I saw the article before coming to the blog. On the cutting edge...

On a serious note, it is distressing that the subject has resulted in such animosity on a blog that is usually quite good natured and polite (except when discussing crab cakes).

What a particular person chooses to eat or not eat is a personal choice and is no one else's business. You can state that you choose not to eat something someone else loves or vice versa and why, but don't demonize the person.

If you want to keep everyone from eating something, lobby the legislature.

Reply to Janet

I could not disagree more. If you don't want people to eat something, you should reduce demand, and that starts at the grass roots level. Going to the legislature so the heavy hand of government can ban something is like closing the barn doors after the animals have already escaped.

Prohibition doesn't work.

I live in Butchers Hill, a block way from Salt, a regular spot for these demonstrations. Actually to call them demonstrations is a bit giving. It is usually 6 or 7 people being loud and abnoxious in a quite residential neighborhood. I e-mailed the group at one point asking them how many people demonstrated where actually from the neighborhood, and did they realize how much of an asset this restaurant is to our neighborhood. I got a "holy than now response" that declined to answer if anyone lived locally.

Areas that are revitalizing like Butchers Hill do everyone some good. In order for neighborhoods to succeed it helps to have spots like Salt, that gain regional noteriety. My guess is that very few people actually order the dish in question. More than anything it is a disruption to a neighborhood, that hurts a small biz owner who is doing some good.

This group feels that they are in the right, nobody else's opinion matters.

First off, it's a duck.

Second, the duck farmers don't set out to be cruel to their animals. A cruelly treated animal tastes bad. Any farmer will tell you that.

I've seen how the ducks are fed and to be honest - it's not bad at all. The duck's physiology allows it to breath easily while being fed.

Fourth, I don't protest outside of vegetarian restaurants. How do you know plants don't have feelings?

This debate over foie gras reminds me of the best line in Doctor Zhivago:

"There are two kinds of men and only two. And that young man is one kind. He is high-minded. He is pure. He's the kind of man the world pretends to look up to, and in fact despises. He is the kind of man who breeds unhappiness, particularly in women. Do you understand? I think you do. There's another kind. Not high-minded, not pure, but alive."

These protestors are the first kind of man, and we foodies are the second kind of man. How much better it is to be alive than to be pure.

To Andy, I'll pose the same question I posed to David on the Salt thread: I'm curious, what exactly are we allowed to eat? I'm guessing your not a fan of veal, beef, chicken, turkey, pork or fish. So, with your kind permission is macaroni (does wheat really like to be cut and ground?) and cheese (how do we know the cows like to be milked?)acceptable? Could you provide weekly approved menus? It seems you want to run the lives of others.

Fundamentalists of any kind are dangerous.

Beware the food taliban!

I say get thee back to the land of Nod, somewhere east of Eden, vegan killjoys. It's right there in the Lego Bible - God hates vegans.

http://www.thebricktestament.com/genesis/cain_and_abel/gn04_02b.html

Hey, I didn't write it. Abel offered up God some tasty lambs full of mad flava and he was mightily pleased and Cain brings him like a salad and he was all like What? and come on I don't want that and Cain was all like I'm gonna kill Abel and so he did. Salad always ends in murder.

If God didn't want us to eat animals he wouldn't have made them so delicious.

I think we should also remember that Hitler was evil and Hitler was a vegetarian. Ipso facto, vegetarians are evil.

And they said Vaudeville is dead. If you can't beat'm, ridicule them. Now, back to my steak tartare.

Shouldn't these people be protesting the horrible conditions in our prisons, the war in Iraw, the lack of affordable housing, and other compelling issues? It's a flipping duck! And boy, it fois gras gooooood!

Food fight, food fight, food fight!

More importantly -- Hitler was elected.

If our relative sizes were reversed, a duck would gobble us like a gummy bear. I say it's kill or be killed in my nightmare world of giant ducks.

My office mate is looking at me again!
Stop all this merriment or the food police will tell the thought police and you know what happens then...

More nanny-state blathering about. I agree; can't we just get along, and challenge one another to create better food; you know...raise that bar a bit? C'mon, vegetarians...put those creative minds together; too much vegetarian fare is lacking (but go to places like India and China, and wow- vegetarian food that tastes really good!). And chefs...c'mon, let's get in on the act as well. Either way, let's all try and learn to eat local, fresh, and stay away from the big chains and fast food. Would you like to see local places like Salt go away, and replaced by what- a Fridays and maybe some other chain serving big piles of high-calorie glop?

Last night my wife and I had dinner at The Charleston and free entertainment as well. The protesters showed up, evidently for the first time there, and loudly chanted for about 30 minutes. Then they left. The staff couldn't have been more surprised or amused. Cindy Wold graciously provided with a seared foie gras dish as well. Thankfully, after about a 60 minute intermission they returned, but only at half strength. While we did come up with some better chants than the ones they were using, my question is this: where did they do for an hour? Did they take a dinner break? Go picket the Aquarium? All in all their lack of commitment was rather disappointing.

A friend of mine who lives in Little Italy called me yesterday afternoon. The foie gras Hezbollah were chanting outside of Aldo's around 4:30-5:00, which is pretty lame since Aldo's isn't open then, nor do most foie gras eaters do the early bird special on Saturday. Lame. They were probably just trying to get on the news. Picketing a closed restaurant ? Super lame.

Maybe they thought they were successful since no one went into Aldo's.