My Version of Snout to Tail Eating

Why no posts in so long?
Simple, I didn't have an Internet connection for a while plus I felt sick.

Anyways, about two weeks ago I decided to go for it and buy the pork hocks I often see and Safeway and cook them up using a modification of this Bon Appetit recipe that can be found on Epicurious. It's a recipe for "braised and roasted pork shanks with prosciutto and porcini mushrooms" but don't worry, I didn't actually use most of those exotic ingredients. I didn't use porcini mushrooms or any mushrooms at all. I cooked about 700 grams of hock. . . I think that's almost the same as shank. There was no leek or prosciutto. The herbs were oregano and thyme. I used a famous Belgian beer shown here in place of red wine:
What did this have to do with the recipe then? Well, I followed the braise then roast method. Here are the piggy bits in their braising liquid:
I did the braising and roasting on two separate days. When the liquid cooled, I spooned the fat off the top and noticed that it was like Jello. Is that the gelatin in the animal bits?
Here's a glamour shot after it was all roasted up and placed on the braising liquid:

The one big problem? That liquid was really beer-bitter. And while I like to drink beer, I couldn't bring myself to eat much of it. I had sweet potatoes on the side, and that might have made it more difficult with the contrast. The meat was okay though. But there wasn't too much of it for all the bone, skin and fat. I guess it was tasty and okay for a three dollar experiment. It looks pretty crazy. I like that.

Anyways, the second piece that I ate the next day had less meat and I didn't want to eat the liquid and vegetables. So, I stir fried the meat and some skin (yes skin) with zucchini and onion and probably some other stuff and mixed it with rice.

This is probably extremely unhealthy and makes me feel guilty. But pork skin has some appeal.

And that's how I ate a piggy part that many people wouldn't. I hope you were amused.

On Obsession and the Nasty Bits

I want to talk about two things that are. . . vaguely related and definitely food related. First off, I am a little bit obsessed with finding the best food I can to eat and not wasting my time with mediocre crap. And mostly, with not being able to tell when I'm eating mediocre crap. Well I guess mediocre isn't crap, but it's "just okay." I think really, that a lot of what I eat is just okay, but I like to eat and I think I pick up on something to like in most things.

This really came to a head yesterday when I went for a day of shopping. Of course with the numerous trips I was making back and forth across West Ed acquiring my assortment of clothes and shoes, I got hungry for lunch. Actually, that would have happened anyways, I can't really skip meals. Anyways, I went looking for some Asian food and ended up sitting down for Vietnamese pho at Pho Hoa, which turned out to be part of a massive chain. I figured it would be okay because most of the clientele were Asians. Anyways, sitting alone, I could tell that my order was forgotten about and waited at least half an hour for my soup. When it came, I was hungry so I ate it all. The broth seemed okay to me, but needed a lot of hot sauce. There seemed to be a reasonable amount of meat, more on that later. The noodles, well, they were stuck together really bad. This was my main complaint, along with the waiting. Anyways, a quick search on this Internet when I got back revealed comments that this chain is among the worst possible places for pho and something about a "big bowl of MSG." I don't think I can tell if I'm eating MSG and I couldn't tell that it was terrible. So, I don't know about my taste and questioning whether I have decent taste was. . . troubling. Anyways, on the bright side, I was only out $8 including a perhaps over-generous tip through the whole thing and had energy to shop.

Anyways, I would like to find some truly good pho or other Vietnamese foods like Bahn Mi (if that's sandwiches). Any tips would be appreciated.

You might wonder what the "Nasty Bits" part of my title is. It's a reference to parts of animals people don't like to eat. I'm an unapologetic omnivore. I do worry about the conditions of animals raised for meat, but shamefully not enough to do anything about it and find humane, hormone free meat. I remember learning in elementary school about the uses that First Nations people had for all the parts of the Bison. I thought it was smart to put everything to good use, and it shows respect for the life of the animal to use everything. Anyways, I am intrigued by the idea of eating offal, which Offal Good describes as "those parts of a meat animal which are used as food but which are not skeletal muscle." Examples include organ meats, feet, and heads.

Anyways I guess the first experiences I have had with offal were of the turkey variety since my mom puts the heart and liver in her stuffing or gravy at Christmas. I prefer it in the stuffing. When I played soccer, there was one girl who I tried to put off her game by talking about eating turkey heart. I thought that was funny and it grossed her out. At a hot pot restaurant, I remember eating chicken gizzards and tripe. These two types of offal were remarkable for their unique textures and I guess I like unusual textures, but not so much that of tripe. Tripe is the stomach lining of a cow or other ruminant animal.

When Albert was last here, we got something labeled pig's huff at T&T Supermarket. I think they meant hoof, as it was pig's foot prepared in a salty Chinese way. The flavour and texture were very interesting to me. I ate a lot of it despite the obvious fattiness. It had a tart dipping sauce. I think I would eat a bit of it again. Incidentally, Korea has restaurants specializing in pig's foot. If I ever go to Korea, I think I will try to eat in one. Incidentally, offal is much more popular across the Pacific than in North America, where most people have an aversion to it. While eating the foot, I became interested in offal and found the Offal Good website.

That was the end of my offal eating until yesterday, at the mediocre Vietnamese restaurant. They listed options for meat to be in the soup as for beginners, regular, and adventurous. What am I if not adventurous? I'm talking about food here, I might be pretty boring otherwise. Anyways, I ordered soup with steak, flank, tendon, and tripe. There was plenty of rather ordinary beef and tendon, which was pretty gelatinous. I enjoyed the textural contrast of the tendon. There was one piece of tripe, I think. I appreciated its texture but would have liked another piece to be sure.

And then there's the future of me and offal. And that is that I think I might try cooking liver and onions some time. I don't know if I like it but maybe I should find out.