“Ortolans are one of France’s smallest birds of passage. They are brownish-grayish, gregarious buntings; but the peasants have always affectionately called them sparrows . . . The method of their capture and the subsequent stuffing of them to the limit of corpulence within their small measure has not changed since they figured as dainties on royal menus centuries ago . . .”
“They are not supposed to be touched by knife or fork (though honestly they taste fine on a fork); the eater is supposed to seize them by the beak with the fingers of one hand and consume them, bones and all, beginning with the feet. The diner’s free hand should be used like a cover over the ortolan to capture its fragrance, which is enticing; the bird’s role is to please both the olfactory and the gustatory sense of man. It is ritually chewed slowly, to give it a chance to melt in the eater’s mouth. Old engravings show ortolan-eaters with napkins hoisted like tents over their heads to enclose the perfume, and maybe also to hide their shame.”
Genet (Janet Flanner), Paris Journal, 20 October 1952
