AHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHA FOIE GRAS IS BACK IN CALIFORNIA AND I AM GOING TO EAT LIKE A DANG BARON KING:
Menus across the Bay Area were being hastily rewritten Wednesday after a federal judge struck down California’s ban on foie gras, allowing restaurants to serve up the delicacy for the first time in two years.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson in Los Angeles ruled that the state prohibition on the sale of foie gras, a fatty liver dish made from force-fed ducks and geese, illegally encroached upon the regulatory domain of the federal government.
California lawmakers passed the groundbreaking ban in 2004 amid concern that force-feeding poultry is inhumane. The law took effect eight years later, immediately putting a crimp in California’s dining scene, where the French-inspired fare is celebrated at many high-end restaurants for its rich, creamy flavor.
“It goes on the menu tonight,” said Ken Frank, chef and owner of Michelin-starred La Toque in Napa. “All of my sous chefs are jumping up and down. This means chefs in California can cook with their favorite ingredient, just like chefs everywhere else in the world.”
I have absolutely already been eating it at the Presidio Social Club, which is located on federal property near the Golden Gate Bridge and is not subject to state laws and has a secret foie gras plate that I have already been eating from. I had some last month for my birthday. Nothing will ever ever ever stop me from eating duck organs, when I desire them. (This is not a real problem; this was never a real problem, but it is a dumb thing I am very excited about and also I have been told [mostly by people who make or cook foie gras and are probably deeply invested in convincing themselves that it’s not MORALLY QUESTIONABLE, but whatever!] that ducks and geese don’t even have a gag reflex because they essentially force-feed themselves when they gulp all those whole fish down into their gullets.
DOESN’T MATTER. EITHER WAY, I’M EATING MEAT BUTTER TONIGHT.
This is, I think, going to be a particularly light-hearted and frivolous link roundup, today. I play exactly pass-the-time-style two games on the internet: Slingo and Text Twist. Please recommend to me at least two more. I do not want to click on little jewels or have to engage in a narrative.
a list of fictional heirs apparent who never acceded
Roxane is recapping Empire for the Wall Street Journal! Did you even know that the Wall Street Journal had people recapping TV shows? I did not!
“I was really looking forward to “Empire.” Family intrigue! The music industry! Overacting! As NPR’s Linda Holmes said on Twitter earlier today, “Empire is very much hip-hop Nashville.” She is absolutely correct.”
Oh, that is all I needed to hear, my love. I will be right over.
a list of fictional patent attorneys
I’m sure that you never do this. But sometimes I will RT or signal-boost a project a friend or acquaintance is working on or has recently finished — something that genuinely interests me, something I’d actively like to read or watch — and I never get around to buying it. It’s generally sheer laziness that does it. I’m happy to spend $40 on heirloom cornmeal (SHUT UP). It’s not the money that bothers me. It’s all the typing of credit cards and clicking and writing out the little captchas and this is not the part of myself I am proudest of.
The point of this, I ACTUALLY PURCHASED AND READ Avery Edison’s essay collection Right Body, Wrong Junk yesterday and I would like to take the time to recommend it to you now. It made me laugh. I liked it. I don’t know how I feel about the unicycle, but it’s the differences that make life grand.
Here’s a video of pretty much every time Stephen Fry says “BAAAH” as General Melchett on Blackadder:
Keep paying attention to the Tamir Rice shooting. The Cleveland Police Department released records on Wednesday that revealed the officer involved “scored a 46 percent on the department’s written cognitive exam, administered by Cuyahoga Community College and given to potential recruits. Seventy percent is considered a passing score.”
They’ve also released extended video footage of Tamir’s death. After Tamir was shot, his fourteen-year-old sister was handcuffed and placed in a squad car for attempting to help him. Keep paying attention.
“The grandfather of long-grain rice in the Americas, Carolina Gold is a delicate non-aromatic rice with chameleon starch properties that allow it to produce fluffy, individual grains; creamy risotto; or sticky Asian-style rice, depending on how it is cooked. Exclusively new crop and milled to emulate fresh, hand-pounded rice, Anson Mills Carolina Gold rice has a clean, sweet flavor and mouthfeel superior to modern long-grain rice.”
Why am I such a sucker for anything that calls itself a heritage grain? Or whatever a rice is. Cereals. That whole family, you know, bottom of the pyramid. If it’s $35/lb and milled by Rapunzel and particularly glutinous, I am seized with a hateful desire. I must have it, every time.
good tweet
