Leather Storrs: Blunder From Down Under

Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Leather Storrs, GoLocal Contributor

Humans have been protecting animals almost as long as they’ve been eating them, with varying degrees of success.

In California, activists succeeded in passing a law banning the force feeding of a bird for the purpose of enlarging its liver beyond normal size. This law went into effect in 2012, but was repealed this year. Foie Gras (the engorged liver of a goose or duck) is back on menus, but the issue remains in the courts on appeal. The Monterey Bay Aquarium publishes a comprehensive list of species that are organized into three categories: Best choices, Good Alternatives, and Avoid. The list has had a profound impact on both fishing and consumption. But the practice of removing the fins from sharks and then returning them to the ocean to sink and suffocate, while illegal in the U.S., is actively practiced in the rest of the world.

The following example, however, jumps Foie Gras and the shark fin as the most polarizing animal rights topic ever. In Sydney, Australia at the famed “Paper Lion” restaurant, Chef Georgia Plimpton has created a dish that makes some salivate and some scream. The animal at the center of controversy (and the plate) is the local Finch, which has recently become a nuisance. Growth and construction in and around Sydney has greatly reduced nesting areas for raptors- the primary predator of the Sydney Finch- and the little birds are multiplying rapidly.

Killing these birds is not illegal. And while Chef Plimpton appears to be making lemonade from lemons by addressing this overpopulation, her violent recipe is certainly troubling. She first dips the birds in boiling water to remove their feathers then, with the aid of an air cannon, she shoots the carcasses into a wall at 168 miles an hour. The concussion shatters the bones and essentially liquefies the interior of the little birds. She then marinates and fries the meat pouches, yielding a golden, crisp exterior with a molten filing punctuated by crunchy bone fragments.

This dish, I should add, is not without culinary precedent. In France, the delicacy “Ortolan” is a tiny songbird which is roasted and eaten whole, in a single bite. While technically illegal, this is not a fringe phenomenon- Ortolan was the final meal for Francois Mitterend, the former French President.

Praise for Plimpton’s unorthodox preparation has been effusive. One critic called the dish “Orgasmic.” Another said it tasted like a “magical, savory bag of pop rocks”. One tongue tied writer was reduced simply to “Crikey! It’s meat lava!” The no-nonsense Plimpton, at the eye of the storm, has repeatedly promised to keep producing her incendiary specialty, the Sydney Finch. “My dish is creatively addressing a growing problem in Northeast Australia. It’s fundamentally sustainable and frankly I don’t understand the fuss. As long as they’re buying it, I’ll keep pitching it.”

Even as a devout carnivore, I’m conflicted by this practice. Obviously it’s a brilliant solution to overpopulation, but it’s difficult to digest the methodology. Especially now as the lilting songs of returning birds punctuate the arrival of April…

Fools!

Leather Storrs is an Oregon native who has served 20 years in professional kitchens. He owns a piece of two area restaurants: Noble Rot and Nobleoni at Oregon College of Art and Craft, where he yells and waves arms. He quietly admits to having been a newspaper critic in Austin, Texas and Portland.