Warning: If you loved Charlotte’s Web, are a member of PETA, or a vegetarian, I really doubt you want to read this story.

Forget the leis and the tropical drinks, pig roasting can be done right in your own backyard. So that’s exactly what we did for a friends bday celebration over the weekend. Where do you find a whole pig in the middle of the city? Well, before we get to that. Let’s talk about how your gonna cook this pig without digging a 5 foot deep hole in your backyard. Order your very own roasting box from La Caja China or build your own if you feel so inclined.

The La Caja China roasting box.

Now for the pig. Surprisingly there are options around town for securing whole farm animals. After all, we do live in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the country. We got our 55 pound pig from Alexanders Prime Meats at Howie’s Ranch Market in the San Gabriel valley. You should call ahead to pre-order the pig and then pick it up a few days days before you plan to roast it. Throw it in a large cooler with some ice and drag that bad boy home.

Stop in at Versailles and ask them for some of their homemade mojo sauce (a Cuban sauce made of sour oranges and garlic). Pick up about four 750 ml bottles and inject all parts of the meat with a kitchen grade injector and rub the skin down with some kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, orange peel, lemon peel and chives. Get it back in the cooler and let it sit for a couple of days while it soaks up all the flavor of the salt and juices.

The pig is placed face up in the roasting box.

Fire up those coals, spread them out evenly once they are nice and hot.

Buy about 4 bags of charcoal, enough to keep the fire hot for about 3-4 hours. Set the pig out to bring it down to room temperature before you start to cook it. You’ll need a digital meat probe to monitor the temperature of the pig through the cooking process. Preheat the coals and load that lovely marinated swine into the roasting box per the instructions, then cook it, belly up for about two hours. Cleaning and re-stoking the coals after the first hour. Turn the pig over, add more coals, and let it cook for another hour, getting that skin nice and crispy.

After two hours of roasting, open up the box and flip the pig over.

Once the skin is crispy, and has reached about 170 degrees, it's ready!

Commence the hog picking.

During the cooking process drink lots of wine and/or beer. You can even buy a grill attachment for the box to cook up your veggies and other assorted meats while you wait for the pig to cook. Remove the pig from the box when it reaches about 170 degrees or when the skin has a nice crisp touch to it. Move the pig to a large table, wait for it to cool off a little and go to town. Start the hog picking when it’s cooled down enough to handle. The meat will fall off the bone, there isn’t much you can’t eat. Take the pulled pork, throw it in some Hawaiian snacker rolls, douse it in BBQ sauce, and you’ve got dinner for about 40+ people.

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

Library Bar alums Will Shamlian and Mark Leddy’s new Studio City Gastropub is a bright shining star along Ventura Blvd. It’s front glass frosted windows open up to the street, beckoning local residents in for a beer and some grub. Inside, it’s rustic and slightly industrial, with exposed brick walls, wood details, and antiqued tin panels that cover the walls.

Owners Mark and Will know what it takes for a successful bar. They’ve got the Library Bar, 4100, Daddy’s, and The Chalet already on their stacked resume. It’s the perfect place for people to shed the day while they enjoy a burger and a beer with their friends.

And if it’s a beer what the doctor has ordered, Laurel Tavern has it with 16 of them on tap. I settled on a glass of Anderson Valley Boont Amber after the bartender poured me a couple of samples. It’s dark, not overwhelmingly hoppy, and only a little sweet. Other beers include Craftsman, Lost Coast, Telegraph White Ale, Green Flash IPA, Stone Arrogant Bastard, and North Coast that never go above $6 a pint. They also have a small selection of red and white wine, along with old time bottled sodas like Bubble Up, Dad’s Cream Soda, Orange Crème and Dr Pepper.

The beer is paired with a solid menu of burgers and small bites. Their burgers ($10) are served on fresh baked bread from Breadbar and made with custom (special for the Tavern) ground short rib. They come with grilled onions and Gruyere or get it with cheddar and a smoky hickory sauce. The crispy steak fries ($6) are full of succulent swine flavor, as they are fried in pork fat. More pig? No problem, the pork belly skewers ($6) are decedent, fatty little pieces of pork meat, salty and rich, crystallized with a slight sweetness on the outside. Other menu items include roast marrowbones, burrata with tomatoes, chorizo fondue, mini croquets, and a grilled artichoke with walnut pesto.

Laurel Tavern opens early for those of you looking for a great after work spot to meet up. You can easily get out of there, stuffed and slightly buzzed for just under $25 bucks. Cheers to that. Just be aware that they stop serving at 11pm. Here’s to hoping they extend those food hours soon.

I’m a couple weeks late to the game on this one. But they do say, better late than never right? The night started when I met up with the OG Food Marathoner, prolific food writer and photographer extraordinaire Mattatouille (and his girl master Christine), and the talented culinary adventurer Food GPS.

Our first stop for this K-Town pork bender is, where else, but Honey Pig (Cuul Dweji). Of course the Pig is known for it’s delectable selection of that other white meat. So the first thing to hit our sizzling hot BBQ lid is ddong dweji, roughly translated to, shit pig. It’s the pig that lives in it’s own filth at the bottom of outhouses, and it’s also the most expensive, go figure. Also cooking up on the grill is pickled bean sprouts, some kim chi and cabbage, and a most auspicious looking octopus.

The shit pig and octopus would be devoured in it's entirety

My first few times eating Korean BBQ, not knowing the proper way of eating Korean BBQ, I just gorged on meat and ate the sides separately. But since then I’ve learnded the proper way. Pile some lettuce on your small plate, top it with some bean sprouts and some spicy bean curd and finally wrap it up in some thick rice paper and consume. I eat mine like a lettuce wrap, but if you have the skills, grab the Korean goodness with your chopsticks.

Next they brought us some spicy pork belly, lathered with Korean spices. Just as tasty as our first cut of pork, but with a little kick. It made what came next, one of my favorite parts of Korean BBQ, even better. They bring a mound of rice, load it up on the grill and mix it in with all the last bits of meat and bean sprouts. It’s known as bokeumbap, and it’s a delightful last course for your meal.

Spicy, marinated pork belly from Honey Pig*

The Korean version of fried rice

Time for round two of the K-town Food Marathon. So it’s on to Western Soondae, recently featured on the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods for reasons you will soon find out. Their specialty is Soondae, a Korean blood sausage that’s stuffed with a kind of noodle and clotted pig blood. The sausage is slightly sweet, and when dipped lightly in a side of salt was actually quite enjoyable. The sausage is accompanied by other pork offal like feet, ears, liver, tongue, and other miscellaneous innards and organs. It’s all much more tame that you would think. The swine parts all pretty much taste the same, with varying texture and chewiness. I heard the liver was a bit more pungent, but I was getting too full to find out.

Korean Blood Sausage along with swine offal

Our final stop (Round 3) of the night is Hite Kwang-Jang. A Korean version of TGI Fridays. Knickknacks hang from the ceilings and flat screen TV’s are set around on the walls. We order a pitcher of Hite “special”. The Korean version of a black and tan, it’s mixture of Hite and a generic stout. We also ordered a plate of uber spicy yang-yyum dalk nal gae, the Korean version of fried chicken wings served with some potato wedges. These wings are 4.5 on a scale of 5 in terms of spicy. Luckily they give you some pickled turnips to cool your mouth, the beer helps a little too.

Sort of Shakey's meets Fridays, but with Korean food

Korean Fried Chicken, more deserving the the monaker KFC

I’ve heard this is typical for Korean night out on the towns. Multiple stops throughout the night, usually ending up with coffee and pastries at a coffee house. But I’m just an amateur marathoner, and I was ready to roll myself home.

*Food porn shot courtesy of Mattatoullie