Wednesday, October 01, 2008

"Slow Food" Pig Competition

On Monday night, Nicolas and I got to go to a Slow Food event at 5 Seasons Brewery, a restaurant that strongly supports local sustainable food and that brews up some great beer. Below are Dave, the owner, Nicolas, and Judith, a friend of ours who is the co-leader of our state chapter of Slow Food. This event revolved around pigs.
Five well treated, grass-fed, rare breed pigs were given to five of Atlanta's best chefs. They cooked them however they wished and then we (the lucky participants) ate, and ate, and ate some more, and drank, and then shuffled our happy, bloated way over to a table where we voted for our favorites. There was a guy there, Allan Benton, who is famous for his delicious cured pork, and his proscuitto and bacon were amazing. I also ate belly fat for the first time and now can't stop thinking about how much I have to have more of it. But the winner of the best overall pig preparation, who used a Berkshire pig from our favorite meat-producing farmers, was Kevin Rathbun, of Rathbun's Restaurant. Apparently he wins lots of trophies on The Iron Chef as well. He vowed to attach this trophy to the hood of his car. The proceeds from this and several other Slow Food events are going towards paying for the airfare of those GA delegates who are going to the bi-annual international Slow Food Event in Turin, Italy, (Terra Madre)at the end of this month. Nicolas is a delegate this year. Unbelievably, I am one as well! So I will be coming home impassioned to share lots of information here about the politics and the soul of that which challenges, or supports a slow food culture.
Leaving you with some science, according to Charlotte (the stein-carrying farmer above who is responsible for raising all of the meat that we eat from her family's Riverview Farms), these two glasses, when full, contain the same amount of liquid in them. Before becoming organic farmers, she and her husband used to be chemists, so I (skeptically) believe her.

5 comments:

Frogcreek said...

I am glad you enjoyed yourselves! I bookmarked your friends farm. I have been looking for a better source for grass fed beef! I am so happy you posted your friends farm!-Kim

hahamommy said...

I recognize that pig, from Hayden's Pig-a-pault :)

Danielle said...

We raise tamworths—was there any there? It sounds like an amazing event, and I'm still supremely jealous of the Terre Madre event.

I've been thinking of you guys every time I hear about gas shortages in the Atlanta area. Have you felt the pinch?

Madeline Rains said...

Kim, are you near Riverview Farms? Are you in GA or TN? I'll have to check you blog. I hope it works out for you. They do sell by the whole or half hog or cow if you have to make a big trip to get to them.

Danielle, we are glad to have the hybrid. Also, we have been lucky to be able to find a line-free, open gas station the few times we've needed one. The lines are terrible. I don't know if there was a Tamworth. I'll see if I can find that out. I'm curious. YOu have to go to Terre Madre next time.

Angie said...

I bet the food was amazing! oh, and of course, the beer:)