Offal: Oddly Familiar

My visit to the newly opened Green Pig Bistro in Arlington over the weekend called to memory a subject that I’ve been fond of for quite some time but never had the venue to talk about, until now. Offal means very different things to every individual, some hate it, some revere it, some don’t even really grasp what all is encompassed by it. You may love some offal dishes and not even realize they could be classified as such.

The offerings at Green Pig were all very approachable, as far as offal goes, which is really at the heart of what I where I would love to see this genre go in the future. They take things like ox heart and turn it into a Reuben, and create a snail dish with toast that escapes the stereotypical escargot role. There’s also chicken liver pate, similar to what you can find all over DC at places like Cork on 14^th Street, or its lesser seen cousin rillettes, a great rendition of which can be found at Three Little Pigs up in Petworth. And those are just from the snack list! The appetizer and main course options are admittedly more limited in their eccentricity, although you can find the obligatory pork belly (yes, this is considered offal) and sweetbreads, an item which I am routinely displeased with on restaurant tasting menus, even at places like the venerated Gary Danko in San Francisco.



[Braised Veal Breast with Pistachio Crusted Sweetbreads, Mushroom Ragot and Spinach from Gary Danko in San Francisco]



The recurring theme throughout their dishes though is commonality with the palate, and taking unusual ingredients and making them friendlier for everyone.

This new way of cooking stands in stark contrast to the offal techniques of yore, which essentially consisted of cooking the hell out of difficult ingredients until everything just broke down and they became soft enough to eat. Pig’s feet, which you can find in a few Southern themed DC establishments like Mr. P’s and Henry’s, are a perfect example of this and are commonly just boiled and then baked, although occasionally you will find them with some seasoning such as Old Bay in this area, or hot sauce and/or BBQ sauce further South.



[Pig's feet from Mr. P's in DC]



A favorite of mine growing up in North Carolina was livermush, a product most closely similar to the more well-known scrapple, which is made from pigs liver, the head, and cornmeal, and has become such a part of the culture that the little city I was born in actually holds a festival for it every year.

Asian cultures definitely know how to embrace offal, and are probably the most well known for it (perhaps because they’ve been doing it longer than European dishes like haggis or the popular Latin dishes like goat’s head stew). Any visit to a traditional Chinese dim sum for a weekend lunch will reveal more types of animal parts than you ever knew existed. One of the most popular in our area, Mark’s Duck House, has a huge variety to pick from, including beef tripe and tendons, and chicken feet in a black bean sauce.



[Chicken feet in black bean sauce from Mark's Duck House in Falls Church]



Tendons and tripe are also extremely common in pho, the Vietnamese soup, although you rarely see white folk like me eating anything other than the regular cuts of beef. I think this all boils down to texture though, more than familiarity, as Asian cultures seem to respond much more to unique textural elements than Westerners do. Take for example my good friends who not only eat their chicken wings, but suck every bit of marrow off the bone, often crunching them down til it barely resembles anything more than discarded lead from a pencil. Or the love of eyeballs (usually from a fish), often presented as a sign of respect to the guests of a house, which are certainly not a friendly texture to eat, but are hailed as the loftiest of prizes.

Finally there is the king of the offal offerings, foie gras, the gourmet goose (or duck) liver which has been fattened (either by force in France, or naturally outside of it), and the subject of controversy throughout privileged parts of the world.



[Pan roasted New York foie gras with syrah, fresh cherry and mint compote from Meritage in Boston]



If you find yourself arguing about the production of foie gras, on either side, then suffice it to say your problems in life probably aren’t very dire. This type of offal, of the exclusive variety rather than necessity, is one that I do enjoy but I wouldn’t mind seeing phased out. No, I’m not pushing for the abolition of foie gras as you see in California or formerly in Chicago, I would just prefer that fine dining restaurants adopt a new champion, or at least work in a few lesser known items in its place. I’m starting to see this happen with kama (or fish collar) at the more seafood centric places, and I’m really loving the trend. There are so many fabulous types of parts out there that for years have been turned into petfood, or even worse discarded, that over time begin to be culturally accepted by Americans. My motto is to always try any food dish once, but so often it takes the skills of these master chefs to produce the ingredients in a way that they become favorites for the diners. That is unless you want your uni prepared by a person who would be more likely to step on the sea urchin and get mad than crack it open and savor the deliciousness inside. If you're lucky, you'll find a place like New Rivers in Providence, where they not only embrace offal, but feature an entire menu of it, from cock's combs to lardo.