If You Love It, Let It Go. Then Eat It.

Well, I thought to myself, "Wow, now that I have this fantastic new iPhone, I'll be able to take pictures of everything I eat and then post it straight to my blog!" But then it turned out the photos were kind of eh. So I posted 'em.

Anyway, Hearth is doing this fantastic weekly pig roast this summer (and if you act quick, you can eat this post, too). I went with the gang, and, well, why don't I show you what went down.

The first course consisted of a frisée salad with gorgonzola, fried shallots, and a warm bacon vinaigrette. What made this salad so amazing? The fact that it didn't feel arbitrary like most salads. Gorgonzola was the perfect complement to the bacon vinaigrette (where can I acquire bacon vinegar?).


Next appetizer was pork terrine avec pickled vegetables served with a delightful mustard. This might have been the only dish I'd dub "okay, I guess. I'm still gonna eat it." However, the house mustard was fantastic and after a liberal application, the terrine went down delightfully.

The main course was roast suckling pig served with cannelini beans. How can I convey with words the most delicious suckling pig I've ever had? The meat was tender, the skin enhancing its fatty goodness, baby pig teasing your tastebuds like a drunk seventeen year old. It was served with a swiss chard (not pictured) cooked with cream, bread crumbs, and flavor. It made me appreciate vegetables more (probably 'cause of the cream).

Oh, what's up, fruit pie? The first sweet pie to be featured on SSRIs & Rhubarb Pies! The crust was flaky, the pie's sweetness stemming from the not overly-sugared fruit and creamy vanilla ice cream.

If you do end up going to the pig roast, and I highly recommend it, skip the wine and/or beer pairing. The beer pairing was two bottles of Brooklyn Brewery's more forgettable brews (but a palatable dessert cider). The wine was decent, but I also don't understand wine and won't make any effort to.

Also, where can I get me one of those sweet cameras with depth of field?

Eating My Way Through Koreatown.

So, before I write anything, here's a picture I took of something I ate:


It may not be obvious from looking at this enchantress, but what we have here is a genuine squid stuffed with pork. It's kind of hard for me to come up with a caption for this picture, because the concept is an apex in and of itself. Clearly breeding squids with pigs was the greatest act of animal husbandry ever.

Anyway, this is from Pocha 32 in Koreatown. It's one of those hole-in-the-wall places where you and your white friends aren't really welcomed. In fact, when I was there, our table was the only one with Caucasians. However, the food is fantastic and I wish instead of going to work tomorrow I was just going to Pocha 32 to eat. All day. Stopping only to write about it on the internet. What's that, you want some ambiance?


I've never been to a dive bar in Korea, and chances are I never will, but something tells me this might be what one is like. The ceiling is covered with dorm-room chic Christmas lights nestled between a wealth of fungible soju caps. In my extensive research for this blog post, I learned of a Korean toast, mashi-go chuk-ja, which translates to "let's drink and die."


Well, if it isn't a blurry photo of budae jjigae! This stew really is apparently a fantastic result of American military occupation. Its contents rest in a thin, yet forcefully flavorful and spicy broth. Pretty much everything is included: ramen noodles, rotelli, spam, hot dogs, pork, rice cakes, kimchi. Heck, it's even topped off with cheese. If that doesn't appeal to you in some way, chances are we can't be friends.