Pig Day!

This week I staged twice at a restaurant which specializes in local and organic product. The menu changes daily, the chef has cultivated impressive relationships with myriad local farmers, and the food is treated carefully, and from everything that I've tasted, thoughtfully; the dishes are simple and calculated to the ingredients. The night that I was introduced to the chef, I ordered a dish of fregola sarda¹ with shrimp, fresh garlic, basil, chili oil, and Sungold tomatoes². I ordered the dish for the tomatoes, which I'd been eating for two weeks straight, and which had spoiled me for all other cherry tomatoes. It was like a brothy rice dish with a savory, slightly winey sauce playing well with the other ingredients.


One notable part of my stage was brushing mushrooms, a task I'd never done before; it was slow, frustrating, and left my neck sore. But we suffer to learn, and I think that there's absolutely nothing wrong with forcing a novice to spend a some time handling an unfamiliar ingredient. I also got to make fresh pasta, and core and chop old tomatoes for stewing. That gave me a great appreciation for the restaurant; nothing was wasted.


When I was introduced to the chef, he mentioned that they'd broken down a whole pig earlier that week, another clue that I really wanted to work in this kitchen. Well, stage two happened to fall on pig day. I spent the morning doing the usual prep work, and only got to glance over my shoulder as Chef did the hard work. But later that night he gave me the bony carcass pieces and told me to clean the bones for stock, and save the meat for sausage. I learned the importance of glove-wearing, not to protect me from the pig, but from my boning knife, which slipped in my amateur's hands. Glove on, I managed to draw blood only once or twice more. My left hand now looks like I dueled with a woodchipper. But on the plus side, I got the job.


What in the heck is...

1. Fregola Sarda is made with a semolina-water dough that is rubbed through a sieve to make little nuggets of dough which are then toasted and cooked like rice. Info from here.

2. Sungolds are orange cherry tomatoes with a great flavor, which most guides say are sweet, but I personally think that they've got a great sweet-acid balance. Info from here.