“At the end of the day, they’re animals and we eat them.”
Jason Evenchik
Updated 15:08, March the 11th, 2009
Foie gras fans set to gorge on livers
PHILADELPHIA. A duck liver delicacy that drew loud, nightly protests and threats of a ban by City Council last year will be celebrated with a week of specials at restaurants around the city starting Friday.
Foie Gras Week, during which 20 city restaurants will offer $5 dishes of the silky duck liver, is being held to promote the controversial entree, which starts with force-feeding water fowl to induce plump, fatty livers.
To foie (French for “liver”) fans like Jason Evenchik, who owns Time restaurant at 13th and Sansom streets where the delicacy normally goes for $12, the controversy is overblown by activists.
“At the end of the day, they’re animals and we eat them,” said Evenchik, a former staffer at Le Bec Fin, who pointed out that the famed restaurant once had a dish featuring the liver of unborn calves. “People should protest the use of veal and the use of chicken at McDonalds and KFC too if they’re protesting foie gras.”
Animal rights activists protested outside some eateries during the last Foie Gras Week in 2007, but they said the plan this time is simply to ignore the event.
Activist Nick Cooney — formerly of Hugs for Puppies — said everyone should be more conscious of where their food comes from and make changes if their cuisine choices include things like foie gras.
“Some of these restaurants participating don’t normally have foie gras on their menu," Cooney said. "They’re taking part because it’s basically being given to them for free. Two weeks from now after this one-week event is over, foie gras won’t be on the menu.”
