Check out that chunk of vitamin on that roast!

Excuse me while I dig in. Pass the tapeworms, please.

Approved by the American Meat Institute

Karin has gone on a binge of advertising follies. I just had to pitch in.

Furry Pigs

The mangalitsa, aka mangalica, is an ancient Hungarian breed of pigs, descent straight from wild boars. I had known of them for a long time, but I used to think they were just a curiosity like the Hungarian longhorn cattle that is kept around in the Hortobagy National Park for the entertainment of tourists. However, thanks to Michael Ruhlman I've learned that this furry piggy is also the source of superior tasting gourmet meat.

It turns out that there is a farm in California that not only raises these pigs but does it in a sustainable and organic way. You can learn all you want about them from their home site or blog. There are even a bunch of video clips of the pigs doing things that pigs do. The piglets are incredibly adorable.

Meat of the Old World

I was back in the old country some years ago. The biggest surprise was not how much it has changed, but how much it hasn't. It was nice to see that the world was not all homogenous yet. Among other things, this is a place still unabashedly carnivorous, where any food puritan who tried to ban foie gras would be tarred and feathered.