Friday, January 20, 2012
Restaurants Can you please eat some pork fat
Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 5:23 PM
- Cliff Bostock's iPhone
- Eclipse di Luna's biscuit slider
Among this week's choices was my favorite made with soft chicharrones in green sauce. That's globs of pork fat with some skin attached — you know, like pork rinds — stewed until sloppy in a tangy tomatillo sauce. I used to pig-out regularly on tacos filled with these when I lived in Houston and Mexico.
Unfortunately for me, it's very rare for chef Lance Gummere to make them, because practically nobody orders them. In fact, Wednesday night they sold only seven, and two of those were mine. Truth be known, they are rarely available even at the city's "authentic" taquerias.
- Cliff Bostock's iPhone
- Brussels sprouts sans garlic
And speaking of sliders with Latino themes, Eclipse di Luna doesn't call its new menu addition a slider, but it kind of is. It's a solid but fluffy biscuit split and layered with a slightly sweet ropa vieja.
I also recommend another new dish, Brussels sprouts over a navy-bean stew. The menu doesn't warn you, so I will: it's full of chopped raw garlic, something my stomach doesn't handle well. I returned it to the kitchen and they offered to prepare it without the garlic. Delicious.
Comments (5)
Showing 1-5 of 5
I'd love to eat the chicharrones slider -- but it's never been available when I went to the Shed. That's a common story for me, actually: There are scores of dishes I've read about in your columns and others, that I kept in mind when I visited the restaurant, but that were unavailable at the time of my visit. And although this was invariably disappointing, sometimes I would try other things I'd never heard of (and came to enjoy) -- but more often I'd find that the menu had settled into the same predictable choices that are available all over town.
And then, to add insult to injury, you criticize us for not eating the things that you manage to find with -- let's be frank -- excellent connections to people in the know and (if I'm not mistaken) a meal reimbursement budget that allows you to dine out much more frequently than the average Atlantan.
So can I ask you to approach this another way: What are the responsibilities of the chefs for making these "less timid" items available in a way that those of us who wish to reward their creativity will actually be able to do so?
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I believe that those chicharrones are available in taco/arepa form at Chicago Supermarket on the weekends. I know that I managed to get one by asking for "one of those things that looks like a little purse" in the little Spanish that I can remember. They were already made up and looking really yummy! They have a nice condiment bar and I was right, they WERE yummy! Need to go back soon on a Saturday or Sunday!
Hey Cliff - do you think the quality of the sliders at the Shed has gone down over time? I went 5 or 6 times the first year they did it, and always loved it - would usually cut 7 or 8 sliders in half to share and try as many as possible, and they ranged from good to friggin awesome. Didn't go for a long time, then took my girlfriend a few months ago, and did the same (try 7 or 8) and was extremely disappointed. They ranged from OK to pretty good, at best. Did we just catch an off night?
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