Friday, October 26, 2007

postal scrotum: Hallowgiving

My brother David sends me a Halloween pic I drew a while back:



He also sends a link to a Wikipedia entry about a culinary monstrosity called a "turducken," which is essentially a deboned turkey that has been stuffed with a deboned duck-- stuffed in turn with a deboned chicken. Vulgarly appetizing, methinks-- much in the same obnoxious, low-rent vein as the Bennigan's hamburger topped with a gigantic wheel of fried cheese (I doubt they sell these anymore... or do they?).

If this paragraph from the Wikipedia entry doesn't frighten you, I don't know what can:

The largest recorded nested bird roast is 17 birds, attributed to a royal feast in France in the 19th century: a bustergophechiduckneaealcockidgeoverwingailusharkolanbler (originally called a RĂ´ti Sans Pareil, or "Roast without equal") - a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an Ortolan Bunting and a Garden Warbler. The final bird is small enough that it can be stuffed with a single olive; it also suggests that, unlike modern multi-bird roasts, there was no stuffing or other packing placed in between the birds. This dish probably could not be recreated in the modern era as many of the listed birds are now protected species.


Protected species? Calling Chef Yamamoto...

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