An entire seared lobe of foie gras at Michael Mina, weighs around a pound and a half.

It is the richest, silkiest, creamiest, most buttery, unctuous, satin-like sensation you can put on the human tongue.

“Meat butter” is how some people describe it….although there is neither any organ-coarseness nor gaminess to the meat.

Yeah, it was that good, leading us to exclaim that Executive Chef Benjamin Jenkins knows liver like Koreans know cabbage:

Those two lobes (that comprise a single duck’s liver) are normally enough to feed 6-8 hearty souls a slice or two.

Due to a cancellation, our table was left with only 3 of us to tuck into the above beauty.

Amazingly, we polished it off.

Because it is the most supple, most compelling combination of taste and texture in the carnivore kingdom.

Amazing food fact #2: we still had room for a half dozen more courses.

Perhaps because rich as it is, it still isn’t as filling as you might think , and the approximately 1,000 calories we ingested were full of Vitamin A and Iron….so there’s that.

For those of you who think foie gras is for assholes, all we can say is: we’ve been to a foie gras (duck) farm and the animals there were anything but tortured. In fact, the gavage we witnessed was the highlight of the bird’s day….and not the painful, force-feeding depicted by opponents of this food.

We at ELV suggest that the next time some animal rights activist gets in your grill about foie, suggest that they go protest chicken McNuggets instead. Now there’s an example of cruelty.

BTW: the rest of the meal proved to us that neither Mina nor Jenkins have lost their fastball. In fact, we’d put our meal here clearly ahead of the one we had at Michael Mina – San Francisco, last September.

BTW #2: that entire lobe of foie costs $215…although we didn’t pay. (winky smiley face – ;-) )

MICHAEL MINA

In the Bellagio Hotel and Casino

3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.693.8199

http://www.michaelmina.net/restaurants/las-vegas/michael-mina-bellagio/