Tasty Pig

So yesterday Beth and I went to our friends Doug and Kelly’s wedding reception. They’d gotten married back in April but didn’t have the party until now. It was a fantastic affair, very low-key and with some of the best food you can imagine. Doug is a chef (working at a very nice gastro-pub downtown) and the main feature was pork served seven ways.
There were also a variety of side dishes, all of them delicious, but I must admit that I focused most of my attention on the pork and the dessert (amazing cupcakes).

So how does one do pork seven ways? Well, the first two were different sausages. One was rather like a traditional banger, although with more garlic. The other was a chorizo recipe, a bit spicier, and incredibly tasty. I could easily have gorged myself just on these, but there was so much more to try.
One of the finest things there was porchetta. You can read all about this fantastic dish on wikipedia, but to summarize, it’s the loin and belly of the pig with the skin rolled around it (with a variety of tasty spices and herbs in the mix) roasted until it’s gorgeous and crispy. Now I was originally calling it por-CHET-a, but it’s apparently pronounced por-KET-a. Either way, it’s one of the tastiest things in the world.
Then there was a seemingly innocuous bit of Canadian bacon. This was far tastier than any such thing had any right to be, as well as being incredibly juicy and flavorful. I ended up going back to this again and again to eat little slices because it was just too tasty.
Another powerful contender for tastiest dish there was the pulled pork. Bursting with flavor (I still don’t know what they put into it), it was utterly delicious on its own or (probably better) on a roll.
And of course there was the pig’s head which was prepared as slices of terrine, I guess. Intensely flavorful, but perhaps a bit much for some people. I certainly enjoyed it greatly but it was not my favorite of the dishes.
The pork bellies were on the fatty side, although this obviously made them all the more tasty. Particularly because they were grilled with a fantastic maple glaze that really combined beautifully with the taste of the meat (and the accompanying fat).

The side dishes were all fabulous as well, but I must admit that I didn’t eat very much of them, as I wanted to be able to focus my attention on the glorious pig. The potato and macaroni salads were tasty (I sampled them), as was the couscous and coleslaw, but the highlight for me was the amazing pickles. There were bread and butter pickles, pickled zucchini, pickled onions and pickled beets. All of them were fantastic, although the beets were probably my favorite just because they were bursting with flavor in a way that I was unprepared for.

And there was a watermelon salad which had the unique (in that I’ve never heard of this as a concept before) feature of having feta cheese in it. I would never have thought to combine feta cheese and watermelon (balled), but it worked fantastically well, particularly with the blueberries also in it and combined with the chopped mint leaves that rounded out the list of ingredients. If you’re trying to think of a way to make watermelon more exciting, I definitely recommend this dish.

And then there were the cupcakes… Four amazing varieties starting with a plain vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting/cream on top, and then with a touch of Malden salt on top (dyed pink). The saltiness offset the sweetness of the cupcake fantastically leaving a perfectly balanced dessert.
Then there was the strawberry shortcake cupcake, which was also vanilla but filled with chopped strawberries, topped with sweetened whipped cream and garnished with more chopped strawberries on top. And it had a splash of vodka in there somewhere as well (presumably in the whipped cream or with the strawberries).
The most popular choice (based on there being less of those left at the end) was a chocolate cupcake with a beautiful swirl of chocolate frosting on top. It was very chocolatey and not too sweet, making for another wonderful combination.
Finally, the most impressive (I think) was the lemon meringue cupcake. A vanilla cupcake filled with lemon curd (I think), topped with meringue which was browned using a blowtorch.

The maker of all these delicious desserts was the pastry chef from Againn, who was apparently a little disappointed that she didn’t get to make more challenging and ambitious cupcakes. I feel a visit to the restaurant coming soon so I can taste more of her creations.

So there you have it. Gourmet food served in a casual way (on paper plates with plastic utensils) combined with excellent beer, great company and perfect weather. I’m actually salivating just thinking about it…
I don’t think I’ve ever gone to a party with such high expectations for the food, but neither have been so overwhelmed by the quality of what was there.