Pig is a beautiful thing. Notice that I'm not saying that A pig is a beautiful thing, but pig, pork, the food that a pig makes, is a beautiful thing. I know people from Texas will sing the praises of cow and people in the Mediterranean world will fawn over lamb, but the pig is probably the single most impressive edible animal. Now, it's hard to argue for something like this because taste is subjective -- I don't particularly like mushrooms, for example. But you know what, when I'm honest with myself, I don't dislike all mushrooms. I can handle someone saying they don't like a part of a pig -- maybe you don't like ribs. Maybe you don't like ham. Maybe you don't even like bacon. But you can't not like all pig. The flavors, textures, smells are all different. You can't not like ALL of them. It's like saying you don't like music -- you may not like some kinds of music, but you can't dislike MUSIC. Pork is like that. And me, I love it all.
Take this for example. This is a pig's shoulder after one hour on the grill.
This is the same pig's shoulder after six hours on the grill.
Even if you do claim to hate pig, even if you have religious issues with pork and so have never tasted it, you have to admit that the shoulder of a pig that's been sitting in a 250-degree grill and periodically immersed in hickory smoke is a beautiful thing. Look at the color, the glisten -- you can hate meat but you can't hate aesthetics. And if you don't hate aesthetics, and you don't believe that if you eat pork you'll be unclean, taste pig. And please, don't ruin it with a tomato-based sauce. That'd be evil.
4 comments:
Tomato based?? You've been away from eastern North Carolina too long. But that does look like one delicous slab of pork right there!
I said WITHOUT tomato based. Don't insult me by thinking I'd advocate anything other than REAL barbecue...
Nice work representing the real Q. I think all of us Eastern NC folks are like BBQ Missionaries to the lost.
I also think Ryan got the toughest draw.
Hey Dan! So as to not "blogstalk" you I thought I'd leave a comment and say I like your blog and I thank Anna for forwarding me the link. I was just asking her about how you were doing. If you're reciprocally curious, mine is at kacytillman.blogspot.com. Hope the diss. is going well.
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