It's elusive due to the very limited number of producers in the US, or for that matter North America. The United States and Canada collectively account for only 2.3% of world production, while France is the dominant producer at 78.5%.
It's controversial due to the practice of gavage, wherein Ducks or Geese are force fed for a period before slaughter. There have been various ordinance and statutes proposed to ban the practice, which dates back over 4000 years. In some cases I personally think the practice is mechanized and cruel, in others it would be much harder to argue the point ... a great analysis of the debate on Foie Gras is on StarChefs. With the U.S. having only two producers, both of whom have encouraged political opponents to visit the farms to demystify what actually takes place, I'm at least content enough there are much more deserving food producers for consumers to scrutinize and regulate - if you disagree, I encourage you to see Food Inc, visit a Community Supported Agriculture provider like Windsor Dairy (e.g. a farm), or read one of Michael Pollan's investigative reporting books.
In this writer's opinion, the simplistic view that all foie gras production results in animal cruelty, I believe is born of pure ignorance of where food comes from, which is possibly linked to the great lengths the food industrial complex goes to insulate consumers from it. If you've ever worked on a farm before many effectively became satellites of agribusiness conglomerates, you probably have a very different perspective. As Francine Bradley, from UC Davis, as I believe so succinctly summarizes the impedance between perception and reality on this topic, "You have people making decisions about food production based on a concept of animals which comes out of Disney." (as quoted on Starchefs)
At $70+ a pound, Foie Gras is in no way cheap, but if you have someone like Marczyk's around the corner, you can get out of there with just four ounces, please a few dinner guests, and altogether avoid the potential for buyer's remorse.
Pictured below is a recent foray into Foie, a successful flavor pairing, but short of memorable for most. I think you either individually like Demi Glace, Foie Gras, and Macerated Fruit or more likely you don't like one or more of those things (my wife would choose "none of the above" on this question) ... so there will be precious few who would enjoy this dish, but I liked this gastronomically unfledged play on earthy, savory, & sweet.
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| From gastronomic guesswork |
The foie gras was quickly seared in a hot copper and stainless-lined saute pan for 1-1 1/2 minute a side. The pink lady apples where diced to a brunoise size, then poached for 20 minutes in a mixture of 1 part madeira to 4 parts simple syrup. The potato was sliced transparently thin and poached in demi glace for 10 minutes.
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