My Weekend Adventure!

Starting this week, and then every other week, I'm going to write about some of the places that I have really enjoyed on my weekends. Every other Friday I'll share a local food adventure. Hence the name, "My Weekend Adventure"! 

This weekend adventure was Pork Belly out on Abbot Kinney Blvd, needless to say pork is on the menu. Smoked and barbecued pork in its various and wonderful incarnations makes up the bulk of the menu. Normally I write about a place after a couple of visits. Pork Belly is probably going to be the exception.

I'll start out by saying don't expect to find parking right out front! Abbot Kinney on a Sunday morning was not the best time to go, but the Groupon in my pocket was going to expire, soon!  When everything was said and done we managed to find some parking relatively close, four blocks away. Another thing you shouldn't expect is someplace to sit, there isn't anyplace to sit, there is room for a line to walk in and up to the register, then down the counter and then to walk to the Coca Cola Freestyle machine.

I'd like to talk about this machine for a minute. I LOVE THESE MACHINES! You have to understand this will spit out 100+ different Coca Cola products... I mean who knew they made Peach, Cherry or Lime Fanta? What about Grape Mello Yello? Who knew they still made Mello Yello? I am not a big commercial soda drinker, but if I had one of these machines nearby I might have a serious problem.

Now while you wait for the Freestyle machine or you're just waiting for your food you can watch as the food is put together on the griddles right out in front. The hairy guy with the glasses that prepped our food was nice, I'm sure he was tired of seeing people drooling each time he put together a sandwich, I'm sure he was used to the looks of anticipation as he bagged each order, and then the sure disappointment as folks realized it wasn't their order just yet.

There was an advantage to going at 11:30 on a Sunday morning, there are two small tables just outside the doors, where you can hunker down and tear into your food, this is only if you don't have a problem standing while you eat. (Just a little of my own personal commentary here, I personally hate it when people stand to eat. But "When in Rome...", right!) Now the couple next to us had ordered what looked to be a rack of ribs, plenty of sides and a couple of sandwiches. In some places it's polite not to stare, the cooks will look from the safety of the kitchen, the rare  maître d', will look while pretending not to look. Not us, we ooh'd and awed, as the meat fell off the ribs, as the man unwrapped the sandwich we could see the darkly colored char on the brisket and we silently drooled as we waited for our order to come up.

When it did come, it was worth the brief wait, and the napkins that we used to clean up the mess from drooling as we watched our neighbor at the other table eat. Our lunch was simple, two combos for the three of us, we had a friends daughter Sophia with us, a Belly Up sandwich with fried pickles and The Chop sandwich with a side of mac n' cheese. And two sodas!

The Belly Up I ordered was a thing of beauty! I had seen it previously thanks to Venice 311 and heard about the place from a coworker so I really had been looking forward to this for some time! Rarely does something like this live up to the anticipation. On this day it did! Each bite of the brioche bun along with the perfectly cooked, but not too fatty pork belly was complemented by the creamy tang of the coleslaw, and the subtle crunch that homemade coleslaw should have. The fried pickles were also so worth it!

Each pickle slice held on to the breading, the spicy aioli dipping sauce that came along with the pickles also tasted good when I dipped the edge of the brioche bun in and then took a bite. Sophia and Elena my wife enjoyed The Chop and while I got just "a bite" of the mac n' cheese I would order it again. Ooh, I almost forgot the cookie, each sandwich is wrapped in brown wax paper, and in that final fold, just before the "Pork Belly" sticker with the logo on it is put on, they place a small but tasty and sometimes very warm chocolate chip cookie in there!

So that was it, "My Pork Belly Adventure" you might ask where was the adventure, those that know me know I love pork, so getting me to eat this wasn't much of an adventure! But the adventure lay in getting out to Abbot Kinney, a place I can say I never frequent, I only go for the occasional First Friday, or an early morning trip to GTA, a future "My Weekend  Adventure" subject. The adventure came at the idea of feeling like this is a place I might go back to, before I even took that first bite of my Belly Up sandwich! The adventure was finding parking and eating standing up, the whole of the meal is seared into my memory. That is what made Pork Belly my adventure!