Oh thats a great idea!

Oh well... I will foie gras; I will eat raw oysters which are, actually, "alive"...
I will continue to eat lobsters, crabs, crawfish...cooked live by the way...

until the day when I simply don't ever eat or wear anything that had a face.

Right on, Richard. I hate hypocracy. Unless you are a 100% vegetarian (no dairy), wear plastic shoes, don't use dishwashing liquid, makeup, or deodorant (tested on animals), and kindly shoo away spiders and wasps instead of killing them, then you HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE ME!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you smoke cigs??? Then you are slowing killing innocent children with your second-hand smoke. That is WORSE than killing a duck.

My younger daughter stayed with a family in France one summer. She was a vegetarian, but decided she would honor the local customs and eat what the family offered her.

The family was in the Dordogne, and it turned out that the mother worked in a foie gras factory. My daughter ate a lot of foie gras that summer.

2012...I shall indulge, indulge and indulge some more...in private I think.

Post 2012 "we" will get FG on the black market so...I worry not. This is the most controversial food CHOICE when we dine out. This year my darling hubby said that he would not sit at the table with me while we eat out IF and WHEN I order this appetizer.

He has had to leave the table twice this year...Comes back to our romatic dining room table...all peeved and full of lectures about how I need to burn my SPCA Membership, Save the you name it mamal,bird, animal and other memberships...

FG creates major dining out "stress" so I do not order it with hubby anymore...he also refuses to pay for it and in Cali. it is expensive and me to take out my wallet while when dine out is something that I do NOT do.

Oh well...carry on...

I agree with those who point out that MANY if not MOST other types of meat are treated much worse. This is just an attempt by PETA and the likes to start banning meat products of all kinds. It's easiest to start with things that 1) seem to be only for the rich and not widely available to the masses and 2) have a type of 'horror' story behind it to get people all riled up.

I would encourage you all to go to your local dairy, chicken farms, cattle ranches! Any one eat rabbit? Ever seen tuna caught and clubbed?? We are at the top of the food chain folks. If you choose not to eat meat, wear leather, etc than so be it. But please don't try to regulate my eating habits as someone smokes next to me or slaps their kid around!! There are bigger issues in the world.

Btw...I LOVE foie gras, order it online and bring it back when I go to Paris. I order it in restaurants whenever I can.

ok, coming off my little podium now! ;)

Who is trying to stop you here on Fodors? Go ahead but if you are watching your cholesterol the goose will have the last laugh!

At least one Paris restaurant menu last week included a disclosure on how foie gras is produced. Wonder if disclosure is required by law.

To foie gras or not? I did, and I enjoyed it.

"Fast Food Nation" was a real eye opener for my daughter. She decided to become a vegetarian which lasted until she had her first tofu lunchmeat sandwich. lol

Wouldn't it be a perfect world where our animals had stress free lives roaming freely in pastures and then one day ZAP they were humanely put on our plates. My friends like to buy their beef on the hoof from 4H kids at fair for this very reason - animals are pampered, fed, walked, and cared for right up until they go to auction. Wouldn't you rather eat an animal like that then one raised in a pen, stressed to the max, eating god-only-knows-what, feces incrusted eyes, ears, and nostrils.

For some of my friends who raise their own animals, they are even particular about how their animals are slaughtered and have it done on their farm to see that it is done correctly, and swiftly.

Perhaps one day we will be able to buy "free range foie gras". (How do you request THAT in French?) Better yet, anyone have a recipe for imitation foie gras made from tofu? (that's a joke friends)

I wonder how many mothers cringe at the thought of force feeding those ducks, then turn around and stuff their own kids with quarter pounders, fries, and milkshakes. I wonder what their livers look like, not to mention the rest of them.

I'm not one of those who is going to say that it doesn't matter how the ducks and geese are treated. I think it DOES matter. We are at the top of the food chain, and it's not immoral to do what's natural for a top-of-the-chain animal, i.e. kill and eat other animals. But we have an obligation not to be cruel. However, I'm not convinced that force-feeding ducks and geese is cruel. I've heard conflicting "evidence" and arguments, and the more convincing, better reasoned arguments seem to weigh in favor of a conclusion that force-feeding is not necessarily inhumane. Or, at least it is certainly a lot less cruel than the way "factory farms" raise chickens or calves in miserable, unnaturally cramped pens their entire lives in order to produce tender white veal or cheap chicken.

I was given some information recently that gave me an interesting new perspective on the matter of force-feeding geese and ducks. I was hoping someone more knowledgeable might post this, but since that hasn't happened I'll briefly attempt to re-tell what I learned. Apparently migratory birds, such as ducks and geese (which would be migratory in nature if not domesticated) have an esophagus that is different from that of mammals and of nonmigratory birds. It has a capacity to expand tremendously to allow huge quantities of food to go down. This physiological feature makes certain birds well adapted to the migratory life. It is natural for migratory birds to stuff themselves with large amounts of food at a certain time of year, thus storing large amounts of fat in their livers, in preparation for migration, in which they will need to burn a tremendous amount of energy, which they have stored in fat. Humans who domesticated migratory birds in order to use them as food took advantage of the birds' natural tendency to fatten up, and developed techniques of controlling the amount and timing of the overeating in order to produce the desired type of food products.

I also learned that there have been endocrine studies of birds undergoing force-feeding in order to measure the amount of a hormone that is always raised in situations of stress. Surprisingly this hormone is not elevated when birds are being force-fed (but it is elevated if they do not have the same person doing the force-feeding consistently).

I'm glad you changed your tune from the other forum,. The NY Times Article I posted here and there, tells you that they have a different esophagus.

My brother raises "happy chickens" and nowadays none of the family can stand to eat store bought eggs. The thought of Chicken X or Nadine and the girls being locked up and pooping out eggs is just too sad. Not to mention flavor and color. But foie gras? I love the stuff. I want to roll in it, you know, like when your dog finds something irresistable and dead on the ground, drops his shoulder and boom! he's rolling in something that's making him so very happy and you so very mortified. It's a treat. We don't get it everyday. I'm going to France and I'm going to indulge and be grateful. By the way, how much am I going to be paying for this stuff?

If you're talking to me, Cigalechanta, I posted exactly the same thing on the other forum (FF), just minus the first paragraph. I didn't change my tune at all in the few minutes that it took me to migrate from one forum to another. (But maybe you don't mean me.)

People have the misconception that all the French eat Foie gras, not true. It's usually a special/holiday treat. And more common in the Dordogne but not on the average Frenchman's table. (nor ours) Tres Cher!

I think if I'll manage this Thanksgiving not to think how many turkeys are sluttered for ppl to be happy - then I'll be able to try fois gras if ever in France again...

pdx--for pure foie gras you will pay a lot. Pre-cooked foie gras comes in a variety of forms, from p&acirc;t&eacute; to <i>bloc de foie gras</i>. Quality varies, and I find that it is best to buy it from vendors at the market who are willing to give you a taste. It is also cooked fresh, and is best that way, IMO. If in Sarlat, take the P&eacute;rigord menu of the Auberge de Mirandol, add the 2 euro supplement for the fresh foie gras, and you'll get a good dose of foie gras.

Michael- the Auberge de Mirandol it is, then. I love foie gras fresh. I'll try the others in the cans and see if I want to invest in some to bring home. Thanks.

...&quot; turkeys are sluttered for ppl to be happy&quot;

Ziana, I knew what you meant but this gave me such a good laugh :))
Thanks for the light touch~

Here's an account of some of the pressure tactics used by the nati-gavage forces in California: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...9/MN245934.DTL