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Duck danger in Chicago
12/08/2006 21:42 - (SA)
Chicago - These are dangerous times for ducks and geese in Chicago.
With the city's ban on foie gras (a delicacy made of duck or goose liver) just days away, upscale restaurants in the city are serving it up like never before.
They have put together special menus with names like "Foie Gras, Farewell To Our Good Friend" featuring that friend in course after course - searing it, chilling it, throwing it into salads and turning it into sauce.
At the same time, foie gras enthusiasts are cooking up a lawsuit to keep it on the menu in the city, or put it back after the ban goes into effect August 22.
They are holding fundraisers to finance the foie gras fight and asking diners to sign petitions.
Diners are savouring it a lot more, or at least more often, than they would have had the city council not voted to side with animal rights activists in April and ban it.
Activists say the geese and ducks are force-fed to make their livers bigger.
Indulgers sound like politicians?
But to the chefs who prepare the buttery indulgence, and the customers who do the indulging, this is more than a last hurrah for foie gras.
"They're going too far when they're telling you what to eat, what not to eat," said Mario Lara, who was concerned enough about the issue to buy a table for four at a foie gras fundraiser at Cyrano's Bistro & Wine Bar. "This is America."
Sounding more like politicians talking about the Middle East than a piece of meat that gets its size by sticking a tube down a bird's throat and force-feeding it, enthusiasts said foie gras would not be the last tasty treat to make its way from menu to city ordinance.
Will veal be next? Lobster? And what about that fur coat in the closet?
"It's a slippery slope," said Ben Goldhirsh, who recently enjoyed the extensive "Foie Gras, Farewell To Our Good Friend" at a trendy downtown restaurant.
Given animal rights activists' success getting foie gras banned in Chicago, chef Didier Durand is confident they will take aim at other foods as well.
"Pretty soon we're going to be eating grass," he said.
'They don't have it so bad'
That helps explain why a group of distributors, producers, and processors in the foie gras business have formed the North American Foie Gras Association, and hired a lobbyist to make their case as other United States cities contemplate following Chicago's lead.
They examine legal and legislative options, and also promote the idea that despite what animal activists say, ducks and geese raised for their liver do not have it so bad, certainly not as bad as animal rights activists say they have it.
Bryan Scott, the group's lobbyist, said the ducks and geese have it better than chickens, and claimed the force feeding was not even painful.
"By everybody's account it is not," he said.
Well, maybe not everybody. One of Chicago's most famous chefs took foie gras off the menu when he saw how it was produced.
- AP
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South Africa
