"yeah but, bacon tastes good. pork chops taste good."

i can't speak to whether or not pork is, actually, the *other* white meat, but what i can tell you is that pastured pork is pretty freaking tasty.

i ordered a boneless pork loin from marin sun farms and picked it up this past saturday at the sf farmers' market. i was a little nervous about how to cook it b/c i've heard so many times that grass-fed meats cook differently than conventionally-raised. i took a chance and made it the way i normally make pork (recipe below). when it was done, i had a little taste: deeeeeelish! i think i might be spoiled now. this was some of the best pork i've ever had and i barely did anything to it when i roasted it.

here's a haiku i wrote to express just how yum it was:

grass-fed pork da bomb.
pastured piggies so happy,
makes for tasty meat.

i sliced the roast thinly and made vietnamese pork sandwiches for lunch today. yi-fang and patricia both enjoyed them (high praise coming from p!), although to be honest, i forgot to include hot sauce, so i didn't enjoy it nearly as much i would have liked. (my bad. don't you hate it when you've forgotten that one thing that would make something complete?) good thing there was plenty left over to make sandwiches this weekend. pass the hot sauce!!!


Vietnamese Pork Sandwiches

Roast Pork
1 lb boneless pork loin
salt
pepper

Sandwich fixings
1 lb thinly sliced roast pork
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsps fish sauce
1 garlic clove, minced

24" crusty sweet baguette, sliced lengthwise
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 large cucumber, thinly sliced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp Sriracha (Vietnamese hot sauce)

Roast Pork:
Preheat oven to 425 deg. Rinse and pat dry roast and generously salt and pepper it. Place in roasting pan on rack, roast in middle rack of oven until it reaches 145-150 deg in center. Remove and tent with foil; let rest for 10 minutes then slice thinly.

Assemble Sandwiches:
Combine soy sauce, fish sauce, and garlic in medium bowl. Add roast pork, mix to coat, and let stand 5 minutes then remove. Spread mayonnaise and Sriracha on both sides of bread. Layer carrots, cucumbers, and jalapeno peppers, and then meat. Cut sandwich into 4 pieces and serve. Makes 4 sandwiches.