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Are there certain foods in your life that command strange powers over your thoughts and behavior?
Perhaps chocolate, or certain kinds of cheese?
Because for my husband, it is pork belly. Out-of-town readers, do you like meat? Then you will like Austin. Pork belly -- and its pedestrian counterpart, bacon -- are kind of having a moment in our fair city right now. We like it on sandwiches. We like it plain. We like it with chocolate. Not even lying -- I've tried bacon inside chocolate gelato at our local Whole Foods. Damn, that was good.
One restaurant that does pork belly particularly well is La Condesa. I had lunch with a gaggle of food writers at La Condesa yesterday, and oh, how I wish I could have dragged Ross away from work! He would have been in hog heaven with pork belly.
(Which ... now that I think about it. Is probably "hog hell." No? Because they died to make the dish? Metaphor failing to serve here?)
Anyway. I sort of hope he doesn't read this blog post. It'll be too much pork belly envy. Here are three of the items I tried today, listed on La Condesa's just-debuted lunch menu.
From all the items above, I liked the last one, that sandwich, best. It tasted like a salad squeezed between bread: the beets, the hard-boiled eggs. Why haven't beets enjoyed a more exalted place in our culinary tradition? And by "our" I guess I mean "the world's." Because I'm not sure if any world cultures have celebrated the beet like I think it should be.
I love beets!
Something else to know about La Condesa. They serve five different kinds of ceviche. Now I realize ceviche isn't very Fall-y. And you might be in the mood to eat something heavier, something more suited to the season. But please, promise me you'll try one someday? My favorite is the "hamachi," made with yellowtail and grilled grapefruit broth. Doesn't that sound exciting? That's because it is.
8 comments:
Mmmm pork.
Oh man...pork belly...
I went to a party last weekend and there was a Korean food cart (Chilantro's?) there that served kimchi cheese fries that had chunks of pork belly on top! Ooooo...so good. I didn't even mind the debilitating post-oral surgery pain that came with eating them!
xolaurel
All of the food looks absolutely delish!
nom nom nom!
My heritage is mainly Eastern European. We eat All Things Beet.
Here is my photo of a more Italian-style beet dish we made last week. It rocked. Of course.
Uchiko also does a nice pork belly.
Tolly,
I ate surprisingly good cold borscht (beets) soup in St. Petersburg a few summers ago. The Russians eat beets like they're going out of style. I saw some variation of the soup and cold beet appetizers at most bistros (cafeterias) in St. Pete's.
Wish I'd had a half a brain and food porned the amazing spicy salmon rolls with bits of apple in
them at my friend's favorite restaurant in Nevsky Prospect.
I might even have a pic of the local church handy: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10282636274&set=a.10282506274.28168.532046274
Loved your photos of La Condesa's plates. Between you and Jennie Chen's posts about the restaurant, I'm dying to try it now.
@Tanya and @TrophyBoutique -- Heehee, I heard Homer Simpson's voice when I read your comments. Laurel, that kimchi cheese fries w/ pork belly thing you just described sounds INSANE! I can't even really picture it? But I can guarantee my husband fainting in the presence of it.
@That Chelsea Girl -- And it is.
@atxglutenfree -- Off-topic, but, I am going to sit down and talk to you sometime. I have stomach problems too! Maybe it's gluten?
@Anonymous - Word. Uchiko makes nice everything.
@Cynthia and @Greg - Ok, so, your comments made me clap my hands in glee. Greg, I totally forgot about borscht! Ross made some once with ... ground lamb? That doesn't sound right. (Culinary or morality-wise.) But damn, the beets were amazing.
Cynthia, I was just talking to someone last night about golden beets (I'm on a kick right now). They are more mild, i.e. less sweet, than red beets, yes?
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