a pork lover's version of porn......

So Tuesday. I went the optometrist. When I was driving down Balboa Avenue, I saw this shopping center with three buildings called Marukai Market, Marukai Living, and something else. So I had to check it out of course. I went into two of them. The market and this other store that was like a Japanese Big Lots. So much fun cheap stuff in that one. The market was small, but clean. Nice enough produce, nothing too exciting, but reasonable. The fish and sushi looked nice. I saw.... Hamachi Kama. Yellowtail collar. I look for this everywhere, and I never find it. And it looked fresh. So I had to get that. Then I went over to the meat. I think I circled it 3 times. This was the nicest meats I've seen. So they have the sliced beef and stuff in Mitsuwa. But here it was soooo nice. They had wagyu beef. This is American Kobe beef. It is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatty as hell. The marbling is so beautiful. So I stared at all the packages of beef for a while, wondering if I wanted any.

Then I turned to this other refrigerated case and spotted the pork. It looked like the beef, but lighter pink! It was Berkshire pork, or Kurobuta. Okay, I know pork butt is fatty of course, but I don't think you could thin slice regular pork butt and have it look like this. I've never heard of it. I tried to look up the company on the internet. All I really gathered is that it's in Minnesota. Anyway, look at this pork!







Okay. I am one sick bitch. I'm sure that's what you are thinking. You have no idea why that excites me. To each his own, MF. I've got a tongue hard on. Okay, I just made that up now. I guess it's equal to saying my mouth is salivating. I am one sick bitch. I know. But come on. Doesn't that close up picture of that butt turn you on. The pork butt, silly. You know you want it.

Focus. Focus. Task at hand, what was that? Oh yeah. So I made a soup with mainly leftover items that we had on hand. I call it Buttery Berkshire Pork Butt Miso Soup.

We'll get to that in a minute. But I have to tell you about the Hamachi Kama, which I forgot to take a picture of! Anyway, no messing with our crappy broiler. I fried it all the way. I just put about an inch of vegetable oil in a skillet, heated it up, and gently plopped that sucker in there, skin side down. I let it go, for maybe 7 minutes. I had to move it around a little, because it didn't sit completely flat. So I looked at the bottom, and it needed a bit more time. A few minutes later, I flipped it over. I let that side cook another 6 minutes. Then I drained it on paper towels. I made a quick dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar and siracha. OMG! I'm having another oral boner. I wish I had a piece of hot hamachi kama right now. I would eat it out so bad....... Okay. Focus. I am so sorry. This is really getting out of control. It's like the literary internet foodie version of Eyes Wide Shut. I should rename the blog Mouth Wide Closed. What do you think? Anyway, I have to say, that Hamachi Kama was cooked much nicer than a lot that we have had at the Japanese restaurant. I'm not saying that I'm better than those Mexican Japanese cooks (you know, most cooks in SD Japanese restaurants are Mexican,right?) I'm just saying that I really babied that piece of yellowtail collar, because I was cooking it for us - the Food Ho and the Food Pimp. I mean, if I had to cook it in a restaurant and I was cooking a bunch of other stuff simultaneously, the other stuff would probably be neglected by me, but the Hamachi Kama would be good. It's easier to cook stuff you lust over.

On to the Buttery Berkshire Pork Butt Miso Soup. I can't tell you what it tasted like. I wish that I could have invited you over that night to partake in it. It was earthy and buttery and salty and sour and yummy all in nice proportions. It was just a really good soup. That's all I can say about it. Here's my approximate recipe. I wonder if anyone uses these recipes. I don't really measure anything. When I write these I just guess. I don't measure. I go by feelings.

Buttery Berkshire Pork Butt Miso Soup

1/2 c miso paste
2 quarts water
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c fish sauce
8 baby baby bok choy heads
1 1/2 c edamame
4 c cooked soba noodles or cooked sushi rice or both
3/4 lb berkshire pork butt shabu shabu

So bring the water to a boil. Stir in the miso paste. Let it come back up to a boil. Add the soy and fish sauces. Add the baby baby bok choy. Add the edamame. Now put the noodles or rice in your bowls. Then ladle the soup into it. Add some slices of pork to this. Stir it around with your chopsticks. It will cook in maybe a minute or two. Garnish with whatever you want. Then eat. Tell me its not good. Tell me it tastes like any other pork you ever had. Go ahead. I'll think you're lying. Now for those that are scared of pork that isn't cooked to death and all that nonsense, don't be. You're not going to get sick. This is quality stuff. It's like the sashimi of pork. If you're really freaked though, maybe don't bother to get this stuff. It will be wasted on your nonappreciative taste buds if all you're worried about it whether it will make you sick or not. No offense.

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