>>212145144 >The birds are caught with nets set during their autumn migratory flight to Africa. They are then kept in covered cages or boxes. They react to the dark by gorging themselves on grain, usually millet seed, until they double their bulk>They are then suspended upside down over a container of Armagnac, and by dipping, made to drown, and then marinated in the brandy > Traditionally, diners cover their heads with their napkin or a towel while eating the delicacy. The bird is so widely eaten that its French populations dropped dangerously low, leading to laws restricting its use in 1999
>Anthony Bourdain's description of eating one from Medium Raw: >"I bring my molars down and through my bird’s rib cage with a wet crunch and am rewarded with a scalding hot rush of burning fat and guts down my throat. Rarely have pain and delight combined so well. I’m giddily uncomfortable, breathing in short, controlled gasps as I continue slowly — ever so slowly — to chew. With every bite, as the thin bones and layers of fat, meat, skin, and organs compact in on themselves, there are sublime dribbles of varied and wondrous ancient flavors: figs, Armagnac, dark flesh slightly infused with the salty taste of my own blood as my mouth is pricked by the sharp bones. As I swallow, I draw in the head and beak, which, until now, have been hanging from my lips, and blithely crush the skull.”