ortolan bunting(songbird)

i wanted to share what i feel is a pretty strange meal..something i just came across.

the ortolan bunting.




www.telegraph.co.uk...

A songbird that's small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, the average ortolan weighs less than an ounce.

You cannot shoot a tiny songbird out of the sky without destroying it and making it inedible. So, hunters catch the birds using traps set in fields during their migratory season (when they fly to Africa). They are then kept in cages (and occasionally in black boxes to disorientate them), encouraging them to gorge on grain in order to double their size

Traditionally in France, the fattened little birds are drowned in a vat of Armagnac – managing to snuff out their life and marinate them at the same time. Killing two birds with one glug, as it were

There is a ritual to eating an ortolan: diners cover their head in a large napkin. They then pop the entire bird into their mouth and eat everything save the feet, crunching the bones as they go.

Those who have eaten them rave about the hazelnut flavour, mixed with the rich gamey hit you get from consuming the liver, heart and internal organs of the bird

pretty wild....seems brutal but like the article mentions tossing live lobster in a pot of boiling water...that is pretty brutal when you think about it...people eat lobster prepared that way all the time without giving it a thought.
shrimp are sometimes eaten live. people that net them pop them right in their eating hole....

what do you think about this?

would you eat an ortolan in one mouthful after it was drowned alive in armagnac?

i would like to think i wouldnt but i probably would....
i just dont know

i mean i do eat lobster cooked that way without a thought.....

you?

I'd eat anything once. If i like it, and can tolerate the thought of it, ill eat it again. Im real egalitarian like that.

Im not the biggest fan of hazelnut, although ill eat them from time to time and enjoy the experience. So i'd say the big obstacle is the bones.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
I'd eat anything once. If i like it, and can tolerate the thought of it, ill eat it again. Im real egalitarian like that.

Im not the biggest fan of hazelnut, although ill eat them from time to time and enjoy the experience. So i'd say the big obstacle is the bones.

might not be bad with the bones.
a bird that only weighs an ounce or two is going to have very small, brittle bones.

definitely interesting

I'd like to think it drowned willingly because it knew it was to delicious not to do so. I applaud this bird for its decision to not evolve and keep it stature as a a top culinary food.

Thank you birdie, I salute you.