QUAIL

By CHRISTINE LIU

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Hunting season: Sat 10.18.08 – Sat 11.29.08

Tastes like: a tiny, sweeter, darker, more intensely flavored chicken

Typical ways to cook: roasted, fried, stuffed

Good names to assign before eating: Fountainhead, Quailman, Dan

If you're cooking, where to buy: Cavendish quail (fresh, semi-boneless), $30/six, at Lionette's Market [577 Tremont St., South End. 617.778.0360. lionettesmarket.com]

Lineage

Grilled Vermont quail, local wild mushrooms and frisee salad, anise vinaigrette, pine nuts, golden raisins, $14

Here, where menus are printed daily at the behest of chef/owner Jeremy Sewall, there's no question a meal's constitution reflects the season. "Anytime you can use local product, that's absolutely the best-case scenario," says Sewall. "When you get into fall, you're thinking of more earthy flavors." The quail's brushed with sage butter, slowly cooked on the grill to "give it a nice crispy outside." Pine nuts offer crunchy nuttiness while raisins grant sweetness and texture. There's even an anise-infused stock, cooked with quail bones, drizzled around the plate. As Sewall explains, "We start with the quail and build upon it." Fowl architecture? Cook it and they will come.

[242 Harvard St., Coolidge Corner, Brookline. 617.232.0065. lineagerestaurant.com]

Pho Pasteur

Chim Cút Chiên—two fried quails on a bed of lettuce with ground peanut on top ׀ $7.25

If you have zero qualms about the finer details of bird anatomy, read on. A substantial tackle for one, or an intimate bone-slurping session for two, this plate simply presents four quail halves—roasted, golden, crackly—on a base of bloated pink tomatoes and bland shredded iceberg (whose sole purpose, one can only imagine, is to sop up the warm roasted juices that rain down with each bite). The glazed preparation combines the best of both worlds, barbecued and fried, as the exceptional skin-to-meat ratio on these critters confers a tangle of moist meat and shards of caramelized skin. These dollhouse-sized birds simply beg you to engage in delicate barbarism, with frail wings you're more than happy to snap and devour.

[682 Washington St., Chinatown, Boston. 617.482.7467]

Tapeo

Codorniz de Castilla—broiled herb-and-garlic quail stuffed with grapes and bacon, $10.50

As one of the many hot (caliente) tapas selections, nestled among other fowl offerings like roasted duckling in berry sauce or chicken croquettes in carrot sherry sauce, the quail humbly assumes its underdog role. "It's a traditional dish in Spain, but not the most popular [here]. Maybe it's too exotic or something?" speculates Patrick Kritchever, director of sales and marketing. However, those overlooking it miss out on a moist little bird, first marinated in oil, paprika, garlic, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves and sherry. The liquid is reduced and flambéed with brandy. After broiling, the sauced quail—stuffed with bacon, because, why not?—is adorned with three cloves of roasted garlic. Timid dining? That's for the birds.

[266 Newbury St., Boston. 617.267.4799. tapeo.com]