Writers on Their Last Supper

Check out the The New York Times Magazine "Food & Drink Issue," where Bill Buford writes about eating warm pig's blood:

"My task was to keep it moving with my hand. I stirred, and a hundred pieces of string thickened against my fingers. I stirred and stirred and seemed to become aware of everything at once. The blood up to my armpit, the smell of the animal, the low wheezes of its last breath, the clear winter light, the color of the sky, the dirt under my knees, the smoke from a fire that had been made to heat water in an old-fashioned cast-iron stove for cooking the boudin noir. That's what the blood was for, blood sausages that would be cooked to a weightless custard.

The strings dissolved, the blood was ready. A friend gave me a ladle, and I dipped into the bucket, and drank it, a little sloppily, aware that I now had a red moustache."

Also, lit blogger Maud Newton discusses rattlesnake:

"Many compare it with chicken, some say it's like alligator and campers in the Southwest, where it's most often eaten, call it desert whitefish. In fact, rattlesnake tastes, at least when breaded and fried, like a sinewy, half-starved tilapia."

And Leslie Robarge asks chefs and writers, "What Would You Order for Your Last Supper?"  Here are a few of the responses:

"A piece of bluefin tuna sashimi, some Argentinian beef, chocolate from Bernachon in Lyon, half a dozen local oysters and clams. A P.B.R. in a can (for the clams and oysters), white and red burgundy wine with everything else."
DAVE PASTERNACK, chef and co-owner, Esca

"Cheeseburger with a fried egg. My wife's homemade chocolate- chip cookies. Copious amounts of red wine. Enjoyed in the company of family and friends and accompanied by the Grateful Dead played very loud."
WYLIE DUFRESNE, chef and co-owner, WD-50

"New England clam chowder from the Seafood Shoppe in Wainscott, N.Y.; foie gras with toast from La Grenouille; Nate 'n Al's hot dog; strip steak from SW Steakhouse; duck from the Four Seasons; fried chicken from The Dutch; corn on the cob, hearts of lettuce with Roquefort, onion rings, Bubby's cherry pie, the unbelievable grapefruit dessert from Boulud Sud."
NORA EPHRON, author