February 2007
I Heart Oinkers
by Celia Cheng
When I was a kid growing up in Hawaii, my favorite part of grocery shopping with my mother was when we got to the bacon aisle! I never tired of going through pack after pack of Oscar Mayer bacon, searching for the leanest and pinkest of the bunch. One of my greatest joys was cooking and eating bacon by the pack. I was a skinny girl back then and it never occurred to me that there was anything wrong with eating that much bacon.
Another great passion of mine is Portuguese sausage — a Hawaiian specialty. You’ll find on the breakfast menu of any restaurant, diner or fast-food chain: “Portuguese sausage with scrambled eggs and rice.” If you visit Hawaii, you must try it! The Portuguese sausage breakfast platter at McDonald’s is my favorite, with hash brown, of course. It’s so bad for you but it tastes so good. (Are you horrified yet? I don’t ever want to hear anything about how I only eat expensive, high-end, organic foods again!) At the supermarket, you can buy Portuguese sausage either mild or spicy. I prefer spicy, but it’s all good.
We celebrated Chinese New Year on February 18th this year — the beginning of a very auspicious year of the boar! I can’t seem to get the image of the boar, or pig, out of my mind, so in honor of this delicious and adorable animal, I thought it would be fun to talk a little pork this month.
In addition to my own childhood obsession with bacon and Portuguese sausage, I have invited three other oinkers to share their thoughts on all things porky. Megan Woo discusses her inspirations for IHeartBacon.com, chef William Henry talks about some of his favorite pork dishes in New York City and Fergus Henderson, chef owner of St. John restaurant in London shares a recipe from his cookbook, Nose to Tail Eating.
Here’s one of my favorite pork cravings in the City:
Boo dae jun gol (corn beef, sausage, spam, bacon, vegetables & noodles in spicy beef broth) at Cho Dang Gol. My friend Jason and I call this the spam pot! This casserole is a heart attack waiting to happen. It will sufficiently feed four and is absolutely perfect on a cold wintry night.
I wish everyone a very prosperous year and hope that you will continue to enjoy all things piggy!
