Poultry

I don’t know how they found the energy whilst living a meat-free existence….bu they have mounting an attack against a Wellington restaurant.

A Wellington restaurant has decided to take its signature foie gras dish off the menu after a year of being plagued by animal rights activists.

Le Canard has always stood by its serving of the traditional French pate, which is made from duck or goose livers engorged by overfeeding them with fat-covered grains.

But owner Pascal Bedel said today the weekly protesting by Speak Up For Animals had become ”too much”.

Whenever his full restaurant was hounded by placard-wielding protesters shouting into megaphones, his customers left unhappy and did not return, he said.

His neighbours had also been complaining about the noise that could go on until about 10pm, but police had told him they could do nothing.

”The police should be allowed to do something. but here it’s more important for people to protest than to have business.”

”That’s the reality of here, I’m just upset about that.”

He was working on a new menu now, and aimed to have foie gras off the menu within the month.

”I still sell a lot but … I will take it off as soon as I can.”

”We’re still doing great food and everything. It’s more about the law, it’s not about me.”

He hoped the protesting would stop, because if it did not he would have to close, he said.

Speak Up For Animals campaigner Michael Morris was happy to hear they had achieved their mission and gave his word they would leave the restaurant alone.

Perhaps we could set up a loud noisy protest outside Michael Morris’ residence or place of work and see how he likes that. Bloody busy bodies.

ᔥ The Atlantic

The only people more sanctimonious than Greens are Germans or French. Typical of them. They ban production but not consumption.

Provided the law stands—and it is expected to, given that no one in Sacramento seems keen to revisit gavage in the midst of a budget crisis—California’s chefs will have to decide whether to obey it or, as some have already threatened, defy it (and risk a $1,000-a-plate fine). Such culinary disobedience has some precedent: Chicago, which in 2006 implemented the nation’s first foie gras ban, recently overturned its law, in part because it was so widely flouted, and in part because then Mayor Richard M. Daley claimed it had made his city “the laughingstock of the nation.” (Though not the world. Under Hitler, Germany was the first country to criminalize force-feeding of fowl; several countries—including Israel, Italy, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Poland—have since outlawed gavage. None of these bans extends to consumption, however; Germans, who updated their ban in the 1990s, eat 170 tons of foie gras a year.

170 tons of foie gras is an awful lot of tasty ducks being harvested in someone else’s country.

ᔥ The Atllantic

A good set up for defending California’s ban on foie gras:

Perplexed by these contradictions, I recently went to San Francisco to see John Burton, the chairman of the state’s Democratic Party and the original patron of the anti-gavage law. A dependably profane mainstay of California public life, Burton introduced the bill while serving his last term as president pro tem of the state Senate; hearing of the chefs’ insurrection this spring, he told the San Francisco Chronicle that he’d “like to sit all 100 of them down and have duck and goose fat—better yet, dry oatmeal—shoved down their throats over and over and over again.” A postcard of a duck lay on his disorderly desk, across which he lobbed grenades at each of the chefs’ arguments.

Then a bloody good comment that we should use here when some silly greenie reckons we are ruining our clean green image and that is why people come to New Zealand.

The chefs’ coalition has warned about the ban’s potential impact on California’s high-end restaurants in a bad economy, and the state’s diminished standing in the world of haute cuisine. “California will no longer be a food destination?,” Burton said. “In other words, a guy’s sitting around and says ‘Let’s go to California. They’ve got these beautiful views. They’ve got Yosemite, the bridges, Universal City, the redwoods. Oh, shit! They don’t have foie gras! Let’s go to South Dakota.’”

And rounded off with a cracker of a comment about the house of foie gras.

Nor did he buy the argument that a restaurant could go broke without foie gras, unless that restaurant’s specialty was incredibly narrow. “If you had the House of Foie Gras, you’d be fucked,” he said. “Like if at the House of Pancakes, you can’t make pancakes.” Finally, I tried out the claim, put forth by some experts, that ducks might not suffer overmuch during gavage—that as migratory birds, they are biologically disposed to gorging themselves, and that their lack of a gag reflex means tube feeding may be less miserable for them than it would be for us. “The bottom line is, you shouldn’t be torturing Goosey Gander and Donald Duck,” Burton said. “It’s a bad goddamn thing to be doing.”

There seems to be an attack of the wowsers.

First up people moaning about duty free ciggies….I note they aren’t calling for an end to duty free booze though.

Health groups are joining forces to call for duty-free tobacco allowances for travellers to be scrapped.

Several groups have made submissions on the bill to authorise the tobacco tax increases announced in the Budget – and all have called for duty-free allowances to be scrapped and for tobacco tax increases to be much steeper than the proposed increases of 10 per cent a year over the next four years.

And then there are the three nutters protesting about battery hens.

The trio blocked the main entrance to the Waikouaiti business and several vehicles had to turn around, said protester and Coalition to End Factory Farming spokeswoman Deidre Sims.

Speaking from a tripod, Ms Sims said she was “willing to put my life on the line” to bring an end to cages for battery hens.

“We have placed ourselves in this potentially very dangerous position and are prepared to risk our lives if it helps to prohibit the use of all cruel cage systems in New Zealand.

“This should serve as a strong warning to Mainland Poultry that we are escalating our efforts and remind consumers not to buy Farmer Brown eggs, which are Mainland’s cage-produced range,” she said.

Wankers. Pick them up and move them on. They are stopping a legitimate business from operating based on their inane beliefs.

We need to really knock all this misery and whining on the head otherwise just a few nutters will always get the say and stop the rest of us going about our lawful ways.

ᔥ American Hunter

Now that I am regularly shooting tasty animals it is important not to wreck the meat, either in preparation or in the cooking. American Hunter Magazine outline the 5 most common mistakes:

1. Not Aging the Game First
Unlike domestic animals, wild ones have a rich, variable flavor, because they are often older at death, exercise freely and enjoy a mixed diet. The wild flavors that result from cooking these animals are often described as “gamy.” In Old World Europe, game was hung until it began to rot—a treatment they called mortification—which not only tenderized the meat but heightened the wild, gamy flavor even further.

2. Not Brining or Marinating the Game First
Brining is an old-fashioned technique that involves soaking meat or poultry in a flavorful saltwater solution to enhance its moisture and taste. The proper ratio is 2 tablespoons of salt to 4 cups of water. It is especially good with breast meat and other lean cuts like the loin.

3. Overcooking the Game
The surest way to turn someone off of wild-game to serve it to them overcooked. Because there is less fat in wild animals, the moisture evaporates quickly in the pan, drying out the meat, turning it gray and giving it that “gamy” flavor. White-meat upland birds should not be served rare, but can have a blush of pink in them. The wild ones will be more muscular and will dry out more quickly, so you need to tend to them while they are cooking—basting them, poaching them, doting on them until the very last second.

Dark-meat birds, such as ducks, and red meat game animals like venison must be served no more than medium-rare. Serving it rare is even better. There is no use in eating it otherwise.

4. Cooking it the Wrong Way
In the world of chefs, meat is categorized into first, second and third category cuts. The first category is the leanest and most naturally tender, like the tenderloin. The third category is the toughest, like a shoulder. The cooking method used to cook these cuts varies greatly and is crucial to making the final dish successful. The first category—the loin—must be quickly seared and served.  The third category should be braised in liquid over many hours until the collagen breaks down.

5. Overcompensating
Sometimes we do too much to a dish, when the ingredients should be allowed to speak for themselves. We smother it in cream of mushroom soup or wrap it with jalapeños, cream cheese and bacon—dominating the star of the show.

ᔥ Stuff.co.nz

Next time I am in Wellington I will make sure I visit this restaurant, not for the foie gras ( I don’t like it) but to annoy the wankers protesting the restaurant.

A Wellington animal rights group has vowed to carry on its protests outside Le Canard restaurant until its foie gras dish is taken off the menu.

Speak Up for Animals says it will “politely” carry out weekly protests at the French restaurant in Thorndon, with a growing group of activists joining its campaign against the controversial food.

Foie gras is a traditional French delicacy made from duck or goose livers that have been engorged by overfeeding them with fat-covered grains.

Le Canard owner Pascal Bedel has been taunted by placard-wielding animal-rights protesters every weekend for more than six months, which is putting a strain on his business.

Zoologist Michael Morris, a microbiology teacher at UCOL in Palmerston North, and one of the leaders of the anti-foie gras campaign, said Speak Up for Animals was focusing on Le Canard because it refused to follow other restaurants in removing the dish.

The group of five campaigners, who he said were “professionals with sensible jobs”, had regularly been outside the restaurant handing out leaflets and “politely” talking to customers about foie gras.

Today it was Quail. Tomorrow is Pheasant and Fallow Deer. Maybe a Mallard or two.

I spent all day in the Kaingaroa Forest chasing Quail with my new Beretta AL391 Urika from Hamills and Beretta. This is the first time I have hunted Quail and also the first time I have hunted with dogs trained to flush birds. Watching the two dogs work is a real pleasure. Safety is paramount though and so  I checked first to see that no one with the surname Cheney had a permit for Kaingaroa.

I was told that Quail shooting is a real rush and after flushing a few coveys today I am hooked. Until today my new shotgun hadn’t been fired at game and on the first covey that flushed I bagged a hen. My shooting coach was impressed telling me that normally people miss quail because of the sped and mayhem of the flush.

I also loved seeing the pig hunters driving down the road with a dog on the bonnet of the ute. Caught up with some Mongrel Mob fellas who had nailed 4 pigs before 10am. They looked pretty pleased with themselves.

Kaingaroa is a big place…and I have walked probably half of it today. As I said tomorrow I am going after Pheasant and will also have a crack at some Fallow around dusk with my Tikka .308 from Hamills.