For a country that has always sought to be different from the rest when it comes to cuisine, it's a wonder that this didn't happen sooner, but across France wild game is making a big comeback.
In the Pyrenean town of Arreau in southwestern France, butcher Henri Delarue has seen a sharp rise in orders for game among his customers.
"I've seen the numbers go up in the last year or two," he said.
"Everyone who lives around here hunts and has a freezer full of the stuff, but in the shop we have a lot of tourists [French and otherwise] who buy it because they like it or are curious and want to try it."
"The big-name [and very expensive] French restaurants have always had wild game on the menu," said a critic for the GaultMillau restaurant guide, who asked to remain anonymous.
"Now, however, you're starting to find it in places you can afford it like neighborhood bistros," he said, "plus, there are a few restaurants that are becoming wild game destinations."
La Regalade, where wild game has been on the menu for over 10 years, is one of the critic's favorite wild game destinations, and its new chef, Bruno Doucet, seems more than happy to carry on the tradition.
"People will now come here and order game as both an appetizer and main course," he said. "It used to be that the people eating wild game in France were just hunters, but that has changed."
Indeed, on a Thursday afternoon, La Regalade was packed with a crowd that ranges from big eaters and businesspeople to food tourists. Doucet estimated that during game season, more than one plate in five that they eat is wild game.
"I was really impressed at how much we sold at the beginning of the season -- between Oct. 10 and Nov. 10, it was huge," he said. Game can typically be found on French restaurant tables between October and February.
A hunter himself, Doucet thinks that part of game's popularity is due to the lifestyle surrounding it. "Hunting is a way to dress, a way to walk -- I don't even end up shooting much," he admitted. "It's more of an excuse to travel and see things."
Across town, The Taxi Jaune (The Yellow Taxi) is one of the more affordable restaurants just beginning to put game on their menu.
"Our parents really didn't teach us what wild game is," said Otis Lebert, Taxi Jaune's owner and head chef.
"For years, we said to ourselves that it wouldn't work, but I started putting it on the menu this year and it has been really well received," he added, describing a sort of generation gap wild game fell into.
On the menu board above his head, Lebert is serving up doe with a cocoa sauce as part of a longer list of game he's had on the menu since the game season began in October.
Lebert seems to understand why game went out of fashion.
"If you have a bad experience, you'll keep that in your head for years," he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese