Wednesday, December 25, 2013
ON A HAPPIER NOTE
As Susie and I prepare for our four week trip to Paris, early in the new year, I have printed out a recipe for "joues de porc," which is to say pork cheeks. This is my favorite dish at Le Petit Pontoise, a wonderful little restaurant three blocks from our apartment on rue Pontoise. A while back, I asked my local Whole Foods butcher whether I could get pork cheeks and he looked at me as though I were mad, but in Paris, I shall have no difficulty at all. If this works, it will make a nice addition to my small list of tested recipes, which at this point includes, among other things, five spices cuisses de canards, grilled quail, dorade royale [a lovely white fish], steamed endives [a Jacques Pepin recipe], and of course, boeuf bourguignon. If the world insists on going to hell as I age, at least I can eat well.
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A while back, I asked my local Whole Foods butcher whether I could get pork cheeks and he looked at me as though I were mad, but in Paris, I shall have no difficulty at all.
In 30th St. station in Philadelphia there is a lovely bar, Bridgewater's Pub. It has had some problems with various regulators over the years as to its cooking facilities (relating to proper ventilation to the street, as I recall.) But, when working properly, it had a really wonderful chef who regularly prepared food much better than you could rightfully expect, and not just for a bar in a train station. it's easily 4 or 5 times better than anything you'd find in Penn Station in NYC, for example. Probably more than that. But, pork cheeks and veal cheeks are both things that have been on the menu there at various times. And quite tasty, too. At one point, the place was a regular haunt of mine. Now, it's not so easy to get to for me, but if anyone reading this blog is in Philadelphia by train, it is certainly the place to stop and get a nice meal of interesting food and excellent beer. It shows that something interesting can be found even in unexpected places in the US, too.
Even though I'm Italian, I've only recently tasted guanciale - cured pork cheek - simply sliced rather than cooked in pasta sauces. It's hauntingly delicious.
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