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| Butter-basted Baby Sparrow |
Somehow, this got past me. I thought I saw the episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Travel Channel show that featured Lebanon, but I must have wandered out of the room at the wrong time.
This video clip came our way from the ArmenianArchives YouTube channel. It shows the famous chef/writer/traveler eating at Onno, an Armenian restaurant in Beirut.
Much of this food is instantly familiar to me, although the names are a little hard to recognize as relayed by Bourdain’s companion in what seems to be a British accent.
It’s always fun to see Armenian food get international attention, especially on a popular TV show. It all looks delicious.
One dish that wasn’t on Mom’s menu when I was growing up: butter-basted baby sparrows.
Of course, I immediately thought of Lucine Kasbarian’s book, The Greedy Sparrow, based on an Armenian folk tale. Obviously, this is a bird with special meaning in the Armenian culture — and, if you read the story, one that definitely deserves to be eaten.
I’ll pass, though. The rest of the meal looks good enough to satisfy me for a week.
Thanks for this post. It reminded my of my father's memory on eating sparrows in Marash. Go to my blog post for tomorrow at http://marashgirl.blogspot.com, "People were so hungry, they ate sparrows: The Armenian Genocide, 1915-1922"
Excellent; will do!
Thank you Douglas, ONNO is my father's restaurant
visit our page on Facebook: ONNO Restaurant