Pig - - Page 24

by LC

Going Big With the Pig

A little while ago I asked my Uncle G. the secret to roasting an animal on a spit. Not to be outdone, my brother, MC, in a last ditch effort to be father of the year, decided to roast a pig for his daughter’s first birthday. Of course, there’s no way any sane mother is letting her kid near a burning pig on a spit that has been put together by a bunch of ne’er do wells with a lot of beer and a flimsy plan. So, little MC missed the best part of the pig roast but had a kickin time, nonetheless.

Unlike Uncle G., MC did not go to his local Whole Foods for the pig carcass but made a trek out to a farm outside of Hagerstown. His advice: Don’t go to Hagerstown at rush hour. Plus, a bonus for you ESers: do not go to the bathroom at the place where they butcher the pigs. Trust us, don’t do it.

Once again, you are going to need a few things before you get started. We did not actually need to procure any of these things because we had The Serb. He is MC’s friend for whom roasting large animals is a passion. He had the van, tools, and know-how to make the whole thing happen. You can certainly roast a pig without The Serb. I just don’t recommend it.

Here is the list:

in Pig 0 comments

by Liza

Ham thrown at Paula Dean’s Head

Yes, Paula Deen was hit in the face with a ham (and I’m really trying my hardest to hold back laughing hysterically).

While helping unload a truck of Thanksgiving food donations at Hosea Feed the Hungry, I guess someone decided it would be good idea to just throw the hams out of the truck and one of them hit Paula Deen smack in the face.

Deen is said to be doing OK and did not suffer any major injuries.

Deen told WXIA-TV that the ham “hit me full long in the face and ’bout knocked me cuckoo, but I’m fine.”

…and there’s video.

in Celebs / Pig 1 comments

by BS

Putting My Best Foot Forward

Earlier this month, I found myself navigating an incredibly packed room of hungry foodies at New York magazine’s New York Taste event, where hundreds of us alternately pushed in front of each other for a chance to taste the dozens of appetizer-size samples from New York’s trendiest eateries. Most of the dishes on hand were your usual suspects: Kobe beef sliders, high-end BBQ brisket, amped-up oysters, creative panna cottas and the like. But then I walked by the station for chef Ed Brown’s Eighty One and found something I hadn’t tried before.

“Crispy trotter with slow cooked egg?” offered one of the sous chefs, as she slid a tantalizingly yolk-topped plate my way.

I didn’t quite know what she was talking about, but her dish sure followed the ES mantra that anything fried and topped with an egg can’t be bad. I eagerly snatched the offering from her and quickly zeroed in with my spoon, asking almost as an afterthought, “so what is trotter?”

in Eggs / Pig 2 comments

by BS

The Ultimate NYC Hot Dog Crawl

Wherever you live, you’re surely familiar with the lure of The New York Hot Dog. And if you consume any kind of food media, you’re also probably aware that there’s no longer any reason to limit your NYC hot dog intake to those slimy wieners sold from carts in Central Park – or even to the recession special at Gray’s Papaya. Hot dogs are this year’s comfort food gone gourmet, and every hot NYC chef seems to be adding the once humble frankfurter to their repertoire, usually topping it with something new and more outrageous than the last guy.

Over at Oyster Local this week, I took a look at four of the best new high-end hot-dog shops in Greenwich Village, which inspired me to dig a little deeper and come up with this list of NYC’s best new gourmet hot dogs (along with a few classic stops) for the ultimate, 20-link New York Hot Dog Crawl. No, I have not actually completed this crawl, at least not all in one day, but if anyone’s up for the challenge I think I have a few free Sundays coming up. Let’s all just make sure our health insurance is up-to-date first.

1. Nathan’s Famous

Duh! The basic classic, just for starters. 1310 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn (Photo: Meg Zimbeck)

2. Willie’s Dawgs

Park Slope gets a little crazy with Niman Ranch beef dogs (or tofu ones — this is Park Slope, after all) stuffed in challah or rye rolls and finished with some inspired toppings like baked beans and salsa. 351 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn (Photo: Stumptown Panda)

3. Bark Hot Dogs

Gourmet hot dogs get the brownstone Brooklyn treatment, sourced from locally-raised meats, doused in a classed-up cheese sauce, served in an eco-friendly environ, and paired with Six Point ales. 474 Bergen St., Brooklyn (Photo: Cherrypatter)

4. Smoke Joint

Fort Greene’s favorite BBQ spot brings the hot meat-on-meat action by topping a Black Angus dog with pulled pork, beef or chicken (and some homemade coleslaw). I know you can’t see much of the dog, but trust me, it’s worth the mouth-work to get there. 87 S. Eliott Place, Brooklyn (Photo: Senorjerome)

5. Asia Dog

New York’s hippest hot doggery is, of course, not one restaurant but a rotating curated party for those in the know. These bahn mi dogs are found at Williamsburg’s Trophy Bar, but only on Tuesday nights. They also pop up elsewhere in Brooklyn and LES throughout the week. 351 Broadway, Brooklyn, On Tuesdays. (Photo: LadyDucayne)

6. San Antonio Bakery 2

Slip into Queens for the Chilean take on hot dogs: slathered with avocado puree, mayo, onions, tomato, and just a little bit of hot salsa, on a crusty homemade bun. 3620 Astoria Blvd., Queens (Photo: Pabo76)

7. Frankie’s Franks

Like the marathon, we’ll dip into the Bronx for a moment just to say we did. At FF’s, you get two fried hot dogs stuffed in one roll, topped with onions, peppers, AND potatoes. They actually call this a Jersey-style dog; I’m not sure if that’s authentic Jerz, but that’s a whole ‘nother post!) 2330 Arthur Ave., The Bronx (Photo: Kay::Snyder)

8. Fatty Crab

Hotshot chef Zak Pelaccio makes the case for the $13 hot dog: homemade pork sausage topped with pickled chilies, cucumber, radish and cilantro, then laced with a spicy Asian aioli and stuffed in a toasted potato bun. 2170 Broadway (Photo: Scaredy_kat)

9. Brooklyn Diner

When size matters, it’s hard to beat the foot-plus-long frank served at this midtown Manhattan (confusingly, not Brooklyn) institution. The 15-inch dawg comes on a comically small but beautifully buttery bun, along with onion rings, relish, mustard and kraut. 212 W. 57th St. (Photo: Jeffery and Rachel Vanneste)

Continue Reading: the next ten hot dogs

in Bacon / Cheese / Eggs / Featured / Fowl / Pig / Red Meat / Restaurants 14 comments

by tvff

Happy National Scrapple Day!

I think it’s hilarious that today is “National” Scrapple Day, considering: (1) you can only get the stuff in a relatively small portion of the country and (2) in places where it is available, a solid 85% of the people won’t touch the stuff. But maybe what this horrendously under-appreciated delight needs is a day of observance to boost its reputation.

For those of you who don’t live in the mid-Atlantic states, I suppose that scrapple deserves a little explanation. Essentially, it’s a meat product made using pig offal. After the butchers have taken the “desirable” cuts off the pig, the rest gets boiled, the meat is minced and grain (cornmeal, usually) and spices are added to thicken the mixture into a loaf.

Once it gets to your kitchen or diner, it’s either pan- or deep-fried and what you get is a wonderful slice that is crunchy on the outside, smooth and creamy on the inside. There is a rich, meaty flavor here that you’re never going to get from a lifeless cut of meat like a quick-fry pork chop. Do yourself a favor and stop in a diner during your next trip through South Jersey or Eastern Pennsylvania.

I understand that scrapple can be scary. Shit, just the word is creepy. There’s the vaguely Germanic sound and the unfortunate inclusion of “scrap” and/or “crap.” But what really gets me is when I tell someone how much I enjoy it and they come back with: “But don’t you know what’s in that?!?” Yes, I do, which makes me like it even more. Here’s why…

in Breakfast / Holiday / Pig / Rants & Raves 16 comments

by tvff

There Will Be Blood (Sausage)

How do you get your wife to buy the main ingredient for dinner without letting her know exactly what it is?

Keep referring to it as “boudin noir.”

OK…I wasn’t exactly conducting a top-secret operation when I asked her to stop by Salumeria Biellese in Manhattan to pick up some blood sausages. She’s usually pretty agreeable about trying new and exotic items, particularly when they get the TVFF seal of approval.

Still, I wasn’t sure how well this would go over, so I stuck with the more vague French name and hoped that she wouldn’t bother looking over any ingredient list on the package. The jig was up when she and a co-worker took a photo of the sausages on her phone to show me and they noticed that the second or third item was “pig’s blood,” but I think that actually earned her some cred in the office for being adventurous.

And so it was time to bring these sanguine sausages home for an authentic French bistro-style preparation, courtesy of a recipe from Anthony Bourdain’s cookbook…