Thursday, April 05, 2007

Backyard Pests? Think of Them as Dinner

This NY Times piece chronicles a dinner party given in New York by Steven Rinella, author of The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine. Actually the title is somewhat misleading, as most of the dishes feature venison, elk, caribou, moose, bear, and goose - not exactly backyard pests in New York. The local contributions are squirrel and sparrow. This "exotic" meal seems pretty normal to anyone who hunts or hangs around with hunters.

Preparation of the sparrows reminded me of Steve's recipe for robins in On the Edge of the Wild. I haven't had squirrel in years but the way my Grandmother Iola prepared fried squirrel was one of my favorites. She had several hunter friends in Jonesboro who kept her supplied so she could fix it for me when I came to visit.

1 comment:

dearieme said...

A few summers ago we ate snails from our kitchen garden most weeks. Perfectly OK, if a little fiddly.