Day 28: Restating the Goals

I stopped in to see the guys at Totera yesterday to order a suckling pig for the final dinner.  In speaking with Sam and Mike, I confirmed that I had eaten every “available” part of the pig, quite different from my original goal of “every” part of the pig; but I would have to be satisfied with that.  A combination of regulations and lack of a market for certain parts had conspired against me.  The guys told me that I could probably get those strange off cuts, but I wouldn’t be able to trust the source.  I’m a little disappointed in this setback, but I'll be successful in my main goal of featuring and not merely incorporating pork in each meal.

I hadn’t planned for breakfast, and my fridge which typically has a couple of tubs of yogurt in it was yogurtless.  I’ve been told by many that looking into my fridge you’d expect a family of four to be living in my house; not a single guy who loves to cook and eat.

I decided to stick with my original bacon yogurt idea from yesterday and picked up some greek-style plain yogurt and a takeout container full of bacon and a couple of breakfast sausages, I combined the two of them and used it as a dipping sauce for two Asian steamed buns; one with barbecued pork, the other with ham and egg.  I won’t claim that the experiment was a complete success; perhaps because the yogurt was too thick, or there wasn’t enough bacon in the yogurt, or maybe it was because I didn’t let the yogurt sit for long enough to absorb the bacon-ness.  I'll get it right next time.

Bacon yogurt...it holds amazing potential.

An aside about yogurt.  I watch a lot of cooking shows and have noticed that the Brits pronounce it “ya-gurt” and not “yo-gurt”.

I entered the boardroom where my working lunch webinar was taking place.  The rest of the people in the room were waiting for pizza to be delivered, but I didn’t plan on waiting for them to start my lunch.  It was piping hot from the microwave and when I opened the container, the aromas of both the sauce and the pork tongue in it filled the room.  I felt slightly self-conscious as I tucked into it.  Since I was the only one eating, I was reminded of those “celebrities eating” photos you sometimes see in the newspaper.  Against every instinct I cut small pieces, and ate very slowly so as not to give off the impression of being a glutton.  When it arrived, the pizza the others were eating looked undercooked and unappetizing, as if it was rushed through the cooking process to meet the “delivery in xx minutes or it’s free” deadline.  I declined a slice for that reason alone, but would have done so anyways since I’ve learned that pepperoni on mass market pizza is actually made of beef.  Sacrilege!

Dinner was simple.  I still had some sauce left from last night’s tongue, so I prepared a bit of pasta for it.  And then some pork shoulder blade steaks grilled quickly on the barbecue on account of their thickness, which was quite thin in fact.  I was thankful for the quick preparation since the meals for the last couple of nights we more like weekend meals that required at least a couple of hours to cook.  After work, a quick and easy dinner works for me; quick and easy…but don’t you accuse my pork of being dirty, that’s just plain ignorant.

"Pride of Szeged" rub in full effect.  Hungary shouldn't be so proud; it was just OK.