Porchetta Review: Porchetta sandwich is juicy perfection
Wrapping paper. Christmas carols. Yahoo sports fantasy basketball. If this was an old school SAT question, which one doesn’t fit? I know! Christmas carols! Just kidding, I actually like this time of the year, and being that obnoxious person on the subway platform who whistles silent night a little too loudly at 1am. Go figure, it’s a great time of the year. A couple of weeks ago I stopped by Porchetta with Steph for a taste of their tasty sandwich. This sandwich has been all over the blogosphere at SE:NY and The Wandering Eater. Time Out NY even named it the top dish of 2008.
With high praise comes high expectations. First thing’s first though. WTF is porchetta? Wikipedia tells us that it’s “is a savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast of Italian culinary tradition. The body of the pig is gutted, boned, arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled, spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood.” I guess when you order a sandwich, they slice you some of that and chop it up for you.
The cooking method must help the pork retain it’s moisture because unlike most pork sandwiches, this was not dry at all. It’s not gushing with juices, but I’ve made pulled pork sandwiches at home where the pork is just aching for bbq sauce. This porchetta sandwich didn’t really need anything. If it had any drawbacks, it would be the nearly $10 price tag. Fortunately I wasn’t too hungry that afternoon and split the sandwich. But on a normal day, I could probably eat one and a half of those.
The restaurant, if you could call it that, is basically this little hole in the wall. They have these counters with about… seven seats or something like that. Most people seem to do take-out but in this weather, I’m not sure where you would take your sandwich. This seems like a great sandwich to take to Tompkins Square Park during the warmer months though. I do have to add that while the restaurant is small, it is quite stylish and very clean. While you eat, you can stare at a porchetta thingy sitting in the display case.
Porchetta also has other stuff like sauteed greens and beans. I got to try the greens, which were broccoli rabe. They were tasty and satisfied my mom’s requirement of me eating vegetables. I tried a bite of the pork + broccoli rabe and it was delicious. If you order some greens, try that and see what you think.
This is the time of the year where I just want to take days off from blogging. Maybe I’ll shut up for the rest of the year or just take it real easy. It’s good time to spend with friends and family instead of typing in front of a screen. So yea, the blog will live on sporadic updates until January 5, 2009 when everything starts back again. Peace and happy holidays folks.
Porchetta110 E 7th St.New York, NY 10009212-777-2151
Posted by Danny on December 24, 2008 at 4:01 pm
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