CHICAGO  Foie gras, run out of town with great fanfare two years ago, is being allowed back.

On Wednesday, Chicago’s aldermen voted, 37 to 6, to repeal their ban on sales of the controversial delicacy, the fattened livers of ducks and geese. Since 2006, when this became the first major city in the United States to enact such a ban, it had been mocked by critics, including Mayor Richard M. Daley, who wondered whether aldermen should really be devoting precious time to telling Chicagoans what to eat.

The banning  and subsequent un-banning  of foie gras here seemed to say more about classic Chicago politics than it did about dinner.

Image Beyond the foie gras itself, a peek into city politics, as the ban was reversed on Wednesday without debate. Credit... M. Spencer Green/Associated Press

One alderman, Joe Moore, who has long fought to outlaw the sales, arguing that foie gras is a product of animal cruelty, angrily denounced what he said was the sudden use during Wednesday’s council meeting of an obscure political rule to dump the ban without debate. Mr. Moore said he tried, pleaded, yelled to be allowed to speak, but Mr. Daley did not call on him.