6th Course: Caramelized Pork Belly

* Best of 2007 * Dish
Read about this dish and the other 25 Best Dishes of 2007 on my blog.

Caramelized Pork Belly

Paired with Mas de Libian Cotes du Rhone "Bout d'Zan" 2005.

Notes: This was my favorite dish of the evening. Each piece had a nice layer of fat running through two strands of excellently caramelized and exceedingly tender pork meat. I didn't need my knife. The taste was very much like Chinese char sui (or bbq) pork. Spectacular!! Everyone was in heaven.

There was also a bit of rhubarb compote served with the pork, which I liked on its own, but I thought it was a bit of sweet overkill with the already slightly sweet treatment applied to the pork belly.

The wine pairing worked to the extent that it didn't overwhelm the pork, but it didn't particularly enhance the pork either. The wine had a grassy floral nose, and was medium-bodied and slightly fruity and grassy on the palate.