French Live Bird Eating
Matthew Cox
that has been practiced by the french. i.e; Name/age of bird, any
specail preparations, etc.
Not seeking to eat live birds jusy collecting information.
Matt
Elisabeth Bouynot
mc...@speedchoice.com says...
> Looking for details anyone my have in reguards to the live bird eating
> that has been practiced by the french. i.e; Name/age of bird, any
> specail preparations, etc.
Huh? Never heard of it - and I've been French all my life.
Elisabeth
Jill McQuown
news:MPG.16006c0bc...@news.dial.oleane.com...
I saw such a thing on the newsmagazine '60 Minutes' 20 years ago. The
diners placed a napkin over their heads and bit the heads off small birds
before eating them. I cannot for the life of me think why.
Jill
black coffee
Andy Katz
<jmcq...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>I saw such a thing on the newsmagazine '60 Minutes' 20 years ago. The
>diners placed a napkin over their heads and bit the heads off small birds
>before eating them. I cannot for the life of me think why.
There was a short piece about that in one of last year's editions of
Saveur. I don't remember the name of the bird, but it's endangered, so
officially the practice no longer exists. But it's not eaten live.
It's actually roasted whole, then eaten--according to the Saveur
piece--in one bite. Diners do cover their heads with towels,
presumably to catch all of the delicate bouquet, or, more likely, to
enable them to slide the tiny cadaver discretely into a coat pocket
while yelling, "Yowza! That was sure some good eating!"
Andy Katz
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Elisabeth Bouynot
says...
> On Wed, 5 Sep 2001 11:23:02 -0500, "Jill McQuown"
> <jmcq...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> >I saw such a thing on the newsmagazine '60 Minutes' 20 years ago. The
> >diners placed a napkin over their heads and bit the heads off small birds
> >before eating them. I cannot for the life of me think why.
>
> There was a short piece about that in one of last year's editions of
> Saveur. I don't remember the name of the bird, but it's endangered, so
> officially the practice no longer exists. But it's not eaten live.
> It's actually roasted whole, then eaten--according to the Saveur
> piece--in one bite. Diners do cover their heads with towels,
> presumably to catch all of the delicate bouquet, or, more likely, to
> enable them to slide the tiny cadaver discretely into a coat pocket
> while yelling, "Yowza! That was sure some good eating!"
Oh, that.
1- I confirm: the birds are definitely dead and roasted.
2- The birds, called ortolans, are now protected. I guess a few poachers
still do that, but they don't advertise. I think this is a southwestern
dish.
3- The birds (small, sparrow-sized beasties) are caught alive, then fed
for a while until they get fat. Then they are killed, feathered and
roasted. Then supposedly eaten whole under cover of a napkin, though the
notion sounds disgusting to me too.
Elisabeth
Heather
news:32b54afa.0109...@posting.google.com...
> Looking for details anyone my have in reguards to the live bird eating
> that has been >practiced by the >french.
Rent the movie Gigi.
Peter S. Saly
"Jill McQuown" <jmcq...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:xosl7.19115$ZJ.4...@e3500-atl2.usenetserver.com...
You saw NO SUCH thing...
Those birds are eaten cooked.
The birds are small enough to be placed whole in the mouth, and since they
are juicy, the eater often squirts juice on the first bite..
The napkin on the head is to spare the people at adjacent tables the sight
of juice squirting from the mouth of the eater..
Thierry Gerbault
@corp.supernews.com>, Peter S. Saly graciously offered...
>
> "Jill McQuown" <jmcq...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
> news:xosl7.19115$ZJ.4...@e3500-atl2.usenetserver.com...
> > "Elisabeth Bouynot" <elis...@gabuzomeu.net> wrote in message
> > news:MPG.16006c0bc...@news.dial.oleane.com...
> > > In article <32b54afa.0109...@posting.google.com>,
> > > mc...@speedchoice.com says...
> > > > Looking for details anyone my have in reguards to the live bird eating
> > > > that has been practiced by the french. i.e; Name/age of bird, any
> > > > specail preparations, etc.
> > >
> > > Huh? Never heard of it - and I've been French all my life.
> > >
> > > Elisabeth
> >
> > I saw such a thing on the newsmagazine '60 Minutes' 20 years ago. The
> > diners placed a napkin over their heads and bit the heads off small birds
> > before eating them. I cannot for the life of me think why.
> >
> > Jill
> >
>
> You saw NO SUCH thing...
>
> Those birds are eaten cooked.
> The birds are small enough to be placed whole in the mouth, and since they
Bones and all?
> are juicy, the eater often squirts juice on the first bite..
> The napkin on the head is to spare the people at adjacent tables the sight
> of juice squirting from the mouth of the eater..
--
Thierry Gerbault
(remove NOSPAM from address to reply)
"One man's meat is another man's poison"
- Oswald Dykes, English writer, 1709.
Alan Zelt
In reading Mort Rosenblum's " A Goose in Toulouse", he discusses, at
great length, one of the last meals/dinners for Francois Mitterand.(This
came from his biography by Georges-Marc Benamou.)
"The President began with oysters, flat belons, not too salty, the way
he liked them.
More food came before it was time for the Ortolans, a finch like bunting
from Southwest France treasured for their tender flesh but a fiercely
protected endangered species. His old pal Henri Emammanuellit had bought
a dozen and they were served by a gendarme.
The small band dined as the court did at Versailles, with large napkins
masking their faces to hide the grisly gnawing and spitting of tiny
bones. Some guests declined diplomatically; diners outnumbered birds.
The rest attacked with frenzied relish, each occasionally peeking from
behind his cloth to see if anyone got an extra ortolan.
Francois Mitterand emerged first from behind his steaming napkin,
Benamou wrote. Overcome with happiness, his eye sparkling, his glance
full of gratitude toward Emmanuelli. One bird remained in the hot oil,
and the gendarme-waiter circled the table. When he reached Mitterand,
the bird was still there. The President speared it.
All told, Mitterand ate 30 oysters, fois gras, a slice of capon and two
ortolans. Not long after, he passed into history."
--
alan
Eliminate FINNFAN on reply.
"The pleasure of the table reigns among other pleasures, and it is
the last to console when others are lost."
--Brillat-Savarin
Arri London
But the birds aren't eaten live. They are cooked.
The napkin-over-the-head thing is also sometimes used when a
dish contains the treasured truffle, so as not to miss a
single molecule of the aroma.
Of course,I cannot for the life of me think why anyone would
eat peanut butter and jam/jelly sandwiches, but I've heard
that they do <g>.
RSambu
restaurant in Paris. Somehow, this had to do with publicity for a charity.
Claiborne declined the ortolans, but his guest did not. Claiborne was
criticized for wasting the charity's money on the the lavish meal.
Rick
Peter S. Saly
"Thierry Gerbault" <thierry_...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:MPG.1600426ba...@netnews.att.net...
Yes,
Ortolans are so small, that it is not worth cleaning or deboning them..
Here's more...
http://www.tomsmarket.com/Archives/November_2000/november_6_2000.htm
blake murphy
wrote:
there is an american custom of munching live chickens practiced by
'geeks.'
your pal,
tod
Heather
news:3b9720a5.166081181@localhost...
I heard people eat pussy, too! ==8-O
GaryO
There was a movie which dealt with this topic. I believe that the
movie title was the name of a French girl. Was Audrey Hepburn in it?
In one scene, she is introduced to the proper way to eat this bird,
which was to eat it whole and chew the bones. I seem to recall that
she wouldn't eat the bones, earning her the wrath of her tyrannical
aunt(?).
GaryO
trac...@pacbell.net
Boron Elgar
This story has become a tad mixed up in the telling. I assume that the
bird being referred to is an ortolan bunting. The birds were not eaten
while alive, but would be fattened up, killed, defeathered & cooked
whole, in their own fat, to be popped into the mouth with the diner
holding the bird by its beak, to be eaten. bones & all..
They cannot be sold for food anymore in France, though I believe they
can be hunted non-commercially.
Boron
gregono
What a strange question here !
I am 46 and I have never heard of that !
The "Ortolans", which I've never seen in my lifetime, is a kind of legend
here about something vey small, very precious and indeed a kind of so small
a bird that it could be eaten like a piece of chocolate ... but not live !
May be some other French participant here may contradict me but please
believe me such thing never occured in France !
Because I'm French and I love French cooking and Chinese cooking as well,
this reminds me of the same kind of terrible "pseudo habits legends" that
are so common about the chinese.
Pure nonsense
Grego (from Paris)
GaryO
Oops. It was Gigi with Leslie Caron, not Audrey Hepburn.
GaryO
trac...@pacbell.net
GaryO
The movie was Gigi. It starred Leslie Caron, not Audrey Hepburn.
GaryO
trac...@pacbell.net
Nancree
One of my favorite all-time movies
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