Immoral Recipes: fried frogs

There is a pop side and a dark side to eating fried frogs. Pop, because you feel a little like you are inside an Asian film — something along the lines of Chungking Express, its characters munching absurd dishes at three in the morning under the neon signs. Dark, because in Italy this is not exactly comfort food, and simply telling your friends about it makes you sound faintly borderline.

And yet the French have turned it into a point of national pride: les cuisses de grenouilles have been prized as a delicacy since at least the eighteenth century. As far back as the 1500s, monks are said to have cooked them in their monasteries because — surprise — they were not classed as “meat”, and so could be eaten even during Lent. 

But back to us. Some have tried them in fine-dining restaurants; others have spotted them in Asian markets, skewered like chips. Mine arrived from Ristorante Arte d’Oriente, in an aluminium takeaway tray, chopsticks stuck in for good measure. They were a new entry on the menu and I thought, “Why not.” Golden, crispy outside and soft within, served with a sweet-and-sour sauce. 

The shape — no, not thighs but neat little halves — makes you smile and say, “I shouldn’t, but I’ll do it anyway”. The flavour, on the other hand, is innocent: it faintly recalls chicken, though the meat is moister and good — really, really good. They could have made a cameo in one of Tarantino’s American diners or in a Hong Kong dive bar: a forbidden snack, crispy and indulgent, to be picked clean with bare hands. Top marks.

Disclaimer: this column — born as a tribute to the book Immoral Recipes by Vázquez Montalbán — is written by someone who, until a few years ago, would not even eat shellfish, let alone tripe. There is hope for everyone. 

by Francesca Luna Noce @francescalunanoce; Photos by Giallo Zafferano

From the autumn issue of F.U.C.K. magazine (Florence Urban Cocktail Kitchen)