Stop for a moment and ponder those images. What an amazing little meat roll of love. Juicy, tender and brilliant with flavors. Plus a surprise! The outter covering (the pork belly) gets CRUNCHY !!! When done and rested, laying a knife to it is nearly impossible. You gotta git yourself a serrated bread knife. HA! Too cool. And juicy. This is the special this week at Fatted Calf, Saturday morning in Berkeley.
If you read down their list, the Bordelaise is available again. Another chance to bathe in the glory.
An yanno? The Pate de Campagne sounds really good, especially after that stanky ass Marcel & Henri ‘stuff’ from last week. Egads, the stuff is still giving me the jeebies.
Oh goodness, look what I almost missed, the Sicilian al’ Arancia. I believe that’s the fancy Sicilian salami with a bit of bright orange flavors to it. Tender salami care in the hands of the gifted. Such a treat.
Read on …

How are your roasting skills? If you’re like the one non-culinary-expert member of Team Fatted Calf, (OK, that’s me, the one who writes these things) you’re not super-comfy yet. Sure, lots of cooking stuff is easy as pie. (though pie isn’t one of those things, actually) We’re pretty proud of our pastas, our braises, and other stuff we’ve done millions of times. But let’s face it, in the Bay Area, we live in a land of constantly overflowing bounty. If we’re to be honest, we’d say that half of being a good cook is knowing where to shop. And we do. We actually go to 4 or 5 separate places for groceries each week, insist on freshly pressed olive oil, Sicilan sea salt, organic veggies, and, of course, the very very best meat, poultry and fish. Sadly, we had a Traumatic Roasting Experience over Christmas, which no amount of shopping know-how could have helped. Let’s just say this experience involved a $50.00 Ferry Bu ilding-purchased pork loin roast, a little too much wine ( and not in the pan, either), in-laws, and, finally, a lot of rummaging by various family members through fridge for jams, chutneys and mustards to moisten said roast once it was sliced and on the plate, dry as (insert goofy metaphor here). Bummer. We hate screwing up. To be fair, roasting is not something we get to practice a lot. We cook for 2, usually. What we need is something fool-proof. And, whatdya know, fool-proof is what Taylor and Toponia are offering this week. Arista Panzanese has been offered before, but unless you’ve brought one home, you might not know what makes this roast so special and easy-to-succeed-at. Two words: 1: Self. 2: Basting. Yup, this roast is a delicious piece of pork loin, sprinkled with chopped fresh garlic, salt, pepper, fennel, and a whisper of finely chopped rosemary, and then rolled, jelly roll fashion, up with the magic, fool-proof ingredient: pork belly. Fat. And what keeps a roast from drying out, class? That’s right, Fat. Your succulent loin is wrapped in a cozy, protective blanket of belly, which will slowly render as you ever-so-slowly-and-patiently roast it, and it will Auto-Baste™ as you drink wine and nod vigorously at everything your in-laws say. Crispy skin. Good times.
For the other super-picky shoppers out there: FC’s main supplier of meat, Niman Ranch, has, as you know, always had the highest quality naturally raised, hormone-free meats. They are raising the bar by now providing us with many products that are also organic. The Arista Panzanese is organic, and we will slowly add more all-organic goodies to our product line, as more cuts of meat become available.
See you at the Market!
Saturday, February 5, 2005
SPECIAL
Arista Panzanese garlic salt finely chopped rosemary fennel black pepper
Sausage
Pork Crepinettes with Greens & Pine Nuts
Merguez
Hot Italian
Sweet Italian
Toulouse
Mexican Style Chorizo
Breakfast Sausage
Andouille
Bordelaise
Pates, Confits & Terrines
Pate de Campagne
Duck Pate
Duck Confit
Duck Rillette
Pork Rillette
Toulouse Sausage Confit
Duck Liver Mousse
Tonno di Maiale
Salumi
Umbrian
Sicilian al’ Arancia
Fegatelli