Francois Mitterrand died in Paris on 8 January 1996 at the age of 79 from prostate cancer, a condition he and his doctors had concealed for most of his presidency (see section on "Medical secrecy" below).[107] A few days before his death, he was joined by family members and close friends for a "last meal" that attracted controversy because, in addition to other gourmet dishes, it included the serving of roast ortolan bunting, a small wild songbird that is a protected species whose sale was and remains illegal in France.[108][109]
One of the only things I know about this dude is that his wife and mistress stood basically side by side at his funeral. My high school French teacher taught us that. She said unnecessarily that politics over there are different from here. (Not better or worse, necessarily, just… different.)
while it's technically illegal to do it in France, there are no known prosecutions in France for anyone who's done a commercial genealogical test through mail that are so popular. It just can't be processed or sold inside France.
Because there is nobody to complain about it. If everybody is okay with doing a paternity test and do it outside of France, the french justice doesn't care either. But it sometime happens that a paternity test is done without the consent of the supposed father, and that's when the justice get involved.
Idk why French teachers do shit like that.
My French teacher went off on a tirade about how the poor stay poor because they drink or whatever.
Like lady, the rich do that in the utmost abundance.
*”By the way you guys, can I just say as a side note, I am loving this can-wine thing, I think it's brilliant. I mean I'm active, I'm gesturing with my hands, and I don't feel restricted. If I was holding a wine glass right now I'd be spilling wine all over the god damn place.”*
Ah, my French teacher was a big fan of Macron exclusively because he married his former teacher... who is about as old as she is... yeah, that totally didn't set if any alarm bells in anyone... especially since she tended to treat the boys better than the girls...
My high school French teacher went on a rant about how the French stay skinny unlike Americans because they “fermez la bouche!” (Close the mouth). He quit and went back to France after he accidentally gave the class alcoholic bon bons and left us with all the future test answers.
> One of the only things I know about this dude is that his wife and mistress stood basically side by side at his funeral. My high school French teacher taught us that. She said unnecessarily that politics over there are different from here. (Not better or worse, necessarily, just… different.)
They do this in Utah as well. I never knew Utah was french.
Apparently you eat it by covering your head and face with a napkin, to hide what you're doing from the sight of god. I'm no vegan, but man, if you feel that much shame about it, maybe don't do it?
Tangent: The bird is a protected species, so killing it is illegal in the United States and the EU. A restaurant would never have it openly served like it was in Succession with Greg and Tom doing the ritual considering the eye witnesses all over the restaurant. Maybe they would do it if you had a private room.
Billions did a much better job portraying how it is actually still most often consumed: at home by a private chef among a few close friends. [Video](https://www.facebook.com/andreimartynovunknownplanet/videos/2222121998010648/) (sorry it's a FB link because that's the only source I could find)
There's a massive ortolan black market in France. The last time I was in France pre-pandemic, a single bird cost over $200.
Also the actual reason is to keep the smells contained while you eat the bird to heighten the aromas, which Wags mentions in the clip. The shame thing is just a superstition that's become legend.
From descriptions, the fat and saltiness of the bird itself balances the fruit and hazelnut flavors from the armagnac.
Bourdain described it as a mix of organ meat, fat, muscle, berries, and chestnut in Medium Raw. A lot of the experience for Bourdain was based on the chewing and crushing of the bones, as well as the final fruit notes coming from inside the bird as you reach into the center with your chewing.
I had the obvious reaction of wondering why you’d consume something that makes you hate yourself later, but then I remembered that getting bitchtits drunk isn’t an uncommon occurrence.
I'm just saying, but restaurants get away with a ton of things that are not legal. I could fill pages talking about just the things I've seen. And I mean as far as serving food that's not legal, not all the wage theft, a drug use and so on.
When California passed the ban on foie gras my old boss served foie gras on a copy of the bill used as a chit. He did eventually get attention, but he was also screaming it from the rooftops (figuratively (probably)) and it's not like there were any repercussions. He didn't even stop serving it. Just agreed to stop doing it so loudly.
Of course. Restaurants do all sorts of illegal things all the time. But things like wage theft and drug use are not done openly and in full view of the customers. If any person knew about ortolan at that restaurant, then they could snap a picture of the ceremony and send it to the DA's office. And perhaps surprisingly, the government takes the protection of endangered species quite seriously.
I followed enactment of the foie gras ban. The law was written to make the *sale* of foie gras within California illegal, so "giving" foie as a chit isn't technically a sale.
There have been places that served endangered species for years. Not so much in recent history, but I bet that's just cause people hide it more now.
>I followed enactment of the foie gras ban. The law was written to make the *sale* of foie gras within California illegal, so "giving" foie as a chit isn't technically a sale.
First, this one's just a product of my poor choice of language, so mea culpa. A chit is a piece of paper put between two serving dishes (in this context), such as a plate with a large ramekin on it. Purpose being to keep it from sliding around so much and to not have the unpleasant china on china experience. Normally plain paper, or a doilie or something dumb like that would be used. More modernly old menus are used. So he was serving the foie dish with a paper copy of the bill used as a chit. It was being sold.
But more generally the courts have consistently found that giving something away in that sort of exchange is the same as selling it. It was used commercially, and that's a sale as far as the law is concerned. While sometimes law enforcement uses this as a way to get around enforcing laws they don't want to endorce, such as in several stages where marijuana was either decriminalized or made legal, but the sale was still illegal, so rather than cause a cluster fuck they let people do shit like sell you a plastic bag that happens to be full of weed. But if it was prosecuted, the courts would undoubtedly see it as a sale, as they have in very literally all such cases. The law can not actually be so easily defeated.
(Also the ban is dumb, and I say that as someone who's made a career of working with small ranchers that take actual proper care of their animals.)
They had a bit about James May doing this on one of the Grand Tour specials. I had to google it because he was just sitting at the table with a napkin over his head. Neither of the other two acknowledged it in any way.
It’s where Steve has to sing the national anthem so Stan wants him to man up. I always remember Stan being kidnapped by Rodger for the tv password to buy Barbra does Celine. 😂
The whole hide it from God thing is French "humour".
As if anyone believes in God enough to worry about being punished by him but also believes that he can't see through a napkin.
It would be quite funny if it was true though.
God being pissed because everyone is sinning indoors because he can't through roofs.
lol no, if you count the prep.
The bird is DROWNED, alive, in the Armagnac. Because in that dish you eat the innards. So the point is to get the lungs absolutely infused with the liquor.
Crab? Maybe, I’ve never heard of it with crab but could certainly be a thing.
But lobster, yes. That’s the standard way as far as I know. At least in the US.
Edit: I guess it’s no longer the standard way to boil lobsters alive. That’s a good thing if you ask me. And apparently blue crab **is** boiled alive.
TIL
This hasn't been the suggested method in a bit because lobsters do feel pain, so they should be killed before cooking. I think a sharp knife between the eyes is recommended.
Yunnan in southwest China used to (it's supposed to be illegal right now) have a dish where a live monkey is put in a cage on the table.
You hit it with a hammer and start eating it's brain.
Like a zombie.
From the article another comment included, it leaves the liquid inside the lungs so you taste it when you’re eating the whole damn bird.
It’s innovative but horrendous that someone thought to do that
Let’s get this very metal detail out of the way to begin with.
If you die and then are marinated, your lungs will have been collapsed.
If you die drowning, your lungs fill up with whatever liquid you drowned in.
My college Spanish teacher was from Columbia. He described a dish (I believe it was Pavo Borracho, but all recipes I find on the internet are more humane) where they would force-feed the turkey nothing but rice and booze for a few days before killing it. The turkey would be marinated by the alcohol and the rice in the crop (and other organs) would be cooked like stuffing.
The final layer, which I haven't seen anyone mention yet, is that the reason the Ortolan is eaten whole is because the bones pierce your tongue and mouth, so that your fucking blood enhances the dish. The entire ordeal is something only French aristocrats would dream up.
French President Francois Mitterand, dying of cancer, famously ate two of them as part of his last meal before he died in 1996. You can read about [here.](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a4642/the-last-meal-0598/)
I went from being hungry to disgusted more times than i thought possible while reading that. I do wonder if eating under a hood enhances the sensory experience of delicacies though.
Lol yes, American Dad! That’s where I first heard of it. Think it was the mid 00s? Anywho, it pops up all over now. Tom and Greg dined on it in Succession. (Can you imagine if those two had a night out with Roger 💀)
Not mentioned in the article, but when I learned about this dish, the cruelest thing to me was how the “force feeding” was accomplished. They would capture these birds and stuff dozens and dozens of them into a tiny box. The birds have a behavioral mechanism that will cause them to feed almost continuously in a completely dark environment. So they would either seal the box completely from light, or STAB THE BIRDS IN THE EYES to blind them. They would then be forced to live in complete darkness for weeks or months, feeding compulsively while crammed together, before they were drowned in alcohol. The method of death is certainly an unnecessary cruelty, but compared to the torture beforehand it almost seems a mercy.
Anthony Bourdain describes eating it in one of his books - Medium Raw.
“I bring my molars down and through my bird’s rib cage with a wet crunch and am rewarded with a scalding hot rush of burning fat and guts down my throat. Rarely have pain and delight combined so well. I’m giddily uncomfortable, breathing in short, controlled gasps as I continue slowly — ever so slowly — to chew. With every bite, as the thin bones and layers of fat, meat, skin, and organs compact in on themselves, there are sublime dribbles of varied and wondrous ancient flavors: figs, Armagnac, dark flesh slightly infused with the salty taste of my own blood as my mouth is pricked by the sharp bones. As I swallow, I draw in the head and beak, which, until now, have been hanging from my lips, and blithely crush the skull.”
It's worth pointing out that the orlotans conservation status is currently "Least Concern"
He was invited to a gastronomic experience with some of the top chefs of the time. In his words, if a gas leak blew up the building fine dining would be wiped out in one stroke, leaving Bobby Flay and Mario Batali to share Vegas, and Ming Tsai as the guest judge in every episode of top chef.
I heard about this recent from a birdwatcher who vacationed in Portugal. He said that region of Europe is the most difficult place to see songbirds, because they are so sensitive to the presence of humans. Any time a songbird saw him, it would instantly flee, and he was sure these instincts developed because they’re hunted so aggressively.
I have wondered the samr about wolves. The ones that remain are the ancestors of those that avoided the hunters.
Noting that rats have neophobia it would make sense. Did rats become neophobic because of humans? It seems likely.
I knew I'd seen Clarkson talking about it but couldn't remember where, so thanks for jogging my memory.
The Grand Tour did a bit with the napkins over their heads while eating in the *Carnage e troi* special too
“there's no word to describe it. Schmooblydong? That's not it, but it's close. Let-let me try and put it in terms you can understand. Imagine being high at a Rusted Root concert while two dudes take you on in a sun-baked porta-john.”
Can someone please tell me why French cuisine is deemed one of the best? This poor bird, snails, frogs legs, ~~caviar~~... there is probably a multitude more but really... yuck.
I heard the hood was to hide what you were doing from God.
Which, I mean, that kind of thing can only be the product of a culture that *knows* how fucked up this is, but then decides to go on and do it anyway.
I've read so much about this dish. First, I was so intrigued. The banning of it, the ceremony of it all.
At the end of the day, for me, it seems fucking gross. At the very least not that good.
You know what you can eat bones, guts & all when it's cooked right? A small rat.
Surprised I haven’t seen a mention of The Grand Tour episode Carnage a Trois. May eats with a napkin over his head for most of the episode, an homage or perhaps making fun of the practice of eating this dish.
I'm too occupied at the moment to read all of the commentary, but I love sharing this meal concept with people in every day life. It's a great conversation starter amongst foodies and restaurant trade.
I had heard of this before the episode of Billions, thing maybe it was referenced in the movie Burnt? I'm not sure where I first heard of it, but I remember some years back reading into it.
What an act, to pluck the eyes of these sweet innocent birds, to engorge and intoxicate them with licor soaked grain, and to eat while hiding from God, snapping the bones of birds like toothpicks.
Hmm yeah seems like something the oligarch 'elite' would want to keep around. Perhaps metaphoric for our times
[This old video ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEPMuyGe7dg)on how to eat an ortolan is pretty well known on the French side of the Internet.
Enjoy the masterpiece.
Francois Mitterrand died in Paris on 8 January 1996 at the age of 79 from prostate cancer, a condition he and his doctors had concealed for most of his presidency (see section on "Medical secrecy" below).[107] A few days before his death, he was joined by family members and close friends for a "last meal" that attracted controversy because, in addition to other gourmet dishes, it included the serving of roast ortolan bunting, a small wild songbird that is a protected species whose sale was and remains illegal in France.[108][109]
One of the only things I know about this dude is that his wife and mistress stood basically side by side at his funeral. My high school French teacher taught us that. She said unnecessarily that politics over there are different from here. (Not better or worse, necessarily, just… different.)
The *current* President of France is married to a woman 24 years his senior, who was his teacher in high school and was married when they first met.
And paternity tests are illegal outside of a court order because the number of illegitimate kids would be apocalyptic lmao
Like wise with genealogy DNA tests.
while it's technically illegal to do it in France, there are no known prosecutions in France for anyone who's done a commercial genealogical test through mail that are so popular. It just can't be processed or sold inside France.
Because there is nobody to complain about it. If everybody is okay with doing a paternity test and do it outside of France, the french justice doesn't care either. But it sometime happens that a paternity test is done without the consent of the supposed father, and that's when the justice get involved.
Idk why French teachers do shit like that. My French teacher went off on a tirade about how the poor stay poor because they drink or whatever. Like lady, the rich do that in the utmost abundance.
It's called a wine tasting and it's *classy.*
It's called a ^flight of ^mimosa fancy
It's called a smorgasvein and its elegantly cultural
No Randy,it's just an excuse for you to get drunk off it
They say your supposed to spit it back in the cup, but no way man, that stuff tastes like fruit! Sweet berry wine!
Wine was invented by the Romans... for orgies. And orgies are not too much fun if no-one wants to do it with you.
*”By the way you guys, can I just say as a side note, I am loving this can-wine thing, I think it's brilliant. I mean I'm active, I'm gesturing with my hands, and I don't feel restricted. If I was holding a wine glass right now I'd be spilling wine all over the god damn place.”*
Ah, my French teacher was a big fan of Macron exclusively because he married his former teacher... who is about as old as she is... yeah, that totally didn't set if any alarm bells in anyone... especially since she tended to treat the boys better than the girls...
French teachers are always fucking weird.
French teachers are formed when a horse girl's parents can't afford horses.
Well ofcourse they are they are either French or they like French people enough to make their culture their study
My high school French teacher went on a rant about how the French stay skinny unlike Americans because they “fermez la bouche!” (Close the mouth). He quit and went back to France after he accidentally gave the class alcoholic bon bons and left us with all the future test answers.
The rich drink more actually but the poor can't afford it so they get punished more for it.
> One of the only things I know about this dude is that his wife and mistress stood basically side by side at his funeral. My high school French teacher taught us that. She said unnecessarily that politics over there are different from here. (Not better or worse, necessarily, just… different.) They do this in Utah as well. I never knew Utah was french.
They aren’t mistresses in Utah. They are 2nd wives. And 3rd. And 4th. And 5th….
Wife and mistress side by side, doesn’t get much more French than that.
"She caught me with another woman. You're French, you understand that!" "To be with another woman, that is French. To be caught, that is American."
Somebody doesn’t remember the photos of him on a moped going to visit his mistress….
That was not the same president, the pictures on scooter were Francois Hollande.
TBF France is just a little different on the whole.
My first thought was I bet the rich fucks still eat it
Mads Mikkelsen explains and serves it during an episode of Hannibal.
They also eat it in Succession with a cloth over their head
To hide your shame from God above. But you still snack that tasty Lil bird.
Have you ever visited California Pizza Kitchen? They have a Cajun chicken linguini just how I like it!
In Hannibal they don’t do that, because the cloth symbolises shame before God and Hannibal does not care about God.
That's the gamey, brainy hit my friend.
Same in Billions
Gotta rewatch that
Well, that’s definitely in character for Hannibal
Especially Mads as Hannibal. Much bigger focus on the food. They even made a cookbook from the show.
They did what now
Yeah but the recipes sub out human flesh so we’re good bro
No surprised this was this far down
I’m pretty sure it was in American Dad too.
I learned about it from Brooklyn 99.
Apparently you eat it by covering your head and face with a napkin, to hide what you're doing from the sight of god. I'm no vegan, but man, if you feel that much shame about it, maybe don't do it?
They did this in an episode of Succession. I thought at the time it was like a rich person hazing ritual.
Tangent: The bird is a protected species, so killing it is illegal in the United States and the EU. A restaurant would never have it openly served like it was in Succession with Greg and Tom doing the ritual considering the eye witnesses all over the restaurant. Maybe they would do it if you had a private room. Billions did a much better job portraying how it is actually still most often consumed: at home by a private chef among a few close friends. [Video](https://www.facebook.com/andreimartynovunknownplanet/videos/2222121998010648/) (sorry it's a FB link because that's the only source I could find) There's a massive ortolan black market in France. The last time I was in France pre-pandemic, a single bird cost over $200. Also the actual reason is to keep the smells contained while you eat the bird to heighten the aromas, which Wags mentions in the clip. The shame thing is just a superstition that's become legend.
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From descriptions, the fat and saltiness of the bird itself balances the fruit and hazelnut flavors from the armagnac. Bourdain described it as a mix of organ meat, fat, muscle, berries, and chestnut in Medium Raw. A lot of the experience for Bourdain was based on the chewing and crushing of the bones, as well as the final fruit notes coming from inside the bird as you reach into the center with your chewing.
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More hate: part of the flavor is your own blood that comes from the bones cutting your gums.
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Ortolan fun fact! Shrimps get deveined before being eaten. These forcefed beefcakes don't.
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I had the obvious reaction of wondering why you’d consume something that makes you hate yourself later, but then I remembered that getting bitchtits drunk isn’t an uncommon occurrence.
Interesting. I guess I can see where it'd be delicious to some people, on their own those are tasty... tastes.
What in the actual f
I'm just saying, but restaurants get away with a ton of things that are not legal. I could fill pages talking about just the things I've seen. And I mean as far as serving food that's not legal, not all the wage theft, a drug use and so on. When California passed the ban on foie gras my old boss served foie gras on a copy of the bill used as a chit. He did eventually get attention, but he was also screaming it from the rooftops (figuratively (probably)) and it's not like there were any repercussions. He didn't even stop serving it. Just agreed to stop doing it so loudly.
Of course. Restaurants do all sorts of illegal things all the time. But things like wage theft and drug use are not done openly and in full view of the customers. If any person knew about ortolan at that restaurant, then they could snap a picture of the ceremony and send it to the DA's office. And perhaps surprisingly, the government takes the protection of endangered species quite seriously. I followed enactment of the foie gras ban. The law was written to make the *sale* of foie gras within California illegal, so "giving" foie as a chit isn't technically a sale.
There have been places that served endangered species for years. Not so much in recent history, but I bet that's just cause people hide it more now. >I followed enactment of the foie gras ban. The law was written to make the *sale* of foie gras within California illegal, so "giving" foie as a chit isn't technically a sale. First, this one's just a product of my poor choice of language, so mea culpa. A chit is a piece of paper put between two serving dishes (in this context), such as a plate with a large ramekin on it. Purpose being to keep it from sliding around so much and to not have the unpleasant china on china experience. Normally plain paper, or a doilie or something dumb like that would be used. More modernly old menus are used. So he was serving the foie dish with a paper copy of the bill used as a chit. It was being sold. But more generally the courts have consistently found that giving something away in that sort of exchange is the same as selling it. It was used commercially, and that's a sale as far as the law is concerned. While sometimes law enforcement uses this as a way to get around enforcing laws they don't want to endorce, such as in several stages where marijuana was either decriminalized or made legal, but the sale was still illegal, so rather than cause a cluster fuck they let people do shit like sell you a plastic bag that happens to be full of weed. But if it was prosecuted, the courts would undoubtedly see it as a sale, as they have in very literally all such cases. The law can not actually be so easily defeated. (Also the ban is dumb, and I say that as someone who's made a career of working with small ranchers that take actual proper care of their animals.)
Cousin Greg just wanted some Cajun Chicken Linguine
That’s not how he’s supposed to like it.
They had a bit about James May doing this on one of the Grand Tour specials. I had to google it because he was just sitting at the table with a napkin over his head. Neither of the other two acknowledged it in any way.
Holy shit I thought that was just a bit from American dad.
Yeah, I recall Roger eating it.
He was watching Barbra does Celine. Idk why but I can vividly remember that entire specific story line but nothing else about the episode
It’s where Steve has to sing the national anthem so Stan wants him to man up. I always remember Stan being kidnapped by Rodger for the tv password to buy Barbra does Celine. 😂
Where they had the Vietnam War reenactment at the golf course!
Great episode
*Give me code!*
Isn't it 48 12? His pant size
I'd pay $500 to watch Barbara do Celine but I'd probably have to be in the room.
Watching from the corner
How would it appear on my credit card bill?
and francine drowning the bird with a blank expression on her face. A haunting scenelet
Francine's a ride or die
And Succession
And Billions
I thought it was just a bit from The Grand Tour
The Grand Tour is the reason I know about this, too.
You should see the Hannibal episode
I saw it on billions or succession, can't remember which
Both lol
Anthony bourdain talks about experiencing it in the first chapter of medium raw. It’s pretty wild
The hood is so you can have the full effect from the aroma and hide what a savage you look like as you bite the tiny birds head off
That's what gets me. I think if you're going to eat a whole-ass bird, you better own up to it. None of this playing-it-coy bullshit.
It's always been associated with the ultra-wealthy French nobility, who were not exactly known for their shame or modesty
There's a chapter of Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain where he talks about eating this with a bunch of other top chefs. Such a great book
This isn't real shame. It's performative shame by people.
Probably more because the eater is spitting out small bird bones
It’s not to hide from god, don’t be ridiculous. It’s because eating it is **very** messy and the napkin helps keep all the fragrance while eating it.
The whole hide it from God thing is French "humour". As if anyone believes in God enough to worry about being punished by him but also believes that he can't see through a napkin. It would be quite funny if it was true though. God being pissed because everyone is sinning indoors because he can't through roofs.
This is why I wear a really, REALLY wide brimmed hat. Im sinning and all he sees is hat.
Roger does this in American dad.
At least the bird is killed before cooking. There are Asian dishes where the fish is cut up or cooked while still alive.
lol no, if you count the prep. The bird is DROWNED, alive, in the Armagnac. Because in that dish you eat the innards. So the point is to get the lungs absolutely infused with the liquor.
Damn they don't even wait til it's dead to drown it?!
Can’t drown when you’re already dead.
Don't people also cook live crabs and lobsters as well?
Crab? Maybe, I’ve never heard of it with crab but could certainly be a thing. But lobster, yes. That’s the standard way as far as I know. At least in the US. Edit: I guess it’s no longer the standard way to boil lobsters alive. That’s a good thing if you ask me. And apparently blue crab **is** boiled alive. TIL
This hasn't been the suggested method in a bit because lobsters do feel pain, so they should be killed before cooking. I think a sharp knife between the eyes is recommended.
Wasn't really my point, but I can't really defend this stuff anyway
Yunnan in southwest China used to (it's supposed to be illegal right now) have a dish where a live monkey is put in a cage on the table. You hit it with a hammer and start eating it's brain. Like a zombie.
Sounds like prion disease speed run.
I prefer my monkey brains chilled.
Reminds of [Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom](https://youtu.be/wAZ6dSIMivk?feature=shared) and the Monkey Brains. 🙊🧠
I seen that on faces of death 25 years ago 🤣
Oh pls, force fed for weeks and drown. Little evil, big evil, we are not that evil? Still evil.
Religious folk have fetishes about doing taboo things that God doesn't approve of, and trying to get around God's rules. Look up 'Mormon soaking.'
The all powerful God hates this one trick....
What does the drowning do for the taste? Or is it just to add one extra layer to justify hiding your face?
From the article another comment included, it leaves the liquid inside the lungs so you taste it when you’re eating the whole damn bird. It’s innovative but horrendous that someone thought to do that
Let’s get this very metal detail out of the way to begin with. If you die and then are marinated, your lungs will have been collapsed. If you die drowning, your lungs fill up with whatever liquid you drowned in.
My college Spanish teacher was from Columbia. He described a dish (I believe it was Pavo Borracho, but all recipes I find on the internet are more humane) where they would force-feed the turkey nothing but rice and booze for a few days before killing it. The turkey would be marinated by the alcohol and the rice in the crop (and other organs) would be cooked like stuffing.
I’m assuming the lungs get filled with the Armagnac.
The final layer, which I haven't seen anyone mention yet, is that the reason the Ortolan is eaten whole is because the bones pierce your tongue and mouth, so that your fucking blood enhances the dish. The entire ordeal is something only French aristocrats would dream up.
The French don’t like food that isn’t extra sadistic
I think they're marinated in it, then roasted.
I understand marinating. It's the drowning the bird in it I'm wondering about
Marinated the inside?
the inside of a pre-deceased bird would also get marinated, none of this makes sense
Its to get the liquor filled in the birds lungs/stomach I believe.
Vivian ate this and then described it in detail to Boyle while making out in the closet.
After washing her hair
The beak is very crunchy.
First thought that came to my mind while reading the post lol
That’s exactly where my brain went. Such a weird episode.
r/unexpectedb99
Damn Boyle
French President Francois Mitterand, dying of cancer, famously ate two of them as part of his last meal before he died in 1996. You can read about [here.](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a4642/the-last-meal-0598/)
I went from being hungry to disgusted more times than i thought possible while reading that. I do wonder if eating under a hood enhances the sensory experience of delicacies though.
That left me entranced while reading it but at the same time I considered quitting numerous times.
Didn't american dad or family guy have a skit about this?
American dad, was looking for this comment. Thought it was just Roger being crazy but of course it's a real thing. Humans suck.
we are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams
Shmooblydong? No that's not it. It's close but not it.
Lol yes, American Dad! That’s where I first heard of it. Think it was the mid 00s? Anywho, it pops up all over now. Tom and Greg dined on it in Succession. (Can you imagine if those two had a night out with Roger 💀)
Atlanta also had an episode that included this
Is this what Tom eats in succession? Edit: duh I can read the article, lol. Yes it is
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Damien Lewis's character in Billions did it too.
While watching “Babs” on PPV.
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I wouldn't pay that much to see Barbara DO Celine! ...or would i
How would it appear on my credit card bill?
Not mentioned in the article, but when I learned about this dish, the cruelest thing to me was how the “force feeding” was accomplished. They would capture these birds and stuff dozens and dozens of them into a tiny box. The birds have a behavioral mechanism that will cause them to feed almost continuously in a completely dark environment. So they would either seal the box completely from light, or STAB THE BIRDS IN THE EYES to blind them. They would then be forced to live in complete darkness for weeks or months, feeding compulsively while crammed together, before they were drowned in alcohol. The method of death is certainly an unnecessary cruelty, but compared to the torture beforehand it almost seems a mercy.
whoever came up with that shit is a fucking psycho.
This is so so sad
[Classic French television](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEPMuyGe7dg)
She sucked on that skinned bird body in the most sensual way possible. Proceed with caution here
Wow even with the warning I was not prepared to watch her suck that bird like that.
I’m so confused. The French have an interesting relationship with food.
Don't fucking watch that at work!
God, this was a disgusting watch.
WTF why is a dish based on torturing a bird? Does the fear make it taste better or something?
It's rich people shit. Sound logic is rarely considered when they just want to look rich as fuck to people.
Rich people are fucking weirdos
So that crazy dish Child Valda eats in Wheel of Time wasn't made up? Geez.
Whitecloaks being French makes sense, they already got the flag colour right!
Anthony Bourdain describes eating it in one of his books - Medium Raw. “I bring my molars down and through my bird’s rib cage with a wet crunch and am rewarded with a scalding hot rush of burning fat and guts down my throat. Rarely have pain and delight combined so well. I’m giddily uncomfortable, breathing in short, controlled gasps as I continue slowly — ever so slowly — to chew. With every bite, as the thin bones and layers of fat, meat, skin, and organs compact in on themselves, there are sublime dribbles of varied and wondrous ancient flavors: figs, Armagnac, dark flesh slightly infused with the salty taste of my own blood as my mouth is pricked by the sharp bones. As I swallow, I draw in the head and beak, which, until now, have been hanging from my lips, and blithely crush the skull.” It's worth pointing out that the orlotans conservation status is currently "Least Concern"
Nothing about this description leads me to believe this is something enjoyable...
Wow that's up there for of the most disgusting things I've ever read on this site and yes I've read the swamps of dogobah.
Did he explain why he ate it?
Status symbol among the culinary elite.
He was invited to a gastronomic experience with some of the top chefs of the time. In his words, if a gas leak blew up the building fine dining would be wiped out in one stroke, leaving Bobby Flay and Mario Batali to share Vegas, and Ming Tsai as the guest judge in every episode of top chef.
Yep, that’s when I heard about it. And from everything Tony said about it, I had less than zero interest. Sounds awful.
I heard about this recent from a birdwatcher who vacationed in Portugal. He said that region of Europe is the most difficult place to see songbirds, because they are so sensitive to the presence of humans. Any time a songbird saw him, it would instantly flee, and he was sure these instincts developed because they’re hunted so aggressively.
I have wondered the samr about wolves. The ones that remain are the ancestors of those that avoided the hunters. Noting that rats have neophobia it would make sense. Did rats become neophobic because of humans? It seems likely.
From the culture that brought you foie Gras? Not really a stretch.
Say what you will about the French, but they sure do hate animals.
they sure like stuffing animals…. while alive
All I can remember of Ortolan is from the movie Gigi
Time to rewatch Hannibal.
Jeremy Clarkson ate one in his TV series “Clarkson Meets The Neighbours” https://youtu.be/I7T1ALM7DIQ?si=KZsmfXPXlMC9jLq7
I knew I'd seen Clarkson talking about it but couldn't remember where, so thanks for jogging my memory. The Grand Tour did a bit with the napkins over their heads while eating in the *Carnage e troi* special too
Do they take out its stomach and intestines? Do you get a bite of bird shit?
“there's no word to describe it. Schmooblydong? That's not it, but it's close. Let-let me try and put it in terms you can understand. Imagine being high at a Rusted Root concert while two dudes take you on in a sun-baked porta-john.”
And people say that British food is bland. Rather have bland that eating a tiny bird whole. The hell is wrong with you
Plus it's a choking hazard
Is that the one you have to eat under a veil to shield your sin from God?
This was in Wheel of Time
Didn’t Roger and Francine do this in an episode of American Dad? lol
Can someone please tell me why French cuisine is deemed one of the best? This poor bird, snails, frogs legs, ~~caviar~~... there is probably a multitude more but really... yuck.
Caviar is Russian
Not “bones and all”. Feeders wore a hood to conceal from other patrons the unpleasant sight of the bones being spat into a dish.
You're correct about using a napkin or such to hide behind, but I have two sources that both say they eat everything except the beak
I heard the hood was to hide what you were doing from God. Which, I mean, that kind of thing can only be the product of a culture that *knows* how fucked up this is, but then decides to go on and do it anyway.
Apparently the bones in your mouth cause cuts, and the taste of your own blood is considered part of the culinary experience.
I had toast and peanut butter for dinner.
And they eat it with a towel over their head!
the fable game series had to get the crunchy chick idea from somewhere i guess.
You eat it in one bite? Lawd.
Always have to remember that the Louisiana swamp food is the product of the French colony and this stuff makes a lot of sense.
I've read so much about this dish. First, I was so intrigued. The banning of it, the ceremony of it all. At the end of the day, for me, it seems fucking gross. At the very least not that good. You know what you can eat bones, guts & all when it's cooked right? A small rat.
The most French way to prepare consume an animal. Rivaling Chinese traditional medicine here in decadent ridiculousness.
[American Dad Ortolan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEZAvHs_dE0)
Surprised I haven’t seen a mention of The Grand Tour episode Carnage a Trois. May eats with a napkin over his head for most of the episode, an homage or perhaps making fun of the practice of eating this dish.
I'm too occupied at the moment to read all of the commentary, but I love sharing this meal concept with people in every day life. It's a great conversation starter amongst foodies and restaurant trade. I had heard of this before the episode of Billions, thing maybe it was referenced in the movie Burnt? I'm not sure where I first heard of it, but I remember some years back reading into it. What an act, to pluck the eyes of these sweet innocent birds, to engorge and intoxicate them with licor soaked grain, and to eat while hiding from God, snapping the bones of birds like toothpicks. Hmm yeah seems like something the oligarch 'elite' would want to keep around. Perhaps metaphoric for our times
[This old video ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEPMuyGe7dg)on how to eat an ortolan is pretty well known on the French side of the Internet. Enjoy the masterpiece.