Who stole my chicken?

It is, admittedly, a readymade dinner. Simple fare you might think. But you'd be wrong. There are layers of complexity behind this apparently simple quick dinner item.

In the first place, the relationship between the name of the dish and the actual contents/ingredients is not straightforward. The bird in the title is nowhere to be seen in the list of ingredients.

So where has the chicken gone. Has it simply crossed the road in the meantime.

A closer look at the title reveals that this dish is not as simple as you might have first thought. You might have thought it was vol-au-vents, particularly as that is preciseley what they looked like.

But you'd have been wrong. It's vol-au-vots, which, in the best French circles, means a spate of thefts of people's pets. So, if the chicken saw the title, it's no wonder he crossed the road, pronto. So would I have in his place.

However, if you are thinking of buying one of these, be reassured. When it comes out of the oven or the microwave the chicken is actually back inside.

So if he really crossed the road, he did it to save himself for you.

That surely merits a Légion d'honneur at least.

Do they award those things posthumously?

And to fowl?