website of the week

by Cory Frolik

Liver Worst

While protestors lined up in opposition to Barclay Prime for serving a cheesesteak made with foie gras, Kerry Green was waging some dissent of her own. Green, a 39-year-old Bella Vista resident, runs www.BanFoieGrasPhilly.com, a Web site devoted to getting foie gras off menus in Philadelphia restaurants.

What's Green's beef with goose liver?

Behind the airy pretense of the French language lies the truth about a product whose name translates as "fatty liver." Foie gras is made from the liver of a goose that's been force-fed through a metal tube thrust deep into its throat; this makes the goose's insides swell and its liver expand. While the result is considered a delicacy, there's nothing delicate about the process. It can suffocate or fatally sicken the goose in what Green says amounts to torture before slaughter. In September, Green learned about the process, spurring her to educate others.

Thus the early November launch of www.BanFoieGrasPhilly.com. "I wanted to create a tool to make it easier for people to protest," says Green. And, she explains, protest doesn't require pounding the pavement. "I do not have good feet, this is my [contribution]."

Her site includes several methods for getting involved, lists establishments that serve the offending ingredient, offers a sample letter to send to them, and includes a pledge form for restaurants interested in swearing off foie gras themselves. Two weeks ago, Green sent out 60 letters to restaurants that do and do not serve foie gras, asking them to pledge not to. How's it going? Two restaurants—Bridget Foy's and Adriatica—who already did not serve the ingredient pledged never to.

It's a start. And Green's being patient; it's not necessarily the kind of thing you can shove down people's throats.