Great Publican Bacon Shot from Rachelleb.com
Rarely do you find a chef so associated with a single cut of meat from a particular animal, but when people think of pork belly, the name Paul Kahan tends to come to mind. For good reason too, he turns the humble cut into some amazing dishes with his teams at restaurants, Blackbird, Avec, the Publican and, most recently, Big Star.
The Publican is Kahan’s pork, beer, and oysters place in the West Loop and has gotten really good press. We have been a number of times for brunch and dinner and enjoy it every time. Now that Mado has stopped serving brunch, the Publican is one of two or three places where I’d choose to get brunch. In reality, I like the breakfast food here more than dinner. The waffle is one of the best things that I have eaten. It is crispy and impossibly light. And the bacon, as you would expect at the crossroads of pork belly, is wonderful and surprisingly different from what you would expect.
Kahan and Chef de Cuisine Brian Huston get Becker Farm Berkshire pigs from Iowa and cure and smoke them in house. Then, instead of frying the bacon (or using the oven method), they braise it in maple syrup. The bacon is so thick that while the edges are crispy, the inside pulls almost like pit smoked BBQ. The flavor brings you back to the pancake and bacon breakfasts when you were growing up. The maple really comes through and the texture of the pork is just amazing.
After finishing my rashers, I nearly asked for another order to go. However my better half reminded me of the 4 lbs. sitting in my fridge and the other 7 lbs. sitting in my freezer. I would not ordinarily write about restaurant bacon, but this is no ordinary restaurant bacon. However, since you can’t make it at home, it won’t be rated and/or ranked.
Thanks to Rachelle B. at http://www.rachelleb.com/ for allowing me to use her lovely photo. Sometimes bacon is so pretty that an iPhone picture just would not do.
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