Buffalo What?

The die has been cast. The bison has been purchased. Tonight will mark two firsts: my first bourguigon and my first Bison Bourguignon.

After conjuring "lambalaya" recipes for days, I've decided to cap my Musical Meats column with some bison cubes. After all, it's the new red meat. Or perhaps this slogan: "Buffalo--don't feel guilty, there's plenty now."

It wasn't hard to find the meat. I had heard of someone getting buffalo burgers from Whole Foods, so I called their deli department. With some advance notice, they cubed some bison instead of grinding it. I enjoyed a few free orange slices and graham bear thingies and checked out, earning brownie points for not taking a plastic bag.

So what do we call this protein anyway, buffalo or bison? Apparently real buffalo are what you and I call water buffalo. Bison are what we've always called buffalo. So we'll just go with bison meat. At least that way there won't be any confusion with buffalo wings. There will be no blue cheese or celery involved.

Names aside, I face a harder question: Do I use Julia Child's beef bourguignon recipe and trade bison for beef? Or do I go with Bison Centre's "Bison Bourguignon" recipe (which I saw only after thinking up the idea. Honest.)? I'm leaning towards J.C. because I already bought the bacon and the Bison Centre is in Alberta, Canada. Then again, what the Albertans may lack in fine dining, they may make up for in buffalo, er, bison know-how.

Either way, wish me luck. I'm a bourginner.