Chicago's wild foie gras chase

[greatauntoftriplets]

Chicago's wild foie gras chase
Mayor Daley calls the ban the `silliest' law. Restaurants across town serve up the delicacy in defiance. Now the question is whether city officials will actually try to enforce the new law.

By Josh Noel, Brendan McCarthy and James Janega, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters Michael Higgins, Gerry Doyle and Mickey Ciokajlo contributed to this report
Published August 23, 2006


Foie gras appeared on pizza on Archer Avenue Tuesday, complemented cornbread and catfish at a South Side soul food place, and was stacked on sausages like pats of butter at a gourmet hot dog joint on the North Side.

Chicago's immediate reaction to a city ordinance banning foie gras--the French dish made from the livers of force-fed ducks and geese--was to embrace the gray goo like never before, in flights of culinary imagination.

Rhetoric and pate abounded on the first day of the City Council's ban, as restaurateurs and gourmands openly flouted the prohibition--cultured, giddy, goose-liver-fueled acts of defiance.

On Tuesday morning the Illinois Restaurant Association filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court seeking to overturn the ban, accusing the City Council of overstepping its authority.

At the same time, many diners tried the dish for the first time, drawn to the outlaw pate out of curiosity or desire to chomp on the wild side.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0608230150aug23,1,4739229.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

[AngryAmish]

1. God do we have a collection of stupid aldermen

[Jokerman]

2. Trying something just because it is illegal?

Could this be at least part of the reason the "war on drugs" has been a resounding failure?

[progmom]

21. you make a very good point

[KamaAina]

64. Foie gras: the gateway food

Studies show that those who try foie gras in their teens are at high risk of moving on to unpasteurized cheese, real prosciutto, and yes, even the dealy Japanese fugu fish.

This is your stomach. This is your stomach on foie gras. Any questions?

:sarcasm:

[jane_pippin]

3. The other day our paper claimed all the Chicagoans would

flock up here just to get their precious foie gras. The opening line was something like "They come here for our condos, our lakefront, and soon, our foie gras?..."

Eh... :shrug:

[flvegan]

4. Hopefully, after the first citation, these restaurants will comply.

From the article:
"But they would enforce the law, he added, beginning Wednesday. Complaints will be taken through the city's 311 information line, or by e-mail to the Department of Public Health, he said. The department will mail warnings to restaurants on a first offense and send inspectors with ticket books for a second complaint."

[arwalden]

8. Why, "Hopefully"?

Shouldn't people be allowed to choose what they want to eat? What's next? How many other foods should be "banned"?

This whole thing is completely absurd.

[Blue-Jay]

9. Yeah? What if you decided to eat a baby?

mmmmm. baby.....

:D

[ohiosmith]

13. Baby. The other white meat.

[arwalden]

15. OMG!!

[warrens]

43. I had the same reaction

[Joe Fields]

75. Eat a BABY? Get In My Belly!!!

[Name removed]

65. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kickoutthejams23]

5. Prohibition doesn't work

When I was growing up in CT Fireworks were illegal. So needless to say every summer we had fireworks (and blasting caps and God knows what else) Now I live in Florida where one can buy the darn things anywhere (You do in all fairness have to sign a paper saying your a Farmer with a seagull problem)So of course since they are legal and available no-one bothers to use them outside the fourth.

[arwalden]

6. Prohibition Laws Are Absurd And Ineffective

... such things only embolden the terrorists. :rofl:

[Critters2]

82. Yep, leave it to Chicagoans to think geese liver is important

enough to start a black market.

[Blue-Jay]

7. I've never wanted to try foie gras anyway.

Until now, oddly enough.

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. I STILL don't want to try it

Just talked to my niece. Her husband, the executive chef at an upscale restaurant, isn't serving it for the reason that he thinks it is gross. I agree.

[Susang]

32. Charlie Trotter stopped serving it some time ago

For the same reasons the ban was enacted.

I still don't agree with the law passed by our ridiculously embarrassing aldermen. Not when my neighborhood schools are closing and gang bangers are replacing grade school kids on the corner. Seriously, they have far more important things to be wasting their time on, don't you think?

[warrens]

48. Charlie was the leader of the pack

It's his right to hate the stuff, etc. But not his right to say his competitors can't serve it. There are studies, fairly good ones, that indicate that soy products are extremely bad for children, and particularly young girls and young women. So is tofu next to go?

We're getting into a society of self-righteousness, faux victimhood, and plain outandout whininess. It's one of the reasons that I only became a dedicated dem in 96; the whiners on the left are incredibly annoying.

I've had foie gras a couple of times, and I see why people like it. It doesn't really ring my bell, but it does have an incredible texture. Contrary to popular belief, the geese don't suffer. And they were going to be turned into roast goose anyway.

This is such a non-issue, I can't believe it.

[Critters2]

The geese don't suffer?

You've asked them?

[greatauntoftriplets]

61. Edit.

Sorry about that. I just realized you were not responding to me.

[greatauntoftriplets]

59. Yeah, I had read that.

And I noticed how well the cell phone while driving ban is working this morning while driving across the city to the office.

:eyes:

[pitohui]

33. it's goooood stuff, it's addictive

go for it, blue-jay, it's wonderful

heaven on the tongue

[XNASA]

11. Foie Gras on Pizza? That's absurd. nt

[LeftyMom]

12. Foie Gras is disgusting and evil, as are it's producers and consumers

Nobody needs diseased duck liver to live or to enjoy food or life. Asking people to give up this product of horrific cruelty is not in any way unreasonable.

[Blue-Jay]

14. You're absolutely right. Asking is not unreasonable.

Legislating it, on the other hand....

[LeftyMom]

16. Well, when people don't comply with a reasnable request sometimes the law

steps in. The point of the law is to protect the weakest in society from exploitation and abuse.

[arwalden]

18. Which Citizens Are Being Protected?

<< The point of the law is to protect the weakest in society from exploitation and abuse. >>

Animals are not people.

[ohiosmith]

19. The law meant to protect those weak folks that are being force-fed

goose liver by the evil producers. You have to ask?

[arwalden]

20. Oh... Well Now It All Makes Sense!!

[Kickoutthejams23]

22. So why not ban duck altogether.

I'm sure the duck doesn't care it it ends up as Foie Gras or orange flavored crispy.

Either way it's goose is cooked.

As for the cruelty any duck raised for Foie Gras is food. Duck is a renewable food resource. The same arguments could be made to ban any animal based food source. That is why the arguments are flawed.

Either you accept the fact that animals raised for food exist only because we eat them. And you accept the fact in a free country we should have the right to eat them. Or you feel we should stop raising animals for food. If thats they way you feel don't be a coward. Go ahead ban Bacon and steaks from Chicago. Instead of picking on a small minority of people who like French food.

First they came for the Foie Gras and I said nothing
Then they came for the Caviar and I stood silent
Then they came for the Prime Rib.....

[LeftyMom]

24. Foie gras production is exceptionally cruel

Which is why the movement to ban it was initiated by the actions of a chef who certainly does prepare animal flesh, suppported by omnivores and voted into law by meat eaters.

Vegetarians and vegans, being a small minority of the population, are certainly in no position to force thier will on anybody. When anti-animal cruelty laws such as this one (or bans on leg hold traps or sow gestation crates or leaving dogs in hot cars) pass, they do so because an almost exclusively omniverous population and thier almost exclusively omniverous governmental representatives believe they are worthwile.

Claiming victimhood for those who fancy the liver of diseased ducks is absurd. The only victims in this situation are the ducks tortured for thier appetites. To twist the words of Niemoller and claim kinship between lives lost in the Holocaust and minor inconvenience of Chicago foodies is beyond absurd, it's positively unworthy and insulting.

[tjwmason]

25. "Being a small minority"

May I ask, does that mean that you would like vegans to be able to enforce their will on others?

Let's imagine a future world in which 51% of the population has decided to turn vegan, a law is proposed to ban meat consumption. Do you stand there and say "I'm personally opposed to eating meat, but I defend omnivores who make that moral choice?"

[LeftyMom]

28. I don't think prohibition works on the wide scale.

Would I like people to stop eating thier animal brethren? Certainly. Do I anticipate seeing it in my lifetime? Not really. In order to get people to stop eating the flesh of animals, we have to get people to change thier perspective. I don't really think that laws alone can do that on a broad scale, though I think that in a majority-vegan world (if I live to see such a thing, I will die a happy woman) we'd be well on our way as education about animal issues would obviously be greatly improved.

[pitohui]

35. you don't even know what food you are talking about

you keep talking about ducks, foie gras is not duck

it is hard to take serious any argument made by a person who doesn't even bother to care to learn what she is discussing

[bicentennial_baby]

36. It comes from both ducks and geese

[Susang]

39. Foie gras is made from both geese and duck liver

Moullard geese and Muscovy duck. ;-)

[LeftyMom]

55. It's goose or duck.

In the US it's generaly duck. If you've ever spent any time around geese you'd know why. Imagine dealing with truly pissed off geese. :scared:

[warrens]

53. It is not particularly cruel

I've been on a farm where they produced it. The duck and geese looked pretty happy to me.

[Critters2]

56. The let's stick a tube down your throat a few times a day!

What the hell!

[Katina]

57. the same could be said about hookers

and I don't see blow jobs ending any day soon.

Animal food production is gross. That's the way it is. We are going to worry about this?
Please, spare me. When I see babies being thown in trash bins, and (while I'm prochoice) we have no problems with abortion, and children beaten and abused in outrageous numbers, when pedophiles who do incredible damage to children get probation or a "couple of years" instead of being locked up for life, and you tell me I'm supposed to worry about a bunch of fucking geese & ducks?
Not in this lifetime I won't.

[bicentennial_baby]

58. Yikes...

Lay off the caffeine! :o

[Katina]

60. haven't had any yet

the first line was a joke...but seriously, I really have a problem with people dictating what I can and can't eat. There are far more important issues dealing with man's inhumanity to man. We should work on that first.

[bicentennial_baby]

63. Well, I disagree...

No matter...

[idgiehkt]

67. interestingly

cruelty to animals is one of a handful of characteristics that violent criminals share; it's generally considered a precursor if it shows up in adolescence. Has it ever occurred to you that your philosphy may be exactly backwards, i.e. that because the legal penalties are so lax for cruelty to animals that these future criminals 'practice' on animals before they move on to people? Because that is the situation, as has been demonstrated. As such, it makes sense to address cruelty to animals and get these folks in the system before they move on to victims with higher penalties. It also would not harm society in any way to take a stand against such egregiously cruel practices as those in the foie gras industry. When you weigh the lifelong suffering of these animals against the momentary human gratification of eating this stuff, it's shameful and embarassing to think it's still produced. But it does go further to explain how we as a species still are plagued with cruelty towards each other, since we can endorse the repeated torture of helpless animals like this without a second thought.

Cruelty emanating from a source is CRUELTY, no matter race/gender/species of the target for which it is intended, and the cruelty itself is the problem so it needs to be addressed at it's source instead of humans just compartmentalizing the cruelty as irrelevant because of a characteristic of it's receptacle. It seems like such an elementary concept; i.e. the responsibility for rape lies with the rapist, not the receptacle, and the rapist is the only one who can stop the rape and decide not to rape, no matter how many potential targets there are walking around or what the rapist feels about them and their complicity in bringing the rape about by being 'this way' or 'that way', as in a 'ho who is skimpily dressed'. Compare that with a goose or a duck who in our mind is somehow complicit by virtue of not being human and therefore 'doesn't matter'. Still, it's the source where the cruelty emanates from, and that is where it needs to be addressed. Characteristics of the victim in either case are irrelevant.

[bicentennial_baby]

68. Well put

:thumbsup:

[arwalden]

69. Oh Brother!

:eyes:

[Kickoutthejams23]

70. So you are comparing Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac

To raping seriel killers? I agree that animal cruelty laws are lax. However comparing a farmer or a consumer of meat to people that torture cats is well.... Plenty of high profile progressives eat Fois Gras... It's actually pretty good on those toasted crackers. You and your friends sound like those fundi whackjobs that want to ban porn movies from hotels. Freedom means allowing people to do what they want not what you want them to do.

[arwalden]

72. Yes!

<< You and your friends sound like those fundi whackjobs that want to ban porn movies from hotels. >>

It's true.

[Critters2]

80. Farmers do torture animals

or would YOU like to castrated without anesthesia?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

96. That's sympathy for the mares.

Or would YOU like to get reemed by a horny stallion?

[Odin2005]

73. LOL

Self-Righteous Vegans are hilarious.

[Shakespeare]

74. Anthony Bourdain refers to vegans as....

...the hezbollah sect of vegetarians. :rofl:

[arwalden]

77. Damn!

[flvegan]

78. Didn't see anything of the sort in that post.

Maybe you can point it out. Maybe it just bothers you to think about it (or not to).

[yewberry]

83. You have to turn your head and squint a little

and then make assumptions and, finally, sweeping generalizations about an entire group of people who think differently than you do.

Can you see it now?

[Critters2]

87. Oh, yeah, I see it

You have to just stare at it for a long time. And turn your brain, and your heart, off.

[Kajsa]

76. Excellent post.

" cruelty itself is the problem"

Thank you for posting this.

:thumbsup: :kick:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

94. Yes. Cruelty to animals is something violent criminals share.

However, you'll notice that both Genghis Khan and Jack the Ripper both had an aversion to foie gras.

[Critters2]

66. I don't see it as an either/or

Cruelty is cruelty. By paying people to be cruel to animals, we desensitize ourselves and our culture to all cruelty, and so we do things like throwing babies in trashbins.

I want all cruelty to stop. Any step toward that is progress.

[Shakespeare]

62. Uh, they clamor for that tube.

That's why I don't see it as particularly cruel; the ducks stampede and run all over each other trying to get to the feeding tubes when they're offered. They love that stuff.

[arwalden]

17. Oh, Stop Being Silly... Nobody Is "Asking" Anything.

<< Asking people to give up this product of horrific cruelty is not in any way unreasonable. >>

It's not a "request"... it's a law/ordinance... surely you can agree that there's a difference between the reality and they way you characterize it when you use the word "asking".

And yes it IS unreasonable. Using the same "logic" I can easily imagine that the proponents of this prohibition would pursue a ban on veal, or eggs, or milk --- some might argue that those are the end products of "horrific" cruelty as well. :eyes:

[Kickoutthejams23]

31. So Bill Clinton is now EVIL? Why? cause he likes duck?

Bill Clinton … dinner w/French pres. Chirac

A private meal at a French restaurant hosted by Chirac during Clinton's 1999 trip to France.

Cured ham & fois gras
Roasted milk-fed lamb
bernaise potatoes mushrooms
1990 Saint-Julien wine
fresh fruit

Home | Store | Library of Meals | Submit A Meal | Historic Menu Gallery | Recipe Archive

About the Author | Contact Us | © Copyright 2003 Rob DiSilvestre





http://www.collectiblemeals.com/library/Clinton2.php

[pitohui]

34. fortunately foie gras is goose, not duck, liver

and if you had ever tasted it you would know that it IS unreasonable to ask people to give it up

[Susang]

40. It can be from either goose or duck. n/t

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ohiosmith]

38. So! How do you really feel?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

44. Seriously!

We piss and moan DAILY on this site about how Republicans and Christofascists try to legislate their morals, and yet we get posts like this one that seek to do the exact same fucking thing!

[Kickoutthejams23]

45. Here Here.

:yourock:

[ohiosmith]

46. Amen brother.

[arwalden]

41. Click: File, Save.

:thumbsup:

[Katina]

42. I LOVE foie gras and I find the bans objectionable

and offensive. The ban won't work and it will now be a black market product. It solves nothing.
I won't stop having it. It's a once a year indulgence that I give myself. We won't ban tobacco, but we ban this? What utter bullshit.

[Placebo]

54. Amen!

There's so many sites on the interweb documenting what ducks have to go through to produce foie gras, it's sick. They aren't just kept alive until they're slaughtered, they're tortured and horribly abused.

[yewberry]

23. I'd say that the approach was wrong-headed at the start.

I admire the sentiment, sure, but this kind of legislation hasn't been particularly successful and it'd be a surprise if people embraced it.

Maybe a better approach would have been to show people how revolting and cruel the production of foie gras is, and then let the public sentiment make the decision. Unfortunately, that approach is incredibly slow, and there are always those segments of the population that just don't wnat to know or honestly believe that animal cruelty is okay, or even who claim that campaigns to educate about cruelty are already going too far.

By creating this kind of legislation, the City Council has a demand for the forbidden fruit; a targeted appeal to chefs & owners could have resulted in a voluntary ban, something that would be likely to draw more support.


In other words: big fucking surprise.

[progmom]

50. excellent post

[tigereye]

26. I wish that this much energy went into making sure that

children here and abroad had enough to eat, and safe homes, and clean drinking water....

[greatauntoftriplets]

27. You have a point.

:thumbsup:

[tigereye]

29. although I have no desire to eat this

or veal, or anything of that sort, and do not like any creature to be tortured or mistreated, I get irked when it seems that animals are more important than kids. I can't help it.

:hi:

[greatauntoftriplets]

30. Me, too.

And I just don't like liver in any way, shape or form. Yuk.

:hi:

[acmavm]

47. This was one of the dumbest things and arrogant bunch of

city officials ever pulled. How did they all get their heads up their asses at one time?

[ohiosmith]

49. Goose grease.

[acmavm]

51. Now why didn't I think of that?

[Placebo]

52. The sad news is that this is probably the SANEST thing...

to come out of the city council in ages. Have you guys seen some of the stuff they churn out? I mean, it's like we gave a bunch of asshole kids political power.

[BrightKnight]

71. The case aginst it is over stated

The esophagus of these animals is very tough and designed to expand. It is a food conveyor belt. The birds naturally fill it with food when it is available and digest it later. Is a soft starchy paste worse that the insects, fish and vegetation that these omnivores stuff in their esophagus?

Foie Gras has been produced this way for over two thousand years and it is not exactly working against nature.

Over feeding livestock is not unique to ducks or geese. The Thanksgiving turkey is not very happy or healthy.

I have castrated calves before. It was not a pleasant thing to do but it is how steaks are made.

I appreciate the animal rights arguments but I don't see this as substantially different from other livestock production.

[Critters2]

79. Life sucks. Let's make sure it continues to.

Is that your argument?

[Kajsa]

84. Nah, the real gem is referring to

people who stick up for animals as "whack jobs."

Makes perfect sense, right?
:sarcasm:

[BrightKnight]

89. LOL: "whack jobs"

There is no mention of "whack jobs" in MY post! Given that the responses involved BURNING CHICAGO...

[Kajsa]

90. You're right.

Your post didn't contain that at all.

I was referring to another post,posted by
someone else, earlier.

[TommyO]

97. No more of a whack job

than those of us who enjoy an ocassional veal picatta.

[Name removed]

81. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kajsa]

85. Yeah! Kick and Recommend

this post!!
:applause:

[Name removed]

86. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kickoutthejams23]

88. What's the connection with animal rights activists and fire?

How come every time you can't get the general public on your side out come the matches.

Is it the lack of barbecues?

Ducks and Geese are food. They are raised for food.

If you don't want to eat fowl (or parts thereof) fine nobody forces you.

Why are you concerned about what others eat?

I have fundies who seem strangely concerned what I do in the privacy of my own bedroom. Now I have Animal Rights Activists who seem strangely concerned what I do in the privacy of my own kitchen.

I see no difference between the two. Your both the same nuts just different religions.

[Odin2005]

91. PETA and Co. are like the Talibornabgains.

They think they have to shove thier morality down our throats. (no pun intended)

[bicentennial_baby]

92. Yawn....

Get a new line, will y'all? :boring:

[yewberry]

95. This from the "person" who advocated killing peta members

just this week in LBN.

[Shakespeare]

93. Yeah, some folks want to eat pate, so let's burn the city to the ground.

:eyes:

Look, if you don't want to eat meat, then don't eat meat. But I'm sick to death of the moralizing and the bullshit condemnation of omnivores on this board. You employ the same baseless tactics as the fundamentalists, and the real irony is that you don't see the similarity.

[terrya]

98. Locking

This thread has gotten a bit out of hand.

Thanks