SFist Tonight
Week Around the Ists
SFist Tonight
Pro-life zealots on the Berkeley City Council voted Tuesday night to pass a resolution supporting the city's position against the serving the deliciousness known as foie gras. The fattened liver dish, for those of you who don't know, is the plumped liver of a duck or goose that has been force-fed 20 percent of its healthy body weight. What it lacks in moral fiber, it more than makes up for in rich, full, savory flavor. After the vote, Berkeley Councilmember Jesse Arreguin whined to the Daily Cal, "The importance of this item is to raise awareness of the really inhumane practice of force-feeding geese and ducks to create foie gras." Restaurants serving the dish after the law goes into effect can be fined $1,000 per day. Tuesday's vote comes on the heels of San Francisco getting squeamish on the dish earlier this year. Also, for those of you curious about foie gras, you can taste it at one of these local restaurants that typically feature it on their menus.
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Bad link at the end. I remember they had it at Oola, on Folsom near Lulu.
And so it continues. I think it's a safe bet to assume that none of the sheeple voting for the ban ever visited a Foie Gras farm, or - for that matter - ate Foie Gras. At the same token, how much should I bet that at least half of them has eaten at Subway or Quiznos, notorious for their meat coming from CAFO farms?
Should this surprise anyone? The average voter in Berkeley is a functionally-retarded busybody who reads too much Chomsky & Zinn, masterbating to their utopian fantasies while engaging in blog flame-wars over their $2500 Mac laptops while drinking $5 a cup lattes and getting 100% organic spirulina enemas.
somebody is jealous
Yeah, but the fair trade quinoa vodka my friend is going to start importing soon will sell like hotcakes in Berkeley!
I used to work in Berkeley at a café/bakery. Yes, we got our fair share of knee-jerk food fad-ists (What is it this week - A wheat "intolerance"? A lactose avoidance? An alcohol rebellion? A meat ban?). However, I've seen much worse in SF with the obnoxious yuppy food and drink orders a la L.A. Story. Despite that tirade, I think this law totally oversteps... Why? Read this long but articulate bit from the folks over at Incanto: http://www.incanto.biz/letters_-_shock_and_foie.html
Todos somos a fat duck's liver!!
P.S. The only thing wrong with foie gras is that I cannot afford to eat more of it.
A great story on Foie Gras is told by Chef Dan Barber...very nice story:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_barber_s_surprising_foie_gras_parable.html
I've never seen a bigger gaggle of goose haters in my life. Those water fowl exist for themselves, not for your tasty dining enjoyment. I don't care how "humane" some Alice Waters brand foie gras farm happens to be. The farmers are still FORCING these birds to eat when they'd rather be running about on their bird errands. Therefore, foie gras is wrong.
I don't support legislation banning the stuff because, sorry, Ross Mirakarimi, as dreamy as he may be, is not so morally superior that he should have the right to legislate anyone else's lifestyle choices. Silent, glaring peer pressure is a more effective means of tormenting people into giving up goose livers. Remind me to throw some red paint on you guys sometime or something.
You know how geese in the wild migrate thousands of miles? They do that after gorging in the wild, and build up massive fat reserves in places like their liver, which they burn off while they fly across continents.
So?
So you disagree with current laws against animal abuse? I find that hard to believe
Anyone who abuses (or adopts a pet for aesthetic reasons) should be killed. In public. Brutally. Unless said laws affect what I like to eat, that is.
Dude - you want Paris Hilton to be guillotined in public???
with that kind of logic you must endorse the common chinese practice of torturing dogs and cats to death to increase "flavor". one mans food is another mans fido i suppose.
Why stop at foie gras - why is the liver so sacred? What - its ok to eat roast goose flesh but not its organs? Chicken wings in BBQ sauce is ok, but not chicken hearts? Pork cracklings are acceptable, but don't be serving pork pate? I know a number of folks over in Oakland who live near Lake Merritt who would be perfectly happy if someone would eat up all those geese pooping everywhere.
Seriously, what is this city's problem with organ meat? A bad experience with grandma's liver and onions as a kid?
All this talk of offal has me hungry - I might need to book a dinner at Incanto...
The issue is not killing of animals for food, it's keeping animals in humane condition until they are killed. There are humane ways to kill and keep animals until they are to be killed. Just because we have the power and ability doesn't negate that we should treat animals in a humane way.
Bingo. There's a difference between allowing an animal to run free and live some semblance of a normal life prior to eating it and locking up a goose, shoving a siphon down its throat, and forcing it to constantly eat gruel until it's liver explodes. That's not natural, it's mean. I don't care how good it tastes (and I admit it, it tastes great!), it's still MEAN!
I'm a vegetarian myself, and I suspect many vegetarians are happy enough to stop the cruelest animal abuses first and then move on to the rest. This is just one step of many.
like the SF Supes, Berkeley simply issued a resolution that they support foie gras-free eateries. It doesn't ban restaurants from serving the tasty stuff (although the state ban kicks in soon). It just wags a "you bad, bad boy" finger at them.
Another reason to avoid this sh*thole
Berkeley: Just Like Pissing Into The Wind, Only More Amusing.
i bet all the people posting on this thread have never eaten foie gras nor have they ever seen the conditions of the animals. They just want to bash people for having some kind of compassion. Hipsters hate people who care about anything.
I vote we take every Asperger's case who commented here and stuff them full of grain until it comes out their ears, then rip their heads on and harvest their livers. That's something I actually would eat.
another good reason to bypass Berkeley and head over to Albany. Solano Avenue and fewer bums and now fois gras!
Another good reason to bypass Berkeley and head over to Albany. Solano Avenue and fewer bums and now fois gras
Mark2000 you should get your head checked , you'd eat a person? Wow .. now thats a nut job! ... Put the lotion in the basket Mark!
Ducks and Geese have better lives than humans!