Experiments!

As much as I love the city, there's one atmospheric phenomenon that really irritates me.  I'll call it channeling.  Imagine you're walking down a street on a lovely, cool fall day.  You're enjoying your music.  You pat the head of a ginormous Saint Bernard.  Then, you come to a particular intersection and WHAM!  Frigid wind rocks you on your feet and blows through your clothes as if you weren't wearing any.  Your eyes watering, you finally stagger through the intersection and continue on your way, and the wind disappears.

Particular city streets channel the wind.  It's so frustrating!

I am inventing a recipe tonight, and I think it will be a journey of ultimate deliciousness.  We bought stewing pork the other night.  We aren't really pork eaters at all, but it was cheap and we decided to experiment.  Stewing pork is cut from the shoulder and is generally pretty tough, so I surmise that I can simmer it for a couple hours and have it turn out tender and juicy.  But what to simmer it in?

Then I remembered eating simmered pork belly at I's house a couple months ago, and my mouth watered.  Pork shoulder isn't pork belly, but I am absolutely positive that it would taste delicious simmered in that sweet, salty liquid.  So, I went to the Japanese/Asian grocery store across the way and bought mirin (a very sweet rice wine), soy sauce and hoisin sauce.  I plan on putting the pork pieces in a dutch oven and covering them with a mixture of water, soy sauce, mirin, sake and garlic, and letting them cook to perfection for two hours during French class.  The sweet, rich hoisin sauce will go perfectly with the salty pork...  I hope!

I'll let you know how it turns out!