Pork lovers, prepare! This weekend, Governor's Island will be transformed into a swine salon, with several hundred pounds of pork being doled out at the appropriately-named Pig Island event on Saturday. Jimmy's No. 43 owner Jimmy Carbone is the brains behind the operation, and he's invited two dozen of his closest chef friends to prepare their very best, Greenmarket-sourced pork dishes. Tickets are $70 for all-you-can-eat, and there's a $40 vegetarian-only option for the flesh-averse. more ›

Well, this is interesting. Chipotle, the "fast-casual" burrito chain we once said we "can't bring ourselves to hate," is expanding its menu to include chorizo, though it's not like any chorizo we've ever heard of. more ›

People rave about the Lower East Side Meatball Shop, which, as the same suggests, specializes in meatballs. We know from Wikipedia that meatballs can be made with all sorts of ingredients; Italian meatballs usually contain beef and or pork and sometimes turkey, while Ivan Reitman's 1979 Meatballs contained Bill Murray, ha cha cha. At The Meatball Shop, varieties include "Classic Beef," "Spicy Pork," and "Chicken." However, one devoted customer was recently shocked to learn that all the balls have one ingredient in common. Here's her indignant email: more ›

As anyone who's passed within a five block radius of Williamsburg's Fatty 'Cue can attest, there's a whole lot of smokin' going on over there. The South Sixth Street outpost of Zak Pelaccio's growing Fatty empire specializes in a "mash-up" of spicy Southeast Asian cuisine with the American BBQ tradition natural wood smoke cooking. Just about everything on the menu is smoked at Fatty 'Cue, down to the tomatoes they use for the brunch Bloody Marys. more ›

Our state government in Albany may not be able to pass a budget within one, two or three months, but our pork barrel spending is unparalleled. So unparalleled that chase scenes in the upcoming Angelina spy thriller Salt were filmed in Albany: Director Phillip Noyce told NBC Los Angeles that even though one sequence is set in D.C., Albany was a terrific substitute, "Due to excessive pork barreling over the years, the capital of New York has built up the most elaborate freeway system you have ever seen," and mentioned "one overpass to nowhere which just stopped... It was really convenient to one (movie) sequence. It's a tragedy (for taxpayers) but great for filming." more ›

Veto-palooza is over—for now. Yesterday, Governor David Paterson completed his marathon of vetoing 6,709 line items that the Assembly and Senate added to his budget. The madness began on Thursday, with Paterson offering his initials to veto over 4,000 porky items; yesterday's session was at the Governor's Mansion, with Paterson knocking out about 2,000 items. According to the Daily Politics, "That's more than $500 million in additional spending he slashed as well as nearly $200 milliion more in member items approved in previous years but still not paid by the state." more ›

While the average state Senator received $1.3 million of discretionary funds, state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) took home a whopping $5.7 million of the pork barrel grants—making him the emblem of a flawed system in which the bulk of cash for local groups and projects gets doled out by just a few influential lawmakers, according to a new study. more ›

Epic meat-fest Cochon555 is making its way back to New York again, and is somehow managing to completely outdo itself. Last year, each competing chef got a measly 70 to 80 lb. pig to play with, but this year each heritage breed hog will be a full 125 lbs. Returning champion Corwin Kave of Fatty 'Cue will join Mark Ladner of Del Posto, Marco Canora of Hearth, Adam Kaye of Blue Hill New York, Gavin Kaysen of Cafe Boulud and "VIP Butcher" Tom Mylan to compete for the title of "Prince of Porc." more ›

Senator Pedro Espada Jr. defected to the Republicans and brought the state legislature to a standstill in order to get the $2 million in pork that was rightfully his, and this is the thanks he gets: The New Bronx Chamber of Commerce, a "business advocacy group," has decided it would rather not be associated with the esteemed Senator from Bronxchester. more ›

It's believed that State Senator Pedro Espada Jr.'s central motivation for helping Republicans overthrow his fellow Democrats was his party's refusal to let him toss $2 million in pork to some dubious new non-profit groups with zero track record. So there's a certain grotesque poetry in the news that after paralyzing the State government for weeks, Espada was ultimately rewarded with that $2 million in pork-barrel spending, approved during a 3 a.m. session yesterday. Most of that money will be going to the New Bronx Chamber of Commerce, a "business advocacy group" that seems ill-prepared to distribute the largesse, considering its annual budget is usually $200,000. Espada says the money will go toward adult literacy classes, after-school programs, housing advocacy efforts, etc., but the group has never done anything like that before. The Village Voice made a noble attempt to figure out just what the hell the New Bronx Chamber of Commerce does, but all reporter Tom Robbins found was a brochure about their cocktail parties and golf outings. Reviewing Espada's allocation of the money, a Senate finance aide sent out an alarmed email to colleagues worrying, "I sincerely hope this doesn't come back to bite us." more ›

An article in the Times today confirms that the most exciting thing to happen to food—like, ever—are the numerous cook-offs and takedowns oozing these days from the creative wellspring of Brooklyn. These events usually focus on a single ingredient or theme such as bacon, casserole, guacamole, quiche, risotto, curry, hot dogs, pork, chili, apple pie, tofu, cupcakes, ramen, or no-knead bread, for example, and hearken back to State Fair Blue Ribbon contests, where winning the peach pie contest meant you were allowed to keep the family farm. Now, as it was then, the events are a recession/depression thing, often minus some of the food-craft. Welcome to the liberal arts dustbowl. more ›

Swine flu may be preventing Hugh Jackman from promoting X-Men Origins: Wolverine in Mexico City, but the virus won’t stop Sunday’s Pork Off at the Loki Lounge in Brooklyn from happening. Although Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has released a statement stating “you cannot get H1N1 flu from eating pork or pork products,” the pork industry is nonetheless taking a beating. On the restaurant front, Grub Street reports that Zarela Martinez of the Mexican restaurant Zarela has experienced a steep drop in business, and elsewhere, pork belly stock is down. more ›

Pork and bacon, of all things, are decidedly the new engines of charity events: First off, Tom Mylan and Brooklyn Kitchen have decided to auction off 10 upcoming seats at Mylan’s immensely popular pig butchering class to benefit Just Food and the Greenpoint Interfaith Food Team, according to Serious Eats. Secondly, the “Park Slope Pork Off” next month at Loki Lounge will garner the winner $100 and bragging rights; moreover, all proceeds benefit survivors of toxic waste in the Philippines. “Fakin’ bacon,” the organizers advise, is also acceptable, however “you best fool us but good.” We hear that Jonathan Proville, winner of last month’s epic Bacon Takedown, is angling for a second victory at next month’s event. More information on the “Pork Off” here. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the New York Times has an excellent piece this week on vegan advocate and author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and across the pond, BBC correspondent Richard da Costa has spent four days eating, cavorting, and sleeping 24/7 in a sty with pigs. The resulting documentary called My Life as an Animal plays tonight; more information here. more ›

The big $131 billion NY State budget may have finally passed, but its contents are still... unclear. The Post (naturally) offers criticism from the Republican minority: Senator Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn) says, "They haven't broken down where all the stimulus money is going. How do you vote on a budget that's not broken down and has only whole numbers? We asked for a breakdown and they told us [Friday] a list was forthcoming." more ›

Last night at the Hiro Ballroom was Cochon 555, a sort-of sisterhood of the traveling pork event that supplies five chefs in each visited city with a 70 to 80 pound heritage breed pig; chefs are told to do whatever they’d like, and the results are judged. Wine, beer, cheese, and pig themed (or flavored, really) candy are also served. Last night’s Cochon 555 pitted the following pitmasters against each other: Mark Ladner of Del Posto, Corwin Kaye of Fatty Crab, Juan Jose Cuevas of EightyOne, Bobby Hellen of Resto, and Michael Clampffer of Mosefund Farm. Lardo and headcheese were in abundance, followed by terrine like things and boudin blanc. The air smelled like bacon. more ›

This week Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni re-reviews Momofuku Ssam Bar, part of chef David Chang's New York empire, which you'll recall includes the impossible-to-get-into Momofuku Ko. There's a new chef at Ssam since Bruni awarded the place two stars in '07, and now he bumps it up to a lofty triple. The opening paragraph sums up his case: "If you’ve had just about all of the fawning over David Chang that you can take, think about how those of us dishing out the praise feel. We’d love to move on to a more original object of adoration and would be happy to pronounce him overrated or just plain over...But he won’t let us." more ›

28 year-old chef Ignacio Mattos started work at 6 am today to get the coals hot enough to roast a pig in the middle of Bond Street this afternoon. The annual Sagra del Maiale event at Il Buco is a celebration of the autumnal equinox and at its center is a whole roasted heritage breed pig. From 1-6 pm, $20 gets you a plate of cross-Ossabaw meat and sides like panzanella with greenmarket vegetables, sausage made from Flying Pig Farms pork, and apple fritters doused with saba. From 6pm to midnight, the festival moves indoors and the menu expands to include charcuterie plates and pasta with walnut pesto. Beer and wine are extra, but look for apple wine from local Wölffer Estates. We asked Uruguayan-born chef Mattos about his mentor Francis Mallman, being a vegetarian, and what it might be like to go live amongst the pigs on Ossabaw Island. more ›

Today’s wake for a beloved New York institution is being held in honor of Mei Lai Wah Coffee House in Chinatown. It seems the Times’s Eric Asimov, who usually writes about wine, doesn’t subsist on vino alone; he needs his coffee and steamed pork buns as well. And ever since Mei Lai Wah closed last week after a long, losing struggle with the Health Department, Asimov has been in mourning:

Mei Lai Wah was indeed singular because of its unusual character. It was grungy, but it had personality. I can think of other bakeries and tea houses in Chinatown, but they all seem bright, barren and sterile by comparison. Perhaps sterility is what the Health Department is after... I don’t know exactly what the issue was, and I’m not sure I want to look under the surface. I just know that I never had a bad or disappointing meal there and will miss the reassurance offered by its existence.

These grits are spicy, boldly flavored, creamy, meaty from the pork stock, and just an all-around success. The idea of making it with kimchi broth was inspired by Aki and Alex of Ideas in Food, who cooked barley in kimchi broth for another tasty-looking dish. more ›

Chanukah may not be the holiest of days on the Jewish calendar, but we don't think eating pork products is allowed. Still, NancyKay Shapiro found that Balducci's is touting the deliciousness of various hams for the Festival of Lights. She writes that the gesture seems to be from the "the Monumental Cluelessness, Well-Meaning Division." If you're celebrating Chanukah, what are you eating? We're planning on eating pounds of greasy latkes with equal amounts of... more ›

It's the not the first time the government has wasted lots of money and it won't be the last, but the Daily News special investigation into former Governor Pataki's never-built Museum of Women is great proof of how bureaucracy sucks. Originally conceived to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca, the museum would have been at the south end of Battery Park City. Various grants were directed to the commission (chaired... more ›