"No soup for you!!!"
Posted on 01/06/2007 7:52:31 AM PST by ZGuy
A top French judge ruled that an extreme-right group cannot serve pork soup to the needy, saying the charitable handouts aim to discriminate against Muslims and Jews who don't eat pork because of their faith.
Judge Christian Vigouroux of the Council of State, the country's highest administrative body, said late Friday that such giveaways by the far-right group Solidarity of the French threaten public order.
His ruling approved a decision by Paris police to refuse permits to the group on the grounds that such handouts could spark angry reactions.
France is home to more than 5 million Muslims and some 600,000 Jews. Both Islam and Judaism prohibit eating pork, and Vigouroux said the group had shown "a clearly discriminatory goal" with its charity.
Solidarity of the French was just one of several far-right groups that began distributing pork soup across France over the last four years.
Critics contend the giveaway of pork soup is a far-right ploy to draw support for their efforts to defend against perceived threats to European culture.
Far-right groups defend the soup as nothing more than an age-old staple of the rural heartland from which all the French, at least in the national imagination, are said to spring.
"Pork-fat soup is traditionally the soup of the poor because it provides complete nourishment," said Bruno Le Griel, a lawyer for the group.
Le Griel argued that no needy Jew or Muslim was forced to consume the pork soup. But the judge said the group's Web site indicated it was a policy to refuse dessert to anyone who did not eat some soup first.
In a nearby large city, there is a charity which often feeds the homeless ham sandwiches. They deliver boxed lunches to homeless hangouts under bridges, certain parks, etc.
I was thinking after seeing a new piece on the charity's good works that before you know it, someone is going to call the sandwiches discriminatory.
What I thought when I saw that line.
I'm sorry if I just spread an earworm.
I'll take salt pork or chit'lins over monkey brains any day.
Mostly, French cuisine is a high art admired the world over. I dont remember pork soup from my student days there. There was salty water with crated carrots that was uninspired. But it was the mushy blowfish under cream sauce that got us to rise in unison and leave the cafeteria.
"No soup for you!!!"
They are.
"Go Home, Do it Again . . ."
This thread is meaningless without recipes.
Not much of legal basis for the decision, eh?...The law of the land apparently is 'whatever that which will appease violent.'
I guess I knew that.
Guess this rules out headrag football, then.
Two problems can be solved at once by feeding the homeless to the hungry.
....or "Kick the Koran".
What if they crush up some pork rinds to give it a little body.
All broths are in essence "fat soup", although there's some protein in there too. If you cool it and skim off the fat, you get a "low fat" broth, that is fine for us fat guys, but if you're freezing out on the streets of gay Paris, you'd be well advised to take it "straight".
BTW, do you like re-fried beans on a flour tortilla? Made with lard, aka, pork fat.
I can't believe how hard it was to find a recipe for pork..
Potée bourguignonne (Pork Soup)
Serves 4
½ lb. salt pork, chopped fine
2 pig’s knuckles (pork hock, or what-have-you)
6 sausages (good frankfurters, knockwurst, or similar)
2 leeks (white only) thoroughly cleaned and chopped
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into ¼ inch rounds
1 medium cabbage, cleaned and chopped
2 medium turnips, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
Bouquet garni (thyme, bay, parsley bound together with string)
Salt and pepper
Water
In a large soup pot render the salt pork out a little over low to medium heat. Do not brown!
Add the onion, leeks, carrot, sausages, and pig’s knuckle and saute for three minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients except for the turnips and potatoes, cover with 3 quarts of water, and bring to the simmer.
Add salt and freshly ground pepper.
Reduce the heat, cover partially, and allow to simmer for 1 hour 40 minutes.
Add the potatoes and turnips and simmer for an additional half hour.
Remove the bouquet garni and the pig’s knuckles (unless you’ve got a pig’s knuckles sort of group), adjust the seasoning, and serve.
You’ll probably want to delay peeling and cutting the potatoes until you’re ready to cook them to prevent them from discoloring.
Rich country broth
750g / 1 1/2lb dried haricot beans soaked over night
250g / 8ozs of ham diced
500g / 1lb streaky pork diced
1 turnip sliced
125g / 4ozs pork fat chopped
2 to 3 potatoes sliced
1 stick of celery diced
1 large bouquet garni
1 onion stuck with 2 cloves
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
salt and pepper
1.5 ltr / 3pts of hot water
thinly sliced bread
Put the beans in a large pan cover with water. Add the ham and pork then bring to the boil, Saute half the turnip in the pork fat until golden. Add to the beans the remaining turnip, potatoes, carrots, celery, bouquet garni, onion, garlic and parsley. Season with salt and pepper pour in the hot water and return to the boil. Cover and simmer gently over a low heat for 2 1/2 hours. Then pour the soup into a tureen over the bread and serve.
I wonder if either of them is close to what they're serving..
i'm beginning to think this dialog may reflect differences in eating preferences between New Yorkers like myself (who might prefer rats, snakes and monkey brains) and Southerners who prefer pork.
just another red state-blue state difference!
i tend to avoid fat except in ice cream and cookies. the cookies might have lard in them, so it is likely i eat some pork fat.
No soup for you!
Mark
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