions leave the wine person eating my dust, but I gather I am rather biased. I will let you decide. To get all of my suggestions, you are going to have to read the article, which you can find here.

And, in an act of full disclosure, no, I did not taste the meats in question – Vue’s budget ain’t that big and my courage ain’t that fortified. Instead I got a good description of the meat and let my pairing imagination run from there.