Monday, May 4, 2009

On the road again: Seattle, day 1

The trip took about 14 hours from door to door, but I made it, and I'm happy to be in a hotel with a bed awaiting me. A three-hour layover was quite pleasant thanks to the free wireless and free Diet Coke at the Admiral's Club in O'Hare, and I accomplished a great deal on the planes.

I hate doing work travel on weekends, but it does have one great consequence: a higher probability of airline seat upgrades. Today, American upgraded us on both legs, which made the flight a great deal better than I had feared.

Dinner included two of us sharing both pork belly and fried pig ear, the latter a first for me. The pork belly was a B+, with the perfect outside but the interior not quite succulent enough to earn an A. The pig ear, though, was underwhelming--a statement that a decade ago I would never have anticipated writing. The ear had very little taste of its own, and even its potentially odd texture was overwhelmed by the entirely too heavy fried batter. Still, on balance the meal was good.

Now, though, I plan to finish my work and crash for what I sincerely hope will be a good night's sleep. I hope yours is good, also.

4 comments:

Michelle said...

Somehow, I am not sure there is any method of cooking that would make a pig's ear palatable. Ewwww. Well, maybe buried under a lot of chocolate.

Mark said...

Having seen it, I had to try it. I won't bother doing so again unless a really superb chef is cooking it.

Maria said...

You can put lipstick on a pig. Or you can fry it in batter, but a pig's ear is still a pig's ear.

Maybe it would make a good soup broth (in NM, the leg bones including the very well cleaned hooves are boiled to make a broth) but I seriously doubt the ear would help any.

Some parts should just be used for lipstick. Decorate the pig if you must, but don't make me eat it!!!

Mark said...

You may be right, but if a great chef one day offers me a pig's ear, I'll give it a go.

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