Porkapalooza

This was the starting point for Tuesday's Porkapalooza at the Bloodhound in San Francisco (thank you, Tim Varga).

As I walked across Folsom to the Bloodhound, a big john was lit with mesquite on the sidewalk with a line of people trailing out the door. Inside, the bar was quickly filled to maximum with passed hors d'oeuvres of hotdogs, head cheese and prosciutto. Folks were NOT shy about diving into bowls of fluffy, tasty, melt-in-your mouth chicharrones.

I had romantic visions of a whole pig hung from the rafters but in fact, the tabletop butchery demo by Ryan Farr entailed a side of pig and its head. Cuts were deft and sure. The head was deboned from the bottom up. Unfortunately, the loud music drowned out Ryan's commentary throughout the demo but the bacon infused bourbon Old Fashioneds almost made up for it.

I still have my preference for a longer contact with rubs or marinades to build up layers of seasonings to achieve maximum porky tastiness before grilling. Ryan used what appeared to be salt, paprika, julienned tangerine zest, and thyme for a quickie seasoning before laying all the pieces (some injected) on the grill outside. A build-your-own-taco event ensued using the grilled pork on corn tortillas.