Almost all of you know the timeless story of the Three Little Pigs and their houses of straw, sticks and bricks. Well imagine that story, but Chef Ben Ford of Ford’s Filling Station is the big bad wolf, we blew the house down, and we ate them all in their house of bricks. Eyes, tongues, ears, all the way down to their little feet.
You might have seen this meal prepared for Andrew Zimmern on Bizarre Foods. A suckling pig dinner fit for a king, or at least fit for a bunch of LA Bloggers, brought together graciously by the new food community site FoodDigger.
The table rounded out with some of my favorite fellow bloggers. kevinEats, Food Destination, L.A. and O.C. Foodventures, Mattatouille, The Delicious Life, Teenage Glutster, i nom things, Gourmet Pigs, and of course Will, Marshall, and Thi from FoodDigger.
The pig, which takes two days to prepare, is brined, smoked and slowly fried in goose fat. After toasting a glass of 2005 Château Monbousquet St. Émilion with Chef Ford, the meal commenced. For the side dishes they brought out Roasted Kabocha Risotto, Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Cavalo Nero & Escarole and nicely rounding out with Roasted Carrots with Pomegranate. The selection of winter veggies was a nice touch, and each dish was delicious.
But we were here for the suckling pig. The proud Chef brought it out to the table, in a wondrous display of swine heaven, the pig came out sprawling on a silver platter. On the plate was a Pig’s Tongue Salad served with a frisée and topped with crispy fried pig ear, Porchetta stuffed with fennel and onions, Panchetta Wrapped Pork Loin, Pig Eyes stuffed with ham hocks then deep fried (yes, they were good), Crispy Smoked Pork Legs, Pork Cheek (head cheese), and my favorite of the night, Confit of Pork Shoulder and Fresh Hams.
The entire pig was brought out on a silver platter.
Pig Eyes, stuffed with ham hocks and deep fried.
Tongue salad, topped with fried pig ears.
For dessert they brought out a Walnut Torte and Hawaiian Bread Pudding. Maybe it was the salt and pork induced coma but when dessert came I just couldn’t indulge too much. By the way, this meal can be had by anyone. Just call ahead several day in advance and bring a large group of your hungriest pork eating friends. The cost depending on how much you drink is around $80-90 a person.
The Chef definitely lived up to his reputation of creating dishes that are down to earth and full of flavor, with high-quality, local ingredients.
*Food porn courtesy of Mattatouille and kevinEats
November 15th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Great photos Matt! =)
Also, Zimmern not Zimmerman.
November 15th, 2008 at 10:09 am
you know, you make it seem like we’re making porn here.. Well I guess food porn isn’t the same thing. Nice pics, nice write up. I didn’t know that anyone could do this. I thought it was just a special event. So how many people would you need to do it? How much do you think it would cost?
November 16th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Well-written Matt. It was good meeting you, though we didn’t have quite enough contact that night. Wish you had come out to Rush Street for drinks afterward. Hopefully I’ll see you at future events, maybe the Jungle Food Marathon?
November 16th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Thanks Aaron, nice meeting you too. I will def be on the Jungle Food Cruise!
I deem that term officially awesome. And shall be known hence forth as the Jungle Food Cruise(tm)
November 18th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Matt. Nicely written! It was a pleasure having you there that night. I’m glad we split the eyeball…not sure if I could have eaten a whole one on my own!
The pig dinner can be enjoyed by anyone…Chef Ford only provides it Monday-Wednesday, with a 15 lb suckling pig that serves 6. He may be able to get smaller or bigger pigs for different sized parties, but it’s at his discretion. I would say it’s about 70-80 dollars a person, depending on wine.
FoodDigger