Best Pork - Part 2

Is roast pork belly the new black? Everyone in Melbourne seems to be banging on about pork, discussing how to get the best pork crackling, watching how to make it on Masterchef and generally just eating pork incessantly. And isn't it on every menu? From Izakaya Den to Coda to Gills Diner.  Since when did everyone develop this obsession with all things swine? Pork has always had a special place in my heart, probably a result of my Filipino heritage. Roast suckling pig on a spit (lechon) was for special family occassions and the crackling was particularly revered. Also one of my most memorable meals was on a trip to Ubud to try Bali's most famous dish, babi guling, Balinese roast suckling pig.  The young suckling pig is used because of its tenderness, and is slow cooked and spit-roasted to perfection. So delicious. But back to New York!

A highlight from our epic food tour with Famous Fat Dave was a visit to a lovely little shop called Porchetta in the East Village.  And what, you ask, is this porchetta? Traditionally, it’s a gutted, boned-out whole hog heavily seasoned and restuffed with some of its innards, rolled up like a porky bûche de Noël, and then spit-roasted over a wood fire. Served in slices or in sandwiches, it’s a festival dish but also a popular street food, and can be found at the finer food stalls and butcher shops of Rome as well as dished out from trucks and vans set up along the highways outside of Florence. It is to the town of Ariccia—widely regarded as the porchetta capital of the world—what the hot dog is to Coney Island.

So Porchetta's porchetta is a variation on the traditional, making use of free range pork loins, wrapped in pork belly, then seasoned with wild-fennel pollen, thyme, sage rosemary, garlic and generously seasoned with salt and pepper.  These heavenly hog rolls are then tied up with string and oven-roasted until the meat is tender and the skin has turned into crispy, golden crackling.  Served up in a simple ciabatta roll this dish was nothing short of drop dead delicious with the lovely contrasting textures of soft, juicy pork meat and the chewy fatty crackling. Heaven!

Porchetta's porchetta roll 8/10