Days of Pig

I know that a lot of people are used to dealing with whole critters, but we’re not. Except for chickens, of course. So it was quite the event to have a whole pig delivered to us. The pig was purchased for a Filipino wedding we catered on 11/11/11, and, though there were a lot of other dishes, Our Pig was clearly the main event.

It was a big pig, weighing in at 92 lbs. It took up all of our largest cooler, and a good bit of a 6’ stainless prep table. An animal to be reckoned with. Dine by Design’s Chef, Johnna, was completely calm; the same could not be said for me, nor, from the look of him, could it be said for the pig.

We had a number of smoker issues. The smoker was on its way here, it turned around, it was lost, it was stolen. An entire day was spent involved with a smoker that never materialized. However, the lovely people at Stinky’s made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, and that’s where the pig was smoked.

While it’s true that I didn’t actually get out of bed and get dressed to tend to the fire, make no mistake, I was awake at 11:00 pm, 2:30 am, and 6:00 am, when it was checked. I was Johnna’s pep squad, furiously txting at 2:00 am, saying “Wake up, wake up, it’s piggy time!” I txted it three times and I’m thinking it wasn’t as funny on the other end because she didn’t answer. So I called. I can’t even remember the last time I even considered calling anybody at that hour.

It was a beautiful pig. We covered his head with veggie confetti (the bride wanted pig, but didn’t want to see its head), and it was gobbled up in short notice. After we visited the buffet to pick up a little pork for the Bride&Groom To-Go boxes, our staff returned to the buffet, to begin to slowly break it down.

The pig was gone. Using the carving knife that had been left on the buffet, the guests cut it in two; the bridesmaids claimed the rear end, and the groomsmen, the front (though another guest had been spied earlier munching on an ear).