Archives for the 'Foie Gras' Category
Rick Steves to Offer Gander at French Foie Gras Farm
Euro travel host nonpareil (and NORML advisory board member) Rick Steves writes at his Facebook page about how his love of of foie gras has led him to offer a tour of a French goose farm to show travelers the process of gavage, and to let them taste the delicacy:
I am fascinated that British travelers make a virtual pilgrimage to France’s Dordogne to celebrate the force-feeding of the geese and, once the geese are slaughtered, to eat their huge and tasty livers ‘ and yet, many Americans think the whole process should be outlawed. Few American anti-foie gras activists consider actually visiting a goose farm to talk with the owner and hang around for meal time (never much of a wait) to see the forced feeding. I have a favorite goose farm where our tour members could actually witness la gavage, as pulling the goose’s neck up and filling its belly with corn is called (the process reminds me of transferring cereal from one box to another). Our French guides were all for the visit, but when considering our itinerary, being there during hours the farm is formally welcoming the public would rush our Dordogne River canoe trip. I enjoy the canoe experience even more than a Mr. Rogers-type visit to a goose farm. I encouraged my staff to keep the canoe time sacred and beg the farmers for the love of goose-liver pâté to let us visit outside of regular hours. If that doesn’t work, we’ll visit an alternate farm, and have both wonderful French experiences as part of our tours in 2010.
More from Steves on his love of foie gras here and here, and a Christmas recipe here.
Ball-o-nomics
If I were to add a fourth item to my Guide for Good Blogging, it might go something like “Always link to stories about mountain oysters.” I’m not going to adopt that rule but I will link to Ian Knauer’s Atlantic piece in praise of partaking of the testicle and of offal meats in general:
But who really practices true nose-to-tail eating? How many among us delight in brain, or tendon, or testicles? These nasty bits, although they have a small following, often go ignored. But in the religion of head to tail, it’s the brains and balls that promote the eater from politically correct do-gooder to enlightened food guru. And, for the record, balls (when cooked the right way) are delicious. [...]
Here’s a video demonstrating the peeling, puncturing, roasting, and slicing of a pair of deer testicles. It features Trent, Steve, Greg, and Elvis.
If you’ve come as far as where the video begins, then the hard work is done. Bread and fry the slices of balls as you would prepare fried green tomatoes. Most importantly, you can feel good about yourself as an eater knowing that none of an animal has gone to waste. Welcome to true food enlightenment; feel free to bask in the salinity.
Be sure to read the whole thing for expert advice on how to avoid the unpleasantness of mountain oysters exploding in your oven, a terrible mess to have to explain to one’s life partner, roommate, or maid.
I agree with Knauer that eating offal is a fine thing. Seared fois and crispy sweetbreads are two of the most delicious foods on Earth; I wouldn’t put either of the testicle dishes I’ve had on the same level, but they can be tasty too. However, should one really feel virtuous about eating offal?
These odd parts of animals are not often eaten by humans in the US, but that doesn’t mean they go to waste. I’m not an expert on meat processing, but my guess is they’re sold off for secondary uses like dog food, industrial feed, and lots of other products. Modern farms are anything but inefficient.
So what happens when more people start eating mountain oysters and such? One effect is that demand for offal goes up, raising its price and therefore raising the value of the entire animal. And when demand goes up, so does production. We’re reducing waste in one sense of the word, but we’re also sending more animals to slaughter, using more resources to feed them, and putting more of their methane into the atmosphere.
However there could be an offsetting substitution effect too. If people are eating offal instead of more expensive cuts of meat, that could reduce the value of whole animals, resulting in fewer animals being killed and less resources used in their production. On the other hand, the substitution effect could work the opposite way if people are choosing an offal-based appetizer to their steak dinner instead of the salad they used to eat.
I don’t know which of these effects will outweigh the others (and if anyone has any hard data, please let me know, because I’m genuinely curious). If consumers substitute unwanted offal for more expensive meats that would almost certainly be a good thing, but is that what they’re doing? Or is our new love of offal going to make our society more carnivorous, not less? If the latter we can enjoy foods like mountain oysters because they’re tasty and different, but it would arguably be more virtuous to simply eat less meat in general.
Previous ball blogging:
Great balls of fryer
The Mystery of the Five-Inch Bull Balls
Duck, Coffee, and Fluff: Food Adventures Abound
Few food events worth noting (and attending)–one past, one present, and one upcoming.
The Duckathlon is still a cavalcade of awesomeness. Congrats to Lily & D’Artagnan! Crispy’s Duckathlon archive–I hit last year’s NYC for the feting and feats and had a blast, but was foiled by my Patent Law final this year–here.
The Southern Food & Beverage Museum in New Orleans is hosting a cool new exhibit called the Birth of Coffee. It opens this Friday, and is being sponsored by those “crystals” folks at Folger’s.
The excellent scholarly food mag Gastronomica is hosting a forum on Marshmallow Fluff in NYC on May 26. Fluff’s close to my heart, as I hail from nearby (but not too nearby) its still-current digs in Lynn, Mass. If you don’t have $25 to shell out or aren’t in NYC, click here, here, and here.
The Voice Gives Foie Gras Farming Thumbs Up
Is foie gras a humanely produced product, as proponents like me contend, or is it something sinister, as the folks at PETA and HSUS claim? Village Voice food writer Sarah DiGregorio decided to find out.
If I had seen with my own eyes that Hudson Valley produced foie gras by abusing ducks, this article would have turned out very differently. But that just wasn’t the case.
Read DiGregorio’s brilliant, 400+-word investigation here. And feel free to follow that up with a helping of my own foie opus here.
Happy Geese, I’ve Got Those Happy Geese
If you’re not already obsessed with the TED talks, you should be. About one thousand of the world’s coolest, smartest English-speaking people get together and each give “the talk of their lives” in 18 minutes or less. The TED website posts a few talks per week in video and in podcast form. The talks are nearly always non-ideological, and they make you interested in things you never would have thought to think about otherwise.
As an hors d’oeuvre, try this one, released today from foodie Dan Barber on his revelatory experience with ethical foie gras production.
Once, Nightmares of Foie Gras Danced in My Head
Foie gras is yummy. It is not, though, modern. Nor is it consumed en masse. Nor does it make me want to dance. Yet…
Adam Linder has been awarded the Place prize for dance 2008, it was announced last night. The Australian-born choreographer’s duet Foie Gras, which he performed with Lorena Randi, saw off competition from four other finalists to win the £25,000 prize.
[...]
Linder’s winning work, Foie Gras, offers a critique of modern behaviours of mass consumption. “The piece deals with a climate of mass material and entertainment consumption – and how it exacerbates our perception of ourselves within society,” explained Linder. “I was looking at the behavioural and psychological repercussions of mass stimulus – the repercussions in interpersonal relationships.”
Also known as, I was throwing some crap against the wall and hoping it would stick. That’s not what foie gras is about either.
The Guardian’s got you covered on the prize and resulting controversy over the Place prize going to this (as opposed to other) dance dreck.
Duckathlon Recap II: New at Reason.tv
Duckathlon Recap: New at Reason Online
I have a piece up at Reason Online today on D’Artagnan’s great Duckathlon, and how it fits in with–and counteracts–the rise of the food nanny state in New York City. A snippet:
So while the city has hundreds of outstanding restaurants, each likely claiming thousands of devoted customers, it also has millions of residents who can’t afford (or be bothered) to eat in them. Those people instead frequent the inexpensive chain restaurants city regulators target.
New York City might be foodie heaven, but if you’re an eater rather than a gastronome, regulators are increasingly futzing with your food. The food really under fire in New York City right now is not that eaten by, for example, billionaire Michael Bloomberg—whose mayoral manse chefs competed at the Duckathlon—but by everyday diners.
Still, the vigilance of [D'Artagnan's Ariane] Daguin, her staff, and Duckathlon participants is as important as it is admirable.
“In a small little way,” Daguin says, “I hope it’s paving the way to more freedom.”
Crispy previously on the Duckathlon here. D’Artagnan’s Flickr photostream from the event here.
From ‘Lax’ ‘Enforcement’ of ‘Liver Law’ to ‘Liver Libre’ in Chicago
The Wall Street Journal had a great feature on the death of Chicago’s foie gras ban–and the rebirth of culinary liberté du choix–over the weekend.
Repeal is turning into a spur to creativity for Chicago’s many ambitious kitchens. New foie gras dishes are on the menu or in the works at a dozen top eateries, most unashamedly at Moto, the molecular gastronomic laboratory of chef Homaro Cantu. He told local media he intended to offer foie gras in the shape of a duck with a force-feeding tube coming out of its mouth. A spokesman for the restaurant said he could “neither confirm nor deny” such a concoction was in the works.
Get it before it’s locked forever in subscriber hell. The piece pairs nicely with a fascinating little foie gras history that labels Watertown, Wisc. the one-time hub of foie gras in America.
My 2007 piece on Chicago’s ban here.
Thanks to Jackson for the tip.
Chicago’s Foie Gras Ban is Dead!
Minutes ago, Chicago’s dreaded, idiotic foie gras ban died a deservedly graceless death, reports the Chicago Tribune.
With Mayor Richard Daley running the vote, the Chicago City Council on Wednesday repealed its controversial ban on foie gras.
Over the shouted objections of Ald. Joe Moore (49th), the ban’s sponsor, the council used a parliamentary manuever to put the ordinance on the floor for a vote.
On to California!
Congratulations to all who worked to overturn the ban, and especially to Didier Durand and Chicago Chefs for Choice. This is truly a great day for liberté du choix.
Crispy on foie here. Read my 2007 profile of Chicago Chefs for Choice and Durand here.
D’Artagnan’s Duckathlon IV: Best. Invite. Ever.
I had the otherworldly good fortune to attend yesterday’s uber-competitive, uber-fun, invite-only Duckathlon, sponsored (as always) by the great folks at D’Artagnan. The event took place this year at and around the gorgeous Chelsea Market in New York City’s Meatpacking District. From the press invite:
D’Artagnan’s Duckathlon is a gastronomic obstacle course in which teams from top restaurants in the New York area are sent on an action-packed tour of the Meatpacking District’s hottest haunts – 20 stops in total. At each stop they earn points conquering feats such as: the blind wine and ham tasting, guessing the weight of a baby lamb, Chuck-a-Duck (don’t worry—they’re rubber!), mystery organ meat identifying, and, of course, racing with flippers! Returning from last year’s event will be the bodacious bra hunt at Hogs and Heifers.
Congrats to Le Cercle Rouge, which took home first prize, and to the talented kids from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Mgmt. (pictured), who rocked the best-dressed contest.
Some of my personal highlights:
One thing I didn’t really do, surprisingly, was eat. But I made up for that in good wine and beer.
I have a piece on the event that will be out soon. I’ll also have a duckload of photos up soon. In the meantime, check out this slideshow straight from the duck’s mouth.
UK BK Flirts with £85 Foie Burger
Best done in the voice of that movie voiceover guy…
In a land ruled by a queen… an upstart king tries to lure customers with a golden goose… against the wishes of a ninny prince… and PETA… and some other, lesser-known group of anti-humans…
This summer, it’s Burger King: Home of the Foie-pper Gras-pper .
Coming soon to a theater theatre near you.
Judge Tosses Foie Suit
Rare good news in the fight to keep foie gras legal, as a NY State judge has tossed a suit against Hudson Valley Foie Gras. Though I can’t find anything online to corroborate the news, a well-placed source tells me this Albany Times-Union blog post is accurate:
According to Patricia Lynch Associates, which represents Hudson Valley Foie Gras, State Supreme Court Judge John Egan Jr., last week rejected a lawsuit against the Sullivan County farm which contended that foie gras was an “adulterated food product.”
The Humane Society of the U.S. tried to say that the delicacy, made from fattened liver, was the product of a diseased animal but Egan disagreed.
I assume Judge Egan granted a motion for summary judgment, prior to trial, but will report back when I see official news. Regardless, good for Hudson Valley and the people who love their food.
Maryland’s Foie Gras Ban Dead
Maryland won’t become the first state to ban all foie gras — at least not this year.
The author of the bill that would have banned one of my favorite foods, Sen. Joan Conway, has withdrawn it, admitting her “bill went a little far”.
Crispy on anti-foie efforts in Md. here and here.
A Prince Unfit for a Meal
With his son Harry serving in the war in Afghanistan, Prince Charles is no doubt preoccupied… with other stuff like foie gras.
Andrew Farquharson, the Deputy Master of the Household at Clarence House, said his chefs were ordered not to buy or serve the food.
“The Prince of Wales has a policy that his chefs should not buy foie gras,” he said.
“His Royal Highness was not aware that the House of Cheese sells foie gras and this will be addressed when their warrant is reviewed.”
Justin Kerswell, of Vegetarians International Voice for Animals, which has campaigned against foie gras, said the move was overdue but welcome.
“We are very pleased but foie gras should have been banned a long time ago,” he said. “There is a groundswell of opinion against the food.
“Foie gras is seen as very posh and the heir to the throne is probably the poshest person in Britain so for him to ban it is very good news.”
More here. Proving he wants to ban not just “posh” foods, Prince Charles last year called for Abu Dhabi to ban McDonald’s, for which he drew round criticism.
In other foie news, Henry Hong, writing in the Baltimore City Paper, has a pretty good piece on the battle over foie in Charm City. Crispy on efforts to keep foie gras legal in Baltimore here.
