From Crispy Skin to Supple Loin

IF YOU WANT TO SEE CHEF GEORGE “MAVRO”MAVROTHALASSITIS SWOON, or have Chef Jon Matsubara share his wildest dreams, you need do nothing more than use a certain four-letter word. Its utterance sends them – along with many of the top chefs in the world – into ecstatic ramblings on the delicacy and decadence of Red Wattles Berkshires and Saddlebacks, the world’s top breeds of pig.

No longer the “other” white meat, pork is enjoying a prime place at almost all the world’s best restaurants. At Alinea, Chicago’s stunning center of culinary greatness, Grant Achatz serves pork belly with curry cucumber and lime; at Momofuku in New York City, David Chang’s legendary pork belly buns have become his signature dish. Here in Honolulu, our own James Beard Award-winning chefs have long paid homage to the humble hog.

“Do you know, in 20 years, I have never had veal on my menus. But I have always had pork,” Mavro says, counting among his favorites crispy skin Chinese-style pork.

Matsubara, executive chef at Azure at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, has been a hog hound for years.

“There is so much to love about pork, and so many different parts to use in so many different ways,” he says.

Unlike steak, of which you can certainly eat too much, or chicken, which in the wrong hands becomes a dish of the lost and the lame, pork knows no boundaries. In all of its fatty glory, it simply has no equal.

A few Island chefs show us why.

LONG STEAMED KUROBUTA BELLY

At Hiroshi Eurasion Tapas, Hiroshi Fukui puts pork on the menu despite the fact that his eponymous restaurant is known mostly for seafood.

“It sells like crazy,” he says of his pork belly and cheese dish, which features torched Brie, Big Island ginger, shiso and adobo sauce, and a WOW Farm scallion tomato salad.

The dish was influenced by a trip to the Philippines, where the chef rekindled a love affair with the native pork dish.

“I love adobo,” he admits. “I wanted to do something like it in Hawaii.”

The pork belly is steamed in a fragrant broth of shoyu, vinegar, peppercorns and bay leaves, before being simmered for hours. Brie is added at the last minute then torched and topped with shizo and slivers of ginger from the Big Island. Scattered around the belly is rice seasoned with ume, and steamed, peeled, locally sourced tomatoes. The dish is a masterful balance of flavor; the fatty pork melts into the dazzling, bright flavors of shizo and citrus.

KUROBUTA PORK A LA SAIGON

The menu changes at Chef Mavro every season, but the chef’s love affair with pork never wanes. He prefers it in lieu of veal or beef, and waxes lyrical about the delights of each part of the pig.

“You have to know which pig, and which part of the pig you’re talking about – there are as many parts as there are recipes,” says the chef, who teaches classes in butchery and has been known to make bacon from lamb.

Kurobuta pork is his current favorite.

“The shank has lots of gelatin and crispy skin, the loin is elegant, and there are the parts like under belly and under loin that are all fantastic,” Chef Mavro says.

And with the Kurobuta comes marbling, much like with Kobe beef.

“Imagine it,” says Mavro. “Marbling on pork!”

On the menu this fall, sous chef Andy Le brought a Vietnamese influence to the kitchen, wrapping a loin in la lot (pepper) leaves and caul. Flavored with lemon grass, wood ear mushrooms and pork jus, the tenderloin is served over a salad of cucumber and green papaya with tomato dressed in lime juice, sugar and fish sauce. On top: a perfectly crisped slice of pork shank.

The dish is sublime. It both melts and crackles, and leaves all but the daintiest eaters begging for more. Try it with the highly allocated, rare wine, Lignier 2005 Morey, Saint-Denis, to add an intense, earthy, dark-fruit component.

PROSCIUTTO AS CHICHARRONES, SMOKED PORK BELLY AND CLAMS

Want to know what makes Jon Matsubara go weak at the knees? Try some barbecued pulled pork smothered in sauce. Or smoked pork. Or pork butt, jowls or belly. Or why not go the whole hog and roast him an entire pig?

“My dream is to have a restaurant that serves only pork,” says the chef, who sits on the cutting edge of contemporary Hawaii cuisine.

For now, he’s content serving pork at Azure in his trademark, playful style. No better example can be found than his duck-fat crisped pork chips. Inspired by a trip to Mexico, the single-bite appetizer mimics chicharrones by using prosciutto fried in duck fat to replace the pork rinds of the traditional Mexican dish. It is served with a shooter of lemon grass chili consommé and a tiny side of guacamole.

“We wanted something salty and crunchy,” Matsubara says. “And now we’ve made something that’s addictive.”

Utterly addictive too are his sake steamed clams, where a dashi is made using Virginia ham and double-smoked pork belly is added to give the broth intense flavor. The clams are then added, and the pot is deglazed with saké.

“The Portuguese have been putting pork with clams for centuries,” says Matsubara. “It’s the same concept.”

MOVE OVER BACON

Quite simply put, bacon is the new black.

No longer the domain of the breakfast plate, bacon is now served at the city’s top steak houses, house-cured and tossed in to everything from salads to coffee and cupcakes.

But it’s kristina markoff, founder of Vosges chocolates, who really put bacon on the exotic map. her extravagant creation, mo’s milk chocolate Bacon Bar – a combination of applewood smoked bacon, alderwood salt and deep milk chocolate – is one of the top-selling chocolate bars at neiman marcus.

Markoff was inspired by her mother’s breakfast specialty of chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup and bacon.

“When i was about 6, i remember mixing the chocolate chips with maple syrup and then eating them with the bacon she’d put on the side,” markoff says. “there was just something incredible about that salt and sugar combination.”

Mo’s Bacon Bar was just the start for Vosges.

“One of the first things i made was a milk chocolate pudding with bacon inside. then a bacon truffle,” says markoff, who even has a cd collection devoted to bacon, truffles and the blues.

But markoff isn’t the only one devoted to a better bacon world. designer neil caldwell has created a line of bacon served up in a multitude of colors, including a sunset orange, golden yellow and ruby red. so, perhaps we should correct ourselves: Bacon is the new blue.