Bantlings: Mystery Deepens

Photo © Rob Jones

So …

In the podcast, I raised the question, ‘What on Earth is a Bantling.’

I had found this unknown dish on a menu in Corfu. Google/Dictionaries were no help whatsoever, other than suggesting that it was an archaic form meaning young children. I then made the - I believe logical - leap to suggest that this might indeed mean ‘Kid’ as actually I couldn’t find Goat anywhere else on the menu. I had witnessed a goat earlier in the day.

A reasonable supposition?

However.

I went into the same restaurant, Ammoz Grill, Roda, overlooking the beautifully blue Ionian Sea, the surface of that sea glistening in the afternoon sunlight, with the towering mountains of Albania beyond.

As a regular, I felt emboldened to ask … ‘What is Bantlings.’

The answer?

Chicken.

However…..

I can find nothing to corroborate this. And indeed in one review, another punter ordered the ‘curiously named’ Bantlings, only to receive Lamb Chops.

Confused.

Just to put cat among the pigeons - ‘Bantling Boy’ is the name of the fourth episode of the 8th series of Midsomer Murders. It was a race horse.

Surely they can’t be suggesting ….

R