June 7, 2012

"Foie-mageddon: California in one last foie gras binge before statewide ban."

"... There have been protests, warnings of future black market bootlegging, and even death threats against non-compliant chefs."
... California's only foie gras producer is Sonoma Artisan Foie Gras, which is going out of business, despite business booming with clients placing bumper orders at $60 a pound in the weeks before the ban starts.

Owner Guillermo Gonzalez told The Daily Telegraph: "Our farm is being forced to shut down at the end of June, and the most unfortunate fact is that science has not been given a chance to play a role in this debate.

"Ultimately, chefs' and consumers' freedom of choice is being taken away. Who knows what food product is next?"

47 comments:

Tim said...

Vote Democrat, people.

It will only get better.

sakredkow said...

So stop with the blowjob jokes already.

Matt Sablan said...

The next product was soda. Wait, that's New York. I get my food tyranny mixed up.

... That is humorous hyperbole.

David said...

They tried this in Chicago and it was pretty much ignored. No one wanted to goose up the enforcement.

Unknown said...

We'll survive California and Bloombergville so long as people can relocate to Arizona or New Jersey and find what they want to eat or drink. A dangerous development is the trend at the Federal level to cut people off voting with their feet. The more of that you see - proposed exit taxes that exceed the Third Reich and so on - the more explicit is the admission that America is over. Or that at least the ruling class hopes so. The outcome isn't certain yet but the battle lines are. Total state control will wear a smiley face, not a funny mustache and a brown shirt.

Carnifex said...

Don't mistake a soda ban with a foie gras ban. The soda ban is to outlaw fat people. The foie gras ban is to outlaw fat ducks, and geese. Totally different.

And "Ahhhnold" signed this POS law? Never be able to watch him play a he man hero again.

3 lines in every Ahnold movie:

1) "Come wit' me if you wan' to live"
2) "Grab my haan'!"
3) "Arrghgrghaagrhrhaghrghagh!"

cubanbob said...

This is objective proof that the democrats are incapable of governing. The state is melting down and the legislature has time for this at best tertiary issue but ignores the immediate and critical problems. God help the red states when the flood of Californians and other blue staters move to them. Lets hope they leave their political idiocy back where they came from.

Scott M said...

3 lines in every Ahnold movie:

1) "Come wit' me if you wan' to live"
2) "Grab my haan'!"
3) "Arrghgrghaagrhrhaghrghagh!"


He's going to be playing Jesus and will get to use all three. Plus, of course, "I'll be back."

MadisonMan said...

I will never understand how people can eat liver. Bleah.

Dumb law to ban it though.

DADvocate said...

I've never tried foie gras, but I've heard it's not all its quacked up to be.

Anonymous said...

California's scarce goose resources can no longer be wasted on pate production at a time when the state needs every golden egg it can get its hands on.

Scott M said...

I've never tried foie gras, but I've heard it's not all its quacked up to be.

Go sit in the corner farthest from your keyboard for ten minutes, mister. You're on time out.

edutcher said...

Last party at Versailles before the Bastille fell.

Roman said...

This is all about the left knowing how to live your life better than you. It will not stop until they are removed from power/influence. Vote smarter.

traditionalguy said...

Goose liver is actually quite tasty.

But California needs a new crisis to justify the huge bureaucracies awith their early mega pensions.

It's for the Geese, guys!

virgil xenophon said...

First they came for the Foie Gras... but I was on a low-fat diet..next they came for the sugar-based sodas but I was a Tab drinker...lol...reminds me of the comment about the feeling of helplessness against the power of government as expressed by a backer of 50s Louisiana arch-segregationist and powerful Plaquemine Parish political leader Leander Parez when Parez refused to back down in his steadfast opposition to Federal & Federal Court demands for desegregated schools after little-Rock and Brown V Board of Education: "But Leander, what are we gonna do now that the Feds have got the A-Bomb?"

FleetUSA said...

Simple, move your geese to WI. It is a free country (outside of CA).

Lyssa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MadisonMan said...

move your geese to WI

We have waaay too many geese in this town as it is. But I see a solution to the problems of Vilas Park (or as I call it, GoosePoop Park).

gadfly said...

Well, if the nannies have to ban something, let it be this awful sounding "delicacy" that I wouldn't let touch my tongue.

The real danger is the "parallel economy" that will spring up and gummit will have once again shot itself in the foot or worse.

The Greece black Market hovers around 30%, so we need to hustle to catch up.

Lyssa said...

There's a "gastropub" here in town that serves an appetizer called "foie gras 'PB&J'". It's seared foie gras, some sort of fancy bread, almond butter, and a fresh blueberry sauce. So, so good. The seared foie gras takes on a quality that is something like bacon, but with a rich, fatty mouthfeel. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Mmmmm. So glad that I don't live in CA.

BarryD said...

What I love is that our local organic food co-op with all the stupid progressive and green magazines in the rack, sells foie gras.

I have never tried it.

Anonymous said...

Well take heart Californians, you can still have liver wurst, no?

traditionalguy said...

Good morning Allie. I still enjoy reading your comments, which are like a surprise fine wine in a beer drinker's milieu.

Dave said...

The law was passed in 2004 and is an example of zealots imposing their beliefs on others. Four years after the animal-rights Nazis pushed this through - the Right-wing Religious Nazis gave California Prop. 8.

So, one side decides that they have the right to decide how others should live and forces their view on everyone. It doesn't matter if it's a legislature restricting our choice of what we can eat or a vote rescinding the right to marry - it's B.S.

Carnifex said...

No fava beans or chianti references? Those were getting trite anyway. Having had both domestic, and wild goose, the wild is much preferred. Domestic is WAAAY too fatty. But for Foie gras? MMMM mmm MMMM. Lyssa's recipe sounds heavenly. The sweet and savory, the softness of the inner parts from the crispiness of the outer sear, the nuttiness of the butter accenting the fattiness of the pate. (my biggest regret is that my wife thinks MickyDee's is fine dining.)

Unknown said...

California pols: "We have to destroy this state in order to save it."

Pastafarian said...

gadfly: "...this awful sounding "delicacy"..."

I'm surprised at the number of people who have never had foie gras.

The best I ever had was at a place called Biggs in Chicago -- it's gone now, but it was in a hell of a chop house, located in a repurposed mansion. Braised with a port reduction -- one of the best things I've ever eaten, and I've eaten one hell of a lot.

As others have indicated, when it's done right, it has a rich complexity of flavors and textures. It's not just liver, like liver n' onions at your local diner.

fivewheels said...

Hot Doug's still serves the Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage with Truffle Aioli, Foie Gras Mousse and Fleur de Sel that broke the back of the Chicago foie gras ban. It's pretty great, but usually I just get a corn dog and the duck-fat fries.

At least the silly law got repealed. Pipe smoking is still banned at the Chicago Pipe Show, the biggest pipes and tobacco convention in the country. No longer the best, obviously.

MayBee said...

Foie Gras is delicious. I'm actually surprised this ban is going to go through, because so many chefs are lefties.

I know Ludo Lefebvre was working hard to draw attention to the absurdity of the ban. I guess it didn't work.

Synova said...

I didn't realize that it was liver.

I eat quite a bit of goose, though, compared to what other people do anyway. They are expensive! Even when you buy them and cook them at home. And does that even make sense?

The eggs and goslings are freaky expensive too.

lgv said...

Next up. Veal.

We don't want to abuse animals before we kill and eat them.

Only eat free living birds that died of old age.

ndspinelli said...

Anthony Bourdain will eviscerate these politicians on his show.

virgil xenophon said...

@Dave/

Expanding on your comments about the power of the State and those of mine, above, forgive me if I go "long-form" on a "short-form" comment site.

The late philosopher Eric Voegelin once stated that "..the end result of 'progressive' politics is totalitarianism." In this vein a professor of political philosophy of mine in grad school very presciently predicted in the spring of 1972 that one day a highly authoritarian US government would try to regulate our lives/food-intake justified on the basis of good health--health and nutrition being necessary for national security al la the way the Interstate Hwy system was begun and justified under Eisenhower as a way to insure rapid troop movement in wartime (National Hwy Defense Act of 1958)

Citing nutritionists claim that a healthy breakfast was "the most important meal of the day" he suggested a thought exercise in which the Federal Government would be seen to take over the responsibility for insuring that ALL Americans start the day off with a healthy breakfast on the basis of the requirements of national security. Far fetched then, perhaps, but now? Already no less than Michelle Obama has used the power of the bully pulpit of the Presidency to browbeat private companies like Disney and school systems to alter their menus, and Mayors like Bloomberg and the Calif Legislature have done so in the governmental sphere. And in the same vein no less than a panel of ex-Generals have recently issued a report entitled: "Unfit to Fight" (16 April 2012) in which they claim that childhood obesity and the general lack of physical fitness among young adults poses a "very real threat to national security." So the intellectual/"scientific" "credentialed" groundwork for government control of our food intake is already being laid.

But how could the govt guarantee that every American eat a nutritionally balanced breakfast each day? Even the fastest computer systems and millions of "meals-on-wheels" vans would not suffice. Some people want to eat at 6:00am, others at 6:20, etc. Some want bacon & eggs, others hot oatmeal, others cold cereal & milk. And people would change their minds between the time they put in their orders and the time the meal was cooked, etc. Clearly such an effort is a logistical impossibility in a nation of 300 million, is it not? Not so fast Orange-juice & cigarette breath! We ALREADY manage this problem in two significant sectors of society--the prison system and the military! Both use central "mess-halls"/cafeterias to feed at required designated times and for designated lengths of eating time, and both use daily "master-menus" to limit choice. Would it be far-fetched to suggest that some bureaucrat might suggest that centralized mess-halls be constructed throughout America's cities, (jobs for labor!) and, that at the appointed time a bus or truck (the procurement of which and the supply of drivers ensuring yet more jobs!) will pull up in the center of the block (so no one will have to walk more than half-a-block) and transport the citizens to the mess hall (more jobs for cooks!) where they will have, say, three "fully nutritious" choices off the day's master menu--which must be consumed in, say, no more than 10 minutes--at which time they will be bussed back to their residences.

All the above far-fetched, you say? Back in 1972? Certainly. Today??....you tell me..

Bryan C said...

"Foie Gras is delicious. I'm actually surprised this ban is going to go through, because so many chefs are lefties. "

Well, that's what happens when you build a government around the whims of ignorant adult children. One day they may decide not to be your friend anymore. A lesson lefties never learn.

Synova said...

Virgil, my husband was very good at work yesterday and didn't say a thing to rile up the rabid lefty fellow (there are other lefties, but they aren't rabid.) I asked him not to because it makes his day stressful and unpleasant. And you know... Wisconsin... so I figured that said rabid fellow would be more rabid than usual.

What happened was... my husband, quite innocently, complained that the stores had started selling 16oz Mt. Dew, and he wanted his 20oz (24oz?) bottles back.

Oh. Dear. Gawd.

I have no idea why we suddenly have smaller Mt. Dew bottles. This isn't New York after all.

But, as I hear it, the discussion went quickly down the political tubes, rabid fellow demanding to know why someone couldn't be satisfied with 16 ounces, explaining that it was all "conservative" anyway since Bloomberg used to be a Republican, etc.

From my point of view the fun part was, when my husband explained that he'd drink only one of the larger bottles over the course of the day, but when he had a 16oz bottle he ended up getting a second one, rabid fellow demanded... "No one *makes* you drink two!"

LOL, OMG, way way tooooo funny.

Rusty said...

MadisonMan said...
I will never understand how people can eat liver. Bleah.

Dumb law to ban it though.


Like Scotch, it's an acquired taste.



Carnifex said...
Having had both domestic, and wild goose, the wild is much preferred.

The Canadas we get here taste like liver and worms when cooked.
We breast them out and strip the meat from the legs and thighs and grind it up with bacon, pepper and garlic and make land yeagers9like slimjims) out of them. Very tasty.

yashu said...

Anthony Bourdain will eviscerate these politicians on his show.

Yep. I'd love to hear Bourdain on this; he was great re the Chicago ban.

I love foie gras. Some of the best meals I've ever had-- many in SF-- involved foie gras. This is just awful. Idiots.

Only upside: stuff like this makes more libertarians (or libertarian-friendlies) out of erstwhile "liberals."

Amartel said...

Hola, Rubes.

Bayoneteer said...

Odd you can now buy Absinthe and even marijuana legally in CA but you can't buy goose liver. Go figure.

Synova said...

Absinthe, really?

(I liked the Highlander episode where the evil immortal guy, back when absinthe was trendy, drank it all the time because he couldn't die from it, and then kept up the hobby. Probably ate blow-fish, too.)

Paddy O said...

Is absinthe not legal in other states? I thought it was a national ban that got overturned in the 90s.

Good stuff, by the by, I think I'll have a glass this evening.

William said...

I think I ate it one time. Perhaps a notch or two above liverwurst, but no big deal. Caviar, also, seemed overrated. Maybe they're cultivated tastes, or maybe most of their appeal lies in their expense. Our equivalent of honeyed hummingbird tongues which were such a big hit at Caesar's parties.... I've read that in colonial times oysters and lobsters were extremely cheap and were shunned by people of breeding and taste....If it's true that animals are tortured in such a ghastly way to produce this, then I'm ok with banning it. There's so many other good things to eat.

SukieTawdry said...

William said: I've read that in colonial times oysters and lobsters were extremely cheap and were shunned by people of breeding and taste...

The children of lobster fishermen brought lobster to school to eat for their lunch. It was considered low class. Lobsters are, after all, bottom feeders, but I don't care. Not much beats a lobster roll.

Rusty said...

William said...
I think I ate it one time. Perhaps a notch or two above liverwurst, but no big deal. Caviar, also, seemed overrated.



It isn't the liver so much as what the goose is fed and what the liver is mixed with. Some nice capers and minced garlic. Yum.
It's about freedom of choice, William. Not for the goose, but for the goose liver munchers.

KLDAVIS said...

Absinthe is legal again, nationwide. One of the best US-made versions actually comes from Califonia's St. George Spirits.

I believe restrictions on the PPM of thujone persist, despite shaky science that it had anything to do with the supposed psychedelic effects of Absinthe. The more likely culprit was a combination of the exceptionally high proof of Absinthe (generally north of 120 - 60% alcohol) and that bygone distilling processes frequently resulted in a significant amount of lead in the final result.

KLDAVIS said...

In Chicago, chefs got around the ban by providing the foie gras for free. They would sell toast points & quince jam for $13 and include the liver gratis. We happened to dine at Alinea during the ban and were informed that the course containing foie gras (served liquefied, in a tube of mango) was complements of the chef.

The ban is silly and easily skirted, the real problems are the destruction of businesses like the farm and the turning over ordinary people into criminals.

As the farmer said, science has not spoken. Liberals love to bask in science when they agree with its conclusions, but it goes out the window at the drop of a hat. Geese don't have a gag reflex. They come running for the gavage tube like a New Yorker to a big gulp. Any of the mass produced meats in your supermarket is hundreds of times less "humane". Foie was an easy target. Veal or tuna will be next...