Pig - - Page 16

by ES Guest

Small Plates Get Smaller: Pinxto in Basque Country

San Sebastian

Ed Note: Our friend Jake recently returned from the Basque Country, eager to tell me about his love affair with food from the region. I think he might have even said it was his favorite cooking from around the world.

Baby Eel

And Jake’s been around, growing up in Philly, living in Boston, DC and Portland and traveling through Asia and India and many more places. Especially, Costa Rica, where he toured with teenagers around the hills, farms and lakes of the country. He also wrote about it on Simmer a few years ago. Here are a few highlights from his taste of the Basque Country.

Beans, Jamon and Olives

Basque Country (Pais Vasco) claims to be neither a part of Spain nor France, rather an independent region with its own take on how eating should be done. I like.

Anchovies

I’m pretty sure everyone knows tapas, you sit down to eat with a few friends, share a few small plates and leave hungry and feeling like you overpaid. I get it.

Oxtail, Mashed Potato, Pepper Guernika

Enter pinxtos (pronounced pinch-os).

by gansie

Trust the Consistency, And the S Bus is Coming

“Who won? Corn cake?” my friend Jake asked. He knew the real winner; he had just eaten the proof.

I’ve been messing around with Jiffy corn muffin mixes for a few years now (Spinach Dip and Black Bean Egg Bake, Kefir Chili Corn Cake, Spinach and Artichoke Corn Cake, Smoked Cheddar, Spinach and Artichoke Corn Cake) and I’ve finished with different results every time. The directions on the box read simply: milk, egg, mix. But I can’t leave it at that. I continue to challenge the ratio of liquid to mix because each time I indulge in another spoonful of mustard or yogurt, my results yield better and better outcomes.

Sometimes the dreary mix wins, and I don’t add enough spin and it turns dry and uninteresting.

But this time, Jake, I won.

Andouille Sausage and Squash Corn Cake

in Breakfast / Pig / Recipe 7 comments

by BS

Food Porn Champion: The Rebel Within

Talk about a money shot to end all money shots.

This beauty is from Tell Tale Preserve Company at the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers Market. “The Rebel Within” is a savory breakfast muffin with breakfast sausage baked into the mix, plus a full soft-cooked farm egg inside.

Found via chef Chris Cosentino’s meat eaters’s guide to SF on GQ.

(Photo: Tell Tale)

in Eggs / Photos / Pig 6 comments

by forkitude

Artsy Photo Of The Day

Dear Italy: your meat is fantastic.

in Food Travel / Pig / Red Meat 1 comments

by Russell Warnick

Petunia: A How-To Guide on Roasting a Pig

Despite this miserably hot and muggy summer, we’ll be dammed if 100-plus degree heat is going to stop us from cooking out. But what does a food obsessed person do when you want to up the game from your casual cook out? Roast a pig for 150 people on a Saturday that turned out to be the sweatiest day of the year, that’s what.

I’ve never roasted a pig before. I’ve been to one and assisted in babysitting one, so I figured it was about time I cooked one. But not alone — my friend Tyler was eager to jump in and get dirty, and with a garden to boot I had myself a co-host. The BF helped too, something to do with music and dealing with me stress over an 80-lb pig for weeks. We all played our part.

I’ll admit, the logistics of hosting a pig roast made me thankful I wont be doing it again for another year. There was so much I didn’t account for or didn’t think of, and didn’t realize most of it until too late.

So here’s my gift to you: a 16-step how-to on hosting your own pig roast.

in Bacon / Pig 7 comments

by forkitude

Artsy Photo Of The Day

I wonder if U.S. customs would notice 30 lbs of speck in my suitcase.

in Bacon / Photos / Pig 3 comments

by tvff

Scrapple For Everyone: Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market to Expand

The little slice of heaven that is know as Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market is slated for an upgrade.

Business has been booming at Philly’s Shangri-La of gastronomic delights thanks to the overall growth in interest of food and more recently by the expansion of the nearby Convention Center. The folks who run one of the preeminent indoor food experiences in the country are going to shuffle some of the vendors around and move some storage areas underground to free up some space.

Storage areas along “Avenue D,” the aisle closest to 11th Street, will move to the basement to make room for up to five new retailers, which have yet to be named. Veteran tenants – the Spice Terminal, L. Halteman Family Country Foods, Flying Monkey Bakery, Spataro’s, and DiNic’s – will move to new spaces.

New faces are always welcome, but perhaps the biggest impact will be the relocation of a few of the big names. DiNic’s, in particular, is the proud purveyor of what I believe to be the best damn sandwich in Philadelphia. Yes, I’m a cheesesteak man until I die, but the roast pork with sharp provolone and broccoli rabe is otherworldly.

in Food Travel / Pig / Sandwich 0 comments