My Relationship with Pork (a new chapter)

Okay, first I have to say this:  in all the world of food-that-is-not-a-dessert-or-bread, I think that bacon is the king.  It rules that world with an iron fist - or at least a salty, greasy fist.

But as for the rest of the pig - I can take it or leave it.  Ham - okay now and then.  All other pork products - not my favorite.  I have taken a recent liking to pork that is slow cooked in yummy spicy sauces, and I have no issues with a well-smoked pulled pork - but even then, if there is too much "pork" taste coming through - I'm done.  "The Other White Meat" - I was good with the first - I stopped looking after my first taste of chicken.

But that has all changed now that I met my new friends - the Iberian black-footed pigs of Spain.  I love these pigs...at least I love their dry cured and thinly sliced shoulders.  This "ham" - wait, that isn't even the right word for it - it's so pedestrian, so everyday - instead I will use it's true name, Jamon (with an accent that takes way to long to figure out how to produce using my english keyboard) - anyway, this jamon is so melt in your mouth, smoky, tasty goodness.  It's not ham, its not bacon, its not even proscuitto...it's Iberian Jamon. 

So thank you Spain for raising these wonderful animals on their free-range diets of grass and acorns.  Mucho gracias.  That's most of my spanish.  That and mi amor - and of course I'm talking to those pigs.