2011 Fashion

"three city girls...lots of food"

i don't want imply that it's taken for granted, but a nose-to-tail, apple-in-mouth roasted pig-- lechon-- is not uncommon to filipinos. kid's first birthday, family reunion, wedding, summer picnic...basically, if you're celebrating something big, you're doin' it with a pig.

i myself am not a huge fan. they say the flavor is in the fat and the skin--and i don't like the flavor or texture of either. i like the white meat, but only with a generous amount of the sauce that traditionally accompanies it, a sauce made of liver and garlic and vinegar. maybe it doesn't sound tasty--liver-- but that sauce redeems even the most overdone meat. and actually my favorite rendition of lechon is when all the meat and skin and bits that have been hacked apart with a giant, scary cleaver are stewed in that sauce...it's called paksiw na lechon. served over a bed of white rice--it's leftovers, but it feels even more indulgent and delicious, in my opinion, than when it's freshly served.

so being at the beer bourbon and bbq fest was familiar territory, from a culinary standpoint. but it didn't mean it wasn't revelatory.

for example, the term "pulled pork" to me means meat roasted to such a tenderness that it's easily pulled apart with your fork. the gruesome and glorious sight of burly men, heavy duty gloves to their elbows, hunched over and reaching into a glistening, red, split pig and scooping a handful of thready pork onto your plate never struck my imagination. pulled pork, now i get it.

but what was true for me about the lechon i've grown accustomed to, was true for most of the meat i tasted last night-- a generous sauce, whether it's a runny, hot, vinegary variety, or a thicker, sweeter kind, with a strong smoky chipotle note, is compulsory.

there was one very exceptional surprise: hill country bbq. they roast the pork in the pig. i had to think about that for a second, but what a good trick. double the flavor, double the tender fun. we had almost skipped the hill country table, thinking oh, we could get it anytime here in new york, but it was our favorite bbq of festival.

to think, we almost took that for granted...