Why is something like foie gras still a thing?

It’s organ meat ground into a homogenous paste. With a little effort, you can quickly, cheaply, and easily create a vegan version.

But that’s not the point.

It’s about it being rare and being made at the expense of other living things. It’s only good because others are suffering for it. Either in making it or in trying to afford it.

It’s why cheap food gets maligned so much. MSG can make food taste better. There are cheaper and easier alternatives to French truffles. But under capitalism it’s the knowledge of exploitation and excess that a lot of people want.

I mean I can’t think of any other reason people go to restaurants that use gold foil in cooking. Then you get people trying to retroactively justify why that food was good.

I mean consider the lobster (:jbp:). It was considered food for poor people until rich people tried it and then they went out of their way to change history and perception to make it a luxury food. That happens to food all the time. And then there are experts who pop up as authorities of what the good version of whatever food looks like.

Real foie gras is better actually because of ‘reasons,’ but give them a taste test, and any of those reviewers would fail. It’s happened with wine, especially. Wine tasters can’t tell cheap from expensive wine, but they’ll sure pretend.

And the fucked up thing is that this doesn’t just lead to scarcity, like with overfishing or other supply chain issues it leads to artificial scarcity.