I thought the pilot was with Hugh Laurie!

IZZARD!?! I think this is what those SPN folks call failing.

In which he could have been way funnier, I think... (or at least spoken up a bit more...)

Ditto to Hugh Laurie in the series 1 pilot.

I thought the pilot was with Hugh Laurie!

I'm telling you, it's a secret episode! The set is different and everything.

I'm mostly happy just to see him.

For some reason, not all restaurants have complied....

Very few, in fact. And the inspectors have been looking the other way because they have better things to do with their time than worry about whether or not 4-star restaurants are serving freaking FOIS GRAS.

There's some effort being made to push the same ban through in NYC, but it'll never happen. Too easy for reporters to go out to Long Island duck farms and watch the ducks race each other to the feeding tube for the "but it looks icky therefore it must be cruel!" crowd to have much of a voice.

There's some effort being made to push the same ban through in NYC, but it'll never happen. Too easy for reporters to go out to Long Island duck farms and watch the ducks race each other to the feeding tube for the "but it looks icky therefore it must be cruel!" crowd to have much of a voice.

So they're not force-fed?

So they're not force-fed?

They have a feeding tube that runs the food straight to the stomach, but apparently the geese and ducks are food tube sluts.

Has anyone here ever had foie gras? Is it tasty? or just desired because of its exclusive reputation?

So they're not force-fed?

In the sense that the farmer sticks a tube down their throat and pumps grain in, yes. In the sense that it bothers the ducks/geese in any way, not really. It looks unbelievably painful because for a human throat, it would be, but for a bird, nsm.

Fois gras is an easy target because it's a luxury item (like lobster), and opposition to it has much more to do with that -- it's expensive and high profile, and easy to ask people to give it up since the vast majority of Americans never eat it anyway -- than with the way it's produced. Compared to an average grocery store chicken, fois gras ducks and geese are positively pampered. (But PETA can't ask cities to ban factory-farmed chicken, because then everyone would have to sacrifice.)

[eta: And yes, it's very, very tasty. Best in moderation IMO, because it's superrich -- those huge slabs you see on Iron Chef would be more than I could probably handle -- but very yummy when done right.]

I have. Buttery and pretty darn tasty.