Hog Heaven

Here’s a tasty tidbit guaranteed to polarize the dining populace: Lardo is appearing on US restaurant menus. Not to be confused with simple lard, lardo is indeed fatback, but it’s fatback of a sublime nature. A national treasure in Italy, Lardo di Colonnata is a designated heritage food that’s cured for months with herbs and spices in special containers made of Carrara marble. After curing, it makes its tissue-thin-and-toothsome appearance on salumi plates around that country.

It’s not surprising, perhaps, to find it at high-end restaurants like Perbacco in San Francisco, but it’s another thing altogether to see it as a hamburger-topping option at Farm Burger in Atlanta. It’s also popped up in Charleston, SC, at Two Boroughs Larder, where Iberico Lardo from pampered pigs of Spain is dished up with Asian pears and Arkansas black apples.

On second thought, maybe it’s not entirely surprising to see lardo in the American South, where pork has been raised to an art form. As well, the nose-to-tail movement has forced reconsideration of previously discarded pig parts on a broad basis. But perhaps the key reason for its embrace by American chefs is that it represents pure porcine pleasure on a plate.

Photo: ReneeS/Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license