Politics and religion are non topics on LTHForum, have been since day one.

Gary, I hope the mods will make an exception for bbq, as it is a religion for many, and highly political.

Food for thought:

"You can't ignore politics,
no matter how much you'd like to."--Molly Ivens

Because I'd sent Chef Didier Durand (Cyrano's Bistrot) one of these:



I got a message from him yesterday advising me that there would be a rally Sunday, 2/24, at noon in front of his restaurant, 546 N. Wells, against the foie gras ban and the alderunits who promoted it. (There's also the last of a series of foie gras supporter dinners that evening.)

Didn't see updated info at the Chicago Chefs For Choice site, but if he sends me something more I will post it. EDIT: here it is:



If you feel the opposite way, the Reader food blog reports that the other side will be in force outside Cyrano's around 5 pm:

http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/food/200 ... g-streets/

Mike G wrote:

Right on

So, I came across this in Time Out Chicago's list of the top 55 burgers in the city:

WINNER Sweets & Savories
The king of haute burgers still holds court, with its hefty Kobe beef patty topped with a slab of foie gras pâté (the loophole to the ban is that the foie is served as a topping, and not a dish) and a generous slathering of truffle mayonnaise. In fact, it may even be better than it ever was: Now that foie has become contraband, eating this burger has an element of excitement that we haven’t experienced since…well, since we ate it the first time. $17. 1534 W Fullerton Pkwy, 773-281-6778

http://www.timeout.com/chicago/Details. ... y_time.xml

Wait, what? Doug wasn't serving whole tubes of foie, was he? Double standard?

At risk of getting political --

Tuesday was a good day for those of us who like foie gras. Reilly beat anti-foie gras Natarus and Joe Moore, the anti-foie sponsor, was forced into a run-off.

Reilly is on our side on this. The chefs of the downtown and near north side areas can count on their alderman-elect.

I report the following from the Channel 2 website without any political comment, but ONLY to note that there may be more foie gras fundraisers in the next two months.

As I understand matters, Aldermen need 50% to avoid a runoff:

Alderman - Ward 49 - General
Illinois 42 of 42 Precincts Reporting - 100.00%
Name Votes Pct
Moore , Joe (i) 3,657 49.33%
Gordon , Don 2,162 29.16%
Ginderske , Jim 939 12.67%
Adams , Chris 656 8.85%

WOLFGANG PUCK BANS FOIE GRAS... bans eggs from chickens raised in battery cages, veal and pigs raised in confining crates... Developing...

Snark wrote:WOLFGANG PUCK BANS FOIE GRAS... bans eggs from chickens raised in battery cages, veal and pigs raised in confining crates... Developing...

Do you have a citation for this? Googling only turns up pages lobbying him to do this, but nothing indicating that he has chosen to do so.

DML wrote:At risk of getting political --

Tuesday was a good day for those of us who like foie gras. Reilly beat anti-foie gras Natarus and Joe Moore, the anti-foie sponsor, was forced into a run-off.

Reilly is on our side on this. The chefs of the downtown and near north side areas can count on their alderman-elect.

Actually, Natarus reversed himself in September and sponsored a bill repealing the ban, along with Bernie Stone, who is in serious trouble in his own runoff. Last I heard their bill was sitting before the Health committee. I have no clue what happens to such a bill when its chief sponsors are voted out, but it can't be good.

http://www.nbc5.com/news/9833366/detail.html

Puck to stop serving Foie Gras - NY Times (may require registration)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/dining/22puck.html

Snark wrote:Puck to stop serving Foie Gras - NY Times (may require registration)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/dining/22puck.html

Here's another link with more detailed information on what he is proposing at his restaurants.

http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/wolfgang_puck_animal_welfare.html

How dare you scoop me!

Seriously, I say, good for Puck. I'm firmly agains the foi ban, but if this is how he feels, he is only right to do so.

Besides, he needs some positive pub after the hepatitis episode.

-ramon

Hear hear!

A restaurant owner making a personal ethical choice, responding to the wishes of his customers without government getting involved, and going on to preach what he believes rather than trying to legislate it..

This is EXACTLY how these issues should be handled.

I preface this by stating that I have no knowedge on how Puck treats his employees.

Before I hear another restaurateur get all mushy about the poor creatures we eat I'd like them to commit to their own workers' living wages, decent working conditions, workable hours, health insurance, etc ...

Lets start the humane treatment with humanity.

-ramon

Election outcome:

Ward 49
100.0% of precincts reporting
Joe Moore 4,019 51.6%
Don Gordon 3,772 48.4%

A toast to the victorious alderman with a beer and some to-be-determined encased meat.

I think the question with Puck is, is this truly something that is in his heart or is he simply trying to market himself through this ethical positioning. Hard to tell, and I'm certainly not accusing him. Just a point.

baskerville wrote:I think the question with Puck is, is this truly something that is in his heart or is he simply trying to market himself through this ethical positioning.

Why does it matter?

yup, yup, yup...

let's all pontificate, while we masticate.

nothing wrong in not decrying the inhumane defilement of a few birdbrained fowl, while we, should, all howl over the slaughter of 'farm raised' st. bernard doggies, in the people's republic of china.

all meat is good...

them poloneysian peeps had it right... spam DOES taste like human.

I was in Kevin on Saturday.

The meal was outstanding, but the"special" appetizer is worth a special mention.

The chef made what looks like a spring roll. It was stuffed with "liver" and with some tropical fruit. Absolutely amazing and it is good to see some people working with the ingredient in question.

The end of the ban could be in sight!

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2007/05/daley_targets_f.html

Just in time for the summer dining season, Mayor Richard Daley said today that the City Council will move to repeal the much-discussed ban on foie gras...Daley said the move to repeal the ban will be brought for a vote "maybe next meeting or the following meeting."

jellobee wrote:all meat is good...

them poloneysian peeps had it right... spam DOES taste like human.

I read that a local word for human flesh translated into English as "long pig." Which gives even more cred to the argument that people taste like Spam.

Except that Paul Theroux says he made it all up.

...not that "long pig" hasn't been outed as a linguistic hoax(it has)...but, it predates Paul Theroux, don't it?

I am speaking solely to the claim that polynesians said spam tasted like human flesh, not the "long pig" argument.

Christopher Gordon wrote:...not that "long pig" hasn't been outed as a linguistic hoax(it has)...but, it predates Paul Theroux, don't it?

Robert Louis Stevenson, among others, used the term way before Theroux, but I'd love to see a link or such to the "outing of the hoax". I'm pretty certain that Spam came about some time after many people still left alive had a memory of eating the "long pig", but I can't seem to find anything to back up the idea that the use of the term "long pig" by some early flesh eaters is a hoax.

A Google search for Long Pig gets more than 8 million hits. In the first six pages, no one mentions hoax. So either it is an exteremely venerable hoax (Stevenson was mentioned, so it has been around for a few years) or an extremely effective one. "Hairless goat" was also mentioned, for younger specimins.

One more example of why one has to be careful with Internet searches.

The dictionary built in to Mac OS defines "long pig" as "a translation of a term formerly used in some Pacific Islands for human flesh as food." However, no etymology is given.

The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed (did you know you can search it online if you have a Chicago library card?) does (very briefly) explain "long-pig" as "a transl. of a cannibal's name for human flesh." However, "Pakeha, its origin and meaning" disclaims that the term means "pig," saying that colonial administrators used the word "pakeha" to describe themselves, and they wouldn't have if it was derogatory.

That's all I got so far.

germuska wrote:The dictionary built in to Mac OS defines "long pig" as "a translation of a term formerly used in some Pacific Islands for human flesh as food." However, no etymology is given.

The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed (did you know you can search it online if you have a Chicago library card?) does (very briefly) explain "long-pig" as "a transl. of a cannibal's name for human flesh." However, "Pakeha, its origin and meaning" disclaims that the term means "pig," saying that colonial administrators used the word "pakeha" to describe themselves, and they wouldn't have if it was derogatory.

That's all I got so far.

Wouldn't be the first time that colonial administrators got fooled by those whom they sought to administer, would it? It might even help explain where those missing administrators went...

I was also under the impression that it was RL Stevenson who first coined the phrase. Although, I have no evidence of that.

I was on the Tongan island of Vava'u shortly after the aforementioned book by Mr. Theroux was published. Several local residents were featured in the book. A single copy was slowly making its way around the island. Some of those "Happy Islanders of Oceania" were not very happy with the way Mr. Theroux employed literary license. However, nobody seemed particularly upset about the spam joke. In fact, I think that may have been an old Tongan joke that Theroux appropriated. I often heard Tongans joke about their cannibalistic heritage, usually along the lines of "inviting some Samoans over for dinner".