Where can I buy pork belly in SF?
We're here for a week and always try to pick up food things that we can't get easily at Lake Tahoe where we live. I've not cooked pork belly yet but certainly enjoy eating it. I know the Manhattan board talks about buying it in Chinatown. Does anyone have sources for it? Is there any reason I can't separate it into small portions and freeze? Thanks all.
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Melanie Wong
Dec 30, 2009 11:53 AM
Walking two blocks further to the other side of Broadway along Stockton Street, you'd find at least 10 chinese butcher counters that break down whole pigs every morning. Pork belly cuts are less than $2/lb, and the pigs come from Manteca/Stockton area typically. Actually across the street from Little City, there's a butcher counter in the Chinese grocery store, I believe.
I go in the morning when the pigs haven't been completely butchered into final cuts for the case. Then you can have your pick of the cuts and look at them carefully when it's not so busy. I've bought a whole side of belly, weighed about 9 lbs., but later in the day it would have already been cut into smaller portions. You can tell the butcher whether you want the rib ends and/or the skin on or off.
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re: c oliver
Melanie Wong
Dec 30, 2009 05:26 PM
I haven't frozen pork belly, as it's so readily available fresh in whatever size i want for the occasion.
Here's a photo of the porchetta I made with that big piece. Served 10 people.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniew...-
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re: mendogurl
Melanie Wong
Dec 30, 2009 06:46 PM
It depends on what part of the belly you buy. Each market pig has about 20 lbs, so you can decide whether you want more fat or less, depending on which end you choose.
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re: c oliver
Robert Lauriston
Dec 31, 2009 12:29 PM
Topic on the Home Cooking board:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5765...
Mmmm, leftovers tonight.
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re: Robert Lauriston
c oliver
Dec 31, 2009 02:22 PM
Thanks for that.
We picked up the 10# piece this morning. Also got some cotichhino (?sp), duck fat, sausage casings and sweetbreads. And the super nice owner taught me how to make pancetta with, say, half the pork belly. Father and son and they couldn't be nicer. As a beginning pork belly person :) not having a language barrier was a great benefit at least this time around. Looking forward to getting back to Lake Tahoe and doing a bunch of cooking. Mmmm.
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c oliver
Dec 28, 2009 02:27 PM
We had lunch in North Beach and wound up stopping in Little City Market at 1400 Stockton. All they had was in lardo form but he special ordered it for me. I'm getting 10# at $3/#. Also getting duck fat and sweetbreads. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. I'm definitely going to try to make Momofuku's pork buns. Mmmm.
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I buy it frequently in Oakland Chinatown. It's inexpensive - I think in the $2/lb range (perhaps cheaper). At the market where I mainly shop for staples (Orient mkt on 7th) they have all the meats packaged in typical supermarket style - it is labeled "side pork". It has no seasoning or anything - it's just another pack of pink meat.
Note that there is a completely separate product, prepared pork belly, sold in packages of a couple of strips. It is marinated, but still requires cooking. I usually find it near the Chinese sausage, selling for $5-8/lb.
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Robert Lauriston
Dec 28, 2009 09:05 AM
Any Mexican or Asian meat market. Lucky Pork in the Mission.
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Lucky Pork Store
2659 Mission St, San Francisco, CA -
Pei
Dec 27, 2009 07:32 PM
Pork belly freezes quite well. You can find it at any butcher in Chinatown, for such a low price you won't care if you don't quite get it right the first time.
If you want a high quality or smaller portion you can go to Nijiya or one of the fancier butchers (Golden Gate Meat Company, Drewe's Bros). I'm 99% sure they all carry it. Even Molly Stones and Whole Foods probably do.
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