I always wonder who came up with this stuff. I have been cooking for a long time and I can't imagine the circumstances and life experience that would make you think "Hey, lets inject a maggot into the cheese". Or "Let's drown these song birds alive in brandy".
I can't speak authoritatively since I've never made Haggis, but I was under the impression it's illegal to import Haggis (or specifically, the sheep-part constituents). I thought domestic production and sale are OK.
[edit: Also wanted to add this. One of the coolest food experiences I've had was when visiting a friend in rural Sicily. Apparently the traditional method of making ricotta is largely illegal due to sanitary reasons (pasteurization, not simply doing it in the shed behind your house, etc). However one morning we got up around 4am and met some friends of his Dad. Spent a few hours learning how they made traditional ricotta and got to eat some fresh from the pot before they took the rest to sell to the locals. When it's boiling-hot and fresh from the pot, it's a totally different (and better) cheese than anything I've ever seen in the store.]
something of an aside: when you get an image from wikipedia under some creative commons license, aren't you supposed to link to the exact page rather than just wikipedia.org?
I object to the description of haggis' ingredients as "awful". Unusual perhaps, but "awful" is a little harsh, especially considering how delicious haggis is.
Gavage, the process of force-feeding ducks and geese for fois gras, is not painful for the animals. I have been to a duck farm and personally seen ducks being raised for fois gras rush over and almost fight each other to get the tube.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 35.2 ms ] thread[edit: Also wanted to add this. One of the coolest food experiences I've had was when visiting a friend in rural Sicily. Apparently the traditional method of making ricotta is largely illegal due to sanitary reasons (pasteurization, not simply doing it in the shed behind your house, etc). However one morning we got up around 4am and met some friends of his Dad. Spent a few hours learning how they made traditional ricotta and got to eat some fresh from the pot before they took the rest to sell to the locals. When it's boiling-hot and fresh from the pot, it's a totally different (and better) cheese than anything I've ever seen in the store.]
The Chicago fois gras ban ended in 2008.