Tag: pork

Made it to Oregon..

Well, I hope to be out of the KC area by the middle of May. Thence to Salem, Oregon. I’ll not miss Brownbackistan one whit. I will have a place to garden and to have a smoker again. No more apartment cooking. Yahoo!

torito
The carniceria closest to us in Salem. El Torito.

Will be glad to be there..  real strawberries.. not those cardboard ones from Las Califas.  Serious wineries, more craft brewing. Hell, I may get me a cajun cooker, too. Quien sabe?

tacos
Tacos from El Sureño. A block from El Torito

TEXAS MONTHLY now has a barbecue editor!

From the NY Times.

Approx: 2:00 PM
crankin’ away

and a scene I painted taken from a photo taken by a pal of mine, Mike Farmer. It’s at Kreuz Market in Lockhart, TX

Kreuz scene
Altercation at the counter

More from LOCAL PIG

I got some of their pork/porcini/thyme sausage on Monday. And a little of their bacon. It’s all good!

lp box
Local Pig box & brussels sprouts
lp wrapper
Pork/porcini/thyme sausage. Trust me!

I’d have more photos, but the batteries in my camera went South. Sorry folks. I poached these in a bit of home made chicken stock and white vermouth. They went fast!

Pig roast at Local Pig, KCMO and another opening.

Wow.. this was great. They made their own beans and the cole slaw was not some bland and overly sweet grocery store salad bar mush. I was most impressed.  This was for the grand opening at Local Pig, a an artisanal butcher shop that produces charcuterie  in the East Bottoms. This is about two blocks from Knucklehead’s, a music venue where have I occasionally sat in on accordion at the blues jams, just north, across the railroad tracks.

Inside the Local Pig..
The Local Pig has a nice interior.

There was quite a crowd, even when I got there a bit after noon. It was chilly and windy, in the 40s, but pleasant. There seemed to be a rather well-behaved crowd.

behind the Local Pig
The crowd is served.

The plates were quite nice. The buns/rolls were amazingly good. Not some sort of  Bunny Bread/burger bun dreck.

Here’s a photo of my plate.

yum
Pork plate at Local Pig's grand opening.

If I had known, I could have gotten some ribs. But I didn’t. Here’s a plate of rib remains. Sigh. Whimper.

costillas
Had I just know; I could have had a rib or three. Shucks.

Lest we forget, the guest of honor… a noble beast..

cabeza de chancho
Head office!

And here’s the guest of honor with the woman who was nobly serving the Boulevard Ales on tap. Good work, folks!

the guest and a minion
The Guest of Honor and one of his Minions..

Not forgetting, EL TORITO #3 (I think it’s number 3) just opened its new supermercado on the north side of Independence Avenue, across from ACE Hardware. It’s a really nice place to shop for comida and has a great carniceria.

Maranitos y Panaderias

I had forgotten how lacking RVA was in regards to pan dulce. LA SABROSITA (on Midlothian) uses that horrid palm oil shortening and much of the pan dulce is shipped in from elsewhere.

Not so in KCMO & KCKS. Each panaderia has its own take on the maranito (or ginger pig). The taste is much the same, but each bakery produces a cookie with a different texture, shape, or glaze.

Here’s one from the La Reyna Bakery on Kansas Street in the Argentine (the actual name since there used to be a silver smelter here) neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas.

maranito
La Reyna's take on the maranito..it's quite thick. Some of these bakeries use lard as shortening. Bless their hearts.

 

The taquerias are also quite diverse in their takes on such fillings as carne al pastor. I shall report on this later.