Of foie gras, food and fond memories...

foie gras

I grew up amongst elders who always complained about the lack of taste in the food prepared by the then younger generation. The usual banter that they indulged whenever the elders meet is the reminiscence of the mouth-watering palatal stimulating dishes that their elders used to prepare back in the days. Sometimes I used to think that these people were indeed gluttons and lived to eat. One of them includes my father and my maternal grandfather. The latter literally sold off his ancestral property just to satisfy his taste buds and hypothalamic satiety centre. They used to recollect the times when the aroma of chicken curry cooked in one person's kitchen used to fill the whole neighbourhood and how simply-out-of-this food generally tasted.

I used to think that taste never changed. I thought their remote memory of input of olfactory nerve to the limbic system just reignited their nostalgic childhood memories. Until I heard the story of a man in Spain who reared geese to prepare them for foie gras, the natural way without the notorious force feeding which is often spoken about.

A journalist well versed with fine dining decided to trace this eccentric man, Eduardo, to his farm to interview and see for himself the truth of his claim. Eduardo has his own beliefs on ensuring succulent, juicy fat geese liver. The goslings are left to roam wild in an unfenced field exposed to variously selected grasses. Of course, security is a concern as he lost 20 to 30% of his flock to predators and wanderers. He does not touch the geese as it may lose its protective sebum. The herd is left to roam freely and happily.

Geese have an inborn ability to gorge themselves in preparation of winter. They eat and eat if they are happy.

At the end of the interview, the journalist had the chance to taste his product. To his astonishment, the dish did not need artificial flavouring. The foie gras did not require additional seasoning as all the various flavours were allegedly provided by the food that the geese fed on. According to Eduardo, modern farming had destroyed natural tastes in food.

I suppose there must be some truth in what the old folks were saying when we were growing up. To feed the ever-increasing population of the world, we managed to increase the production of food at the expense of taste.

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