On its own, lean pork--promoted as "the other white meat"--is as tasteless as, well, chicken. Flavorful pork is fatty (think of bacon) or prepared with zesty ingredients (mustard, wine). Fortunately, pigs also come with tasty organs and appendages: hooves, livers, tongues and the like.
At Le Pichet, chef Jim Drohman cures fresh pork tongues in brine for two days, simmers them in an aromatic stock until tender, slices them, then soaks them in buttermilk. When you order his friture de langue de porc, he tosses the tongue slices in seasoned flour, fries them up like chicken nuggets and serves the crunchy, tender morsels atop a slaw of grated carrots dressed with a vinaigrette of cumin, orange, and black currants. It's the most delicious $8 lunch in town.
And where can you buy pork tongues, you might wonder, should you want to try this at home? Drohman's source is a wholesale slaughterhouse, Kapowsin Meats in Graham, Wash. Me, I'd ask Donnie Kuzaro at Don & Joe's Meats in the corner of the Pike Place Market.
Le Pichet, 1933 1st Ave., 206-256-1499
Posted by Ronald Holden at December 3, 2005 4:18 PM