IT is I… Pork Belly
Roasted pork belly over sauteed brussels sprouts slaw. Didn’t get the skin as crispy as I wanted, but it was my first time. Just have to keep on pluggin away!
So yesterday should have been an extremely productive day. It wasn’t. Instead of cleaning the basement and doing responsible things, Beau and I watched an entire season of Amazing Race. Right now they are on season 14, but a reality channel was doing a marathon of season 9. The show is great because I like watching the dysfunctional couples. The group dynamics and personalities is what makes reality television great.
Well one of the challenges on the show was when they were in Thailand. Each member of the team had to eat a big bowl of stir fried grasshoppers. I’ve eaten bugs, I think they are crunchy and fun. I am also the girl who as a toddler got a fly stuck between her teeth while out in my paddling pool. Now I like the fact that the show tries to teach you something about the culture of the country they are in. Grasshoppers were the added bonus. I like to think the food community as a whole are opening the door to our stomachs and closing the cultural gap one insect at a time. I mean, that was their challenge. Eat a food that thousands of people eat on a daily basis. They weren’t saying drink out of a toilet.
I have a point here, somewhere. I was thinking that mainstreaming what we eat and how we eat was the way to go. Now I think that the realism of what things are makes it that much cooler. I told someone I was making pork belly last week. They gave me a face and I just explained that that is what bacon is before they cure it. Then it was, “Ohhhhh. I love bacon.” They come from the same foundation, but they are two unique and separate foods. I like each for different reasons and would not replace one with the other. I suppose it is all about perception. It’s not that different to how we see other people. Some find me brash and rather strange. I drink a lot of whiskey and I think gossip sites are awesome. Scary movies are really scary to me. I’m from the UK and I live in the Midwest now. People look at me like I am a bowl of grasshoppers sometimes. But I would rather be myself then have to explain that I am just a version of something that makes people comfortable. I don’t want to mainstream myself. Call me pork belly, cause I haven’t been cured yet.
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Tags: Amazing Race, cooking, eating, grasshoppers, perception, pork belly, television
Food Tube, Just Wondering | OxenCox | 02 March 2009 |
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By Lemmonex, March 2, 2009 @ 2:58 PM
Sprout and pork belly?! Woman, I will marry you. I really will.
By LiLu, March 2, 2009 @ 3:46 PM
We’ve never tackled pork belly! Can you send me the recipe you used, or did you just wing it?
By OxenCox, March 2, 2009 @ 4:35 PM
Lemmonex- We would be some fine lesbian brides. FINE. Or at least well fed.
LiLu- I will post the recipe ASAP. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it earlier for some reason.
By k8, March 3, 2009 @ 10:50 AM
I have no idea what pork belly is. I understand that it’s what bacon is made out of, but isn’t bacon really fatty, so is the meat greasy?
By Jesse, March 4, 2009 @ 4:50 PM
Why would ANYONE give weird looks at the mention of “pork belly”??? I would just go @_@ “CAN I COME OVER FOR DINNER PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE???” Your hunk of pork belly looks amazing, btw… mmm!
By justjp, March 6, 2009 @ 9:40 AM
Umm, yea. Send some of this my way!
By brookem, March 6, 2009 @ 10:47 AM
id love the recipe. dont love pork belly, but manfriend does. i tried it a while back with him. just not my thing, but i can get down with making it for him- looks good!