Chas sent this rather odd Wired link on eating pigeons. Why odd? I'd say the tone of disbelief and humorous near disgust:
"When you look at a pigeon, you might see a dirty, rat-like bird that fouls anything it touches with feathers or feces, but I see a waste-scavenging, protein-generating biomachine."
(Big snip)
"But as part of this 65 percent not-kidding thought experiment, let's assume that there's nothing horrifically bad about eating pigeon.
"Really, all pigeons need is a re-branding. Just as the spurned Patagonian toothfish became the majestic Chilean sea bass and the silly Chinese gooseberry became the beloved kiwifruit, pigeons can merely reclaim their previous sufficiently arugula-sounding name: squab."
The idea that nobody eats pigeon is remarkable to say the least.
Reid sent this interesting NYT story about burgers in Paris. It made me feel a bit ambivalent, as many things Parisian do. Some of them sound delicious, but the pretension!
"“It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive, even,” said Hélène Samuel, a restaurant consultant here. “Eating with your hands, it’s pure regression. Naturally, everyone wants it.”"
Uuuh.. yeah.
"“It’s not just a fad,” said Frédérick Grasser-Hermé, who, as consulting chef at the Champs-Élysées boîte Black Calvados, developed a burger made with wagyu beef and seasoned with what she calls a black ketchup of blackberries and black currants. “It’s more than that. The burger has become gastronomic.”"
Whatever you say, Frederick.
2 comments:
God damn. I'd heard France was not only no longer the leader of fine cuisine in gastronomic circles, but that it was actually in decline, but I didn't quite believe it until now.
"“It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive, even,” said Hélène Samuel, a restaurant consultant here. “Eating with your hands, it’s pure regression. Naturally, everyone wants it.”"
Now THAT is French!
It used to be said that, [i]'the French copy no one (think 2CV), and no one copies the French'[/i] It appears that this is no longer true.
I had a client company based in Paris and used to travel there monthly. I found that they did food, wine, and fashion well, but had some mysterious ideas... I recall that the Ministry of Culture was trying to purge all the Anglo technical terms (Internet, megabyte, etc.) out of the language... that is also very French, as is the fact that everyone ignored it.
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