strange food

petefrom bearswamp · July 27, 2020, 07:55:31 AM

Reading Rob's post on the trotters, made me think of a weird food a friend,now deceased told me about.
They were a rather poor family of Italian origin whose father immigrated in the 30s settling in upstate NY
A fairly staple food in the summer was Robins, yes this is not a typo.
Gives a new slant on the old four and twenty blackbirds.
I cant remember how he told me they were prepared.
I'm sure many of you have some unusual dishes that you can share here.

WV Sawmiller · July 27, 2020, 10:06:00 AM

I grew up in N Fla and my old mentor ate every robin he could get. I used to shoot them out of holly trees there and take them to him. He was also a master quail trapper and ate the breasts of redbirds and thrashers that got in his trap. I remember a redbird breast is not much bigger than the end of your thumb and very dark meat.

I worked in Africa and other remote locations and they'd eat things a Cajun would pass up. Almost every local menu would have Varans (Nile Monitor lizard), snakes, crocodile, porcupines (often listed as Porky Pigs), I have seen zebra tongue, scaly anteater, etc. On a remote trek to see the Kome (Koo Mah) people in northern Cameroon (first contacted in 1984) we stopped on a break and we were eating some raisins and my guide asked what they were so I explained and gave him some. He tasted them then started spitting them out then went back to eating his termites.

I grew up eating alligator snapping turtle, softshell turtles, raccoons, squirrel, groundhog, beaver, and other more common small game and deer meat.

Nebraska · July 27, 2020, 03:47:05 PM

I don't blame the poor guy for spitting raisins, best way to ruin a pie next to coconut.

Texas Ranger · July 27, 2020, 06:19:05 PM

As a kid with a .22 and fixated on the wilderness, I ate Robin, cooked in the field, once. Not enough meat or taste for all the work. Everything else was fair game. The worse was bar b q whistle pig.