Have you ever eat foie gras? I haven't, and it looks like I won't have much of a chance to in the city that I live in. It's not news anymore, but the City of Chicago banned the sale of foie gras in restaurants, meaning I can never go to mk and try it. Or any of the other restaurants that served, of which apparently, there weren't an overabundant number.
I can't say that I've ever been curious to eat foie gras, liver being one of the things I have spent my life avoiding, but I can say that I am MORE curious now that's it's been banned. I did have a teeny little encounter with foie gras at the now defunct (a moment of silence, please) 302 West in Geneva. S ordered a steak of some sort, can't remember which, and it came with a little foie gras butter. He actually tasted it, and said it was fine, but I was too chicken to take a taste. What can I say? The idea of liver is revolting to me.
But it's not really a moral/ethical issue with me. I can't put my finger on it, but I think it has something to do with the idea that most of the meat we eat is raised unethically. And most of the eggs too. It's hard to justify the current American meat industry, and well, foie gras producers aren't really very common, and it seems that it's more of a small sort of production, where animals aren't kept caged, and they're touched by human hands and they don't live in their own feces. It turns out that I'm pretty much right about that; I read an article by Jeffrey Steingarten saying as much.
I've been harping on this whole thing for a long time, but I try to make an effort to eat mostly meat that I know was raised humanely. It's INSANELY hard to know this for sure, but I'm willing to bet that Purd*e and T*son aren't raising chickens humanely. And I'm also willing to bet that any red meat you buy in a supermarket is a) subpar quality and b) raised inhumanely. This means that I don't eat a lot of meat at home, and when I do, I try to buy it from places like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. It's expensive this way, but seems better. Now, all that said, I can't say that I wouldn't eat foie gras. I can't even say that I wouldn't bring it home and cook it, if I happen to taste it somewhere and love it (a prospect that I find hard to think will happen). It just, well, it just doesn't seem as bad.
And of course, I am a foodie, and I am influenced by other ones. People like Tony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman, who are all at once scornful and saddened by the stupid foie gras ban. It makes no sense to them, and I believe them that foie gras can be transcendent (for other people, not me, of course). So yeah. I'm against the ban. I think the ban is the stupidest waste of time. The City didn't have better things to do? For god's sake, it's not even as if foie gras is being produced in IL, because it isn't. I don't think we've saved any geese or ducks from the evil of fat livers. We've just made gourmet a little less gourmet; we've just dimmed the bright lights of the Chicago restaurant scene a little bit. That's all.
And, Chicago's made me want to try foie gras, and I assure you, I didn't want to before.
I know this comment doesn't have anything about your post today but I noticed that you tend to do a lot of meme things on your blog and since it is obvious you love books, I thought you might enjoy this Book Meme that I saw on another blog.
The Rules:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest, then tag three people.
Posted by: Bindu | August 29, 2006 at 05:05 PM