LTHForum,

Happy as I am the Chicago Foie Gras ban is no more, any additional straight up political commentary in this thread will result in locking the thread.

Not to be a wet blanket, but LTHForum is, as much as possible, a politics and religion free zone.

Regards,
Gary for the moderators

The real lasting effect of the reversal would be best communicated if a large number of vendors at Taste of Chicago feature Foie Gras.

We know you're lurking out there, restauranteurs, now it's up to you!

Anyone hear of restaurants celebrating with foie gras specials? I imagine Hot Doug will be putting a foie sausage on his menu as fast as he can order the stuff.

The real lasting effect of the reversal would be best communicated if a large number of vendors at Taste of Chicago feature Foie Gras.

I can't wait for the Eli's foie gras cheesecake on a stick.

Countdown until Doug has a foie gras dog on the menu again begins....now!

Not to be a wet blanket, but LTHForum is, as much as possible, a politics and religion free zone.

But what will we do when someone opens Joe Moore's Libertarian Temple of Foie Gras?

jpschust wrote:Countdown until Doug has a foie gras dog on the menu again begins....now!

That was exactly my first thought. Ideally I could drive down on a Saturday and get the dog from Doug's for lunch and the burger at Sweets & Savories for dinner.

And then drive home while guilting myself for the decadent consumption.

JoelF wrote:The real lasting effect of the reversal would be best communicated if a large number of vendors at Taste of Chicago feature Foie Gras.

We know you're lurking out there, restauranteurs, now it's up to you!

Just got an email from sweets and savories that they will be celebrating beginnign the 22nd (if my memory serves me correctly) with foie on the tasting and regular menus

After a two year "retirement" from Chicago, foie gras has released this statement below to the press.

"I'm back."

The ban is over.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_ ... e_gras_ban

Not sure exactly why (other than it's 4 weeks from today), but according to various news sources, the "official" date for foie gras to be legal again in Chicago is June 11. But it sounds like several restaurants are not going to worry about jumping in before that....

MelT wrote:Anyone hear of restaurants celebrating with foie gras specials? I imagine Hot Doug will be putting a foie sausage on his menu as fast as he can order the stuff.

From Chicago Magazine's DISH bulletin:

Sweets & Savories (1534 W. Fullerton Ave.; 773-281-6778) near DePaul has already announced a six-course, $75 foie gras dinner on May 22nd, and Pastoral is doing free foie gras tastings all day Saturday (May 17th) at both its locations (2945 N. Broadway St., 773-472-4781; 53 E. Lake St.; 312-658-1250).

tarte tatin wrote: Not sure exactly why (other than it's 4 weeks from today), but according to various news sources, the "official" date for foie gras to be legal again in Chicago is June 11.

Nice! That's my birthday...I was planning on going to Katsu, but I may reconsider.

Bad news.
Somebody over at "Clout Street" says we are a bunch of liberal snobs.

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clo ... 8#comments

That person doesn't have a clue. Read the comments here. Most people are moderate snobs, or conservative snobs. Sure, there are a few progressive snobs, and I suspect one "fellow LTHer" may actually be a communist snob.

But "liberal snob"? No way.

Footnote: PLEASE don't delete this as being a "political post."

schenked wrote:

The real lasting effect of the reversal would be best communicated if a large number of vendors at Taste of Chicago feature Foie Gras.

I can't wait for the Eli's foie gras cheesecake on a stick.

Only if it's deep-fried.

This will probably make my unpopular on this board, but I have to be honest: the reversal of the ban fills me with a hollow feeling -- not for the expected reasons (though I'll admit that prior to the ban, I was in the dark about how foie gras is cultivated, and I probably won't choose to eat it again), but because wasn't it sort of a community-building experience, all in all?

Think of all the in-jokes, the cocktail-party fodder, the great water-cooler conversations. Think of Doug Sohn's heroic acts of civil disobedience, and how much less foie meant to sausage when it was just (yawn) legal?

Didn't you secretly enjoy the ribbing you got from food lovers in other cities? The sincere sympathies they extended in your direction?

Think of how it was a kind of badge of honor to be the one American city to adopt such an unpopular and seemingly frivolous position . . . then realize it was sort of interesting to be a pioneer in standing for something, even something you may have found disagreeable?

And didn't foie gras taste just a little bit better, knowing it was forbidden?

I don't know: the reversal strikes me as just sort of middling, I guess. I'll be curious to see how foie lovers feel ordering it again once the ban has lifted. I know, I know, the reports will be glowing, and all this boo-hooing on my part will be my own isolated melancholy. But I can't help feeling like a helium balloon--so bright and red that it's embarrassing--has deflated, and now it's falling limply down the wall.

ChristyP wrote:This will probably make my unpopular on this board, but I have to be honest: the reversal of the ban fills me with a hollow feeling -- not for the expected reasons (though I'll admit that prior to the ban, I was in the dark about how foie gras is cultivated, and I probably won't choose to eat it again), but because wasn't it sort of a community-building experience, all in all?

I understand what you're saying, Christy, but personally speaking, I always saw this as one of a number of early volleys in a very, very disturbing trend. And my supreme relief that this trend seems to be rolling back a bit trumps anything else by a longshot.

LTHForum,

In honor of the end of Foiehibition I had a celebratory seared foie gras with blackberry gastrique at The Bay House in Naples Florida.

Seared Labelle Foie Gras with Blackberry Gastrique


The Bay House
799 Walkerbilt Rd
Naples, Florida
239-591-3837

Althought I do not eat Foie Gras, I am glad the ban is going to be lifted. The ban set a bad precedent.