March 5, 2007
Tidbits
- The foie gras battle rages on sparked by a sign at Fairway on the Upper West Side.
- Jacques Torres is in a hot chocolate war in DUMBO (his use of exclamation points is also noted).
- Michael Psilakis and Donatella Arpaia find a new home at Anthos, in the former Acqua Pazza space on 52nd Street. Restaurant Girl gets an early peek.
- And with Japanese Restaurant Week starting today, we find Grub Street's guide very handy.
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That reminds me. I went to Nougatine for brunch on Sunday, they have a spectacular foie gras brulée appetizer.
I am sick to death of these foie gras "activists." If I were passing by Fairway when these idiots were protesting, I would have spit on them. And then walked in the store and bought some of this delicious product.
Nice, FG.
It's really weird how the mere suggestion that the incredibly cruel treatment of animals in the production of an unnecessary luxury product might somehow be, um, *wrong* makes people so angry.
Spitting on protesters? Hmmm. Perhaps it rankles so much because - deep under that veneer of dismissive outrage - you actually have a conscience, and some small part of your brain *knows* that treating any animal like that is inherently unethical. Or are you the kind of person that kicks puppies, too?
Maybe I'm being too hard here. At least you didn't go for the bogus "civil rights" argument and claim that the protesters are threatening your, uh, constitutional right to maltreat animals.
J. Torres: “Chocolate is a huge industry and there is room for everyone! . . . When Herve first got started, we gave him our hot chocolate product and our cups! Now he’s got his own recipe, and that is very exciting!”
Brooklyn Paper: Chocolate war in DUMBO: It’s mugs at dawn for Jacques Torres and old pal
"The sign may have been meek — “Now for sale: hot chocolate” — but it read like a dagger to anyone who knows the bitter world of high-end sweets."
Never let the facts get in the way of your storyline.
FG, spitting on someone is assault, I'd just go in and get some foie gras.
Maybe the foie gras activists shouls focus on a real problem like the US Government torturing people instead of worrying about ducks? Talk about having a luxury problem.
Loser activists! Stay out of my dining room.
Well put, MT.
I probably would not have actually spit on anyone, but I find the recent movement to ban foie gras troubling and infuriating in many, many ways. First of all, I don't think the treatment of ducks and geese in the making of foie gras is "incredibly cruel." I have much more of a problem with industrial meat production, where the animals spend their entire lives herded in pens, wallowing in their own shit. Not so much for the animals' "feelings" but because of the public health and ecological ramifications.
Foie gras producers are small, mostly family-run businesses that rely on the quality of their product to survive. Why would it be in their interest to provide "diseased" meat to consumers? Seems to me that these ducks and geese have it much better than, for example, their bovine counterparts at ConAgra.
What I find really unconscionable is that in this country, children are starving, and the food supply is constantly in danger of mass contamination (salmonella, E. Coli, etc.). Isn't that a hundred times more troubling than the production of a luxury food that the vast majority of people in this country don't even know about?
I'm agnostic on this issue, but I find it amusing when people launch into the "isn't x more important than y?!" argument - as if that somehow negates y's importance to a certain segment of the population.
Believe it or not, it really is possible to be passionate or interested in more than one issue concurrently.
I haven't looked into it that deeply, but from what I've read and seen, it doesn't take a genius to see that being forcefed until your liver swells 3x normal size is an enjoyable experience.
I'm a carnivore, so I'm going to continue eating and enjoying beef, fish, and fowl. I'm probably burying my head in ignorance somewhat, but what I don't feel the need to do is enjoy particular types of meat that need to be prepared to the further poor treatment of the animal. For the same reason I avoid veal - do I really need to eat meat so tender that they have to immobilize young calves to do so? No. Ditto on the foie gras.
If you told me "You know, chicken hearts are exceptionally delectable after they've had a heart attack from running on a treadmill while forced to look at a picture of Rosie O' Donnell", I'd probably avoid those too.
"it doesn't take a genius to see that being forcefed until your liver swells 3x normal size is an enjoyable experience."
The bulk of the American populace would disagree with you. They love the idea of being forcefed until their liver has swollen to 3x the normal size so attractive they don't need to be forced to do it.
Damn you jiga, I was going to say that and think myself witty.
it has long been know that ducks and geese gorge themselves naturally in preparation for migration. if they willingly do this for themselves can it hurt them that much to have it done to them?
Search: BBC "foie gras" spain migration