This originally appeared in my LiveJournal Blog in a slightly different form…

Is there any more gloriously noble, yet humble, versatile and above all, tasty, animal than the pig? I can answer that without hesitation with a resounding, NO!!

Being from the south in general and Tennessee in particular, I have a long association with pig. My grandmother (my dad’s mom) raised Berkshire hogs for a while and some of my earliest photos are of me posing beside a group of black and white porcine wonders.

My grandfather (my mom’s dad) raised hogs, peanuts and tobacco. I have seen sausage being made and I still eat it.

I immediately have a deep distrust of any culture that forbids consumption of pork. I mean, why would something so wonderful as a pork chop be forbidden? The only reason I can think of is because someone, somewhere, a long time ago, decided that a way to keep folks in line was to deny them some of the finer things in life. To repress their natural urges for good stuff, and since outlawing sex wasn’t going to work, then eating pork was the natural second choice on the list of great things in life. I feel sad for those people. Al Queda may hate us for our culture of permissiveness, our music, our movies, our entire way of life, but whether they will admit it or not, I think they are just jealous that we unashamedly revel in the joys of BBQ baby back ribs.

I have friends, close friends, who deny themselves the porky delights because pigs are smart, because they read ‘Charlotte’s Web’ as a kid (now that is one of the few books I would support being banned for what it does to kids. You folks do know that the guy who wrote ‘Charlotte’s Web’ was a hog farmer who continued dining on pigs long after his damnable book came out…) or they saw Arnold Ziffle on ‘Green Acres’ or some such. In a way, I suppose I respect their decision to engage in such unwarranted self-denial much in the way i respect the celibate, the hermit or folks who don’t watch TV. I respect their will power in spite of the fact that I think they are out of their mind…

Think about it. There is no more versatile animal than the pig. Take breakfast alone. Bacon taste nothing like sausage which tastes nothing like ham. Country ham is as different from ‘city ham’ as Hall is from Oates, and yet, they come from the same glorious animal. Pancetta (Italian bacon) is different from good old country slab bacon. I can go on and on.

I have always said that there is nothing in the world wrong with a vegetarian that a pork chop wouldn’t take care of. And let’s not even get started on spare ribs with lasagna…

What prompted this Ode to the Hog?? Last night’s dinner of course…

I went to a mexican restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Los Cabos is a local chain but in spite of it’s chain-ness, the food is pretty damned good. They do a guacamole that is made tableside and it is delicious. The Jumbo Gold Margarita was damned dandy. I ordered Carnitas al Puerco.

At my favorite mexican restaurant in Nashville, the Carnitas are roast pork loin that is flash deep fried at a very high temperature which give the pork chunks a deliciously crispy exterior while remaining tender and juicy inside. It is kind of the same principle as the chinese version of Twice Cooked Pork.

The Carnitas al Puerco at Los Cabos were totally different. Slow roasted pork shoulder was used and the meat was fork shredded into a heaping pile of heavenly porkiness. It was not deep fried but rather left to wallow, unadorned, in it’s own natural goodness. It came with the requisite beans and rice, which were decent and was served with a fresh pico de gallo, some of their wonderful guacamole and sour cream along with fresh, steamy corn tortillas. The Carnitas were piled onto a tortilla with the pico, guacamole and just a little sour cream. The pork was melt in your mouth, ‘cut it with a plastic fork’ tender. It was juicy and flavorful without being strong or overpowering. It was a delight.

Now all you folks out there who eschew the noble pig, you have my blessing. Keep on denying yourself. It builds character to deprive yourself of one of the finer things in life and, of course, it leaves more for me.