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It's been a pretty busy week for me, and now I'm really falling behind... just two more places to review then I'm done with this mini series 
The pictures were unfortunately very dark, and I'm too lazy to adjust it, so please bear with that. fixed...
Overall, the Purple Pig was a great dining experience (I think Milkis mentioned this place too), and I loved the comfort food served here and their large selection of wines (offered in 1/2, 3/4 and full). I ordered a rather full-bodied bottle of chianti, and it went really well with most of my dishes.
Deep fried pig ear
This dish was somewhat disappointing. I got the feeling that the chefs were trying very hard to mask the pig ears rather than having the ingredient speak for itself. The ears were thinly sliced and deep fried to a crispy, there was probably more batter than ear, and it could have been just batter sticks, and I probably wouldn't know the difference. The intricacy of the pig ear comes from its natural textural contrast: the bone/cartilage is crunchy and the meat/skin is jelly-like and a little chewy. Unfortunately, none of this was present in the dish.
The runny egg was definitely the star. As I've mentioned earlier, I love a runny egg on almost anything (except fish apparently), and the batter was in fact very good dipped in the runny yolk.
Deep fried devilled egg
This was supposedly be one of the most amazing things served at the Purple Pig and it ran out frequently. I was delighted to find out that it was available and ordered one immediately. The egg was... rather average, nothing wrong with it in particular, but it was definitely missing a "wow"-factor. I would actually much prefer a scotch egg much over this one.
Neck Gravy
The night turned around from this dish. The "gravy" is actually a spread, and it was loaded with pork from the neck. The bread was in fact very tasty and thick, perfect for loading up tons of the delicious spread. The dish also came with a little cup of fruit compote was comprised of gooseberries, peach and raisins, which went extremely well with pork and gave it a sweet and salty tasted.
Bone marrow
I love bone marrow, or "nature's butter" as I like to call it. This dish definitely had the right idea: bone marrow, salt and herbs on bread, however, the bread was toasted with quite a bit of oil, and the cilantro was drenched in dressing, making this dish incredible heavy to eat. I ended up not using the herbs at all, and it was still very enjoyable.
Milk braised pork shoulder
This thing was freaking amazing, easily the best dish of the night! The pork was so tender, and (almost) melted in my mouth. Flavours were good, the sauce was delicious, it was just a simple dish that was executed extremely well.
Deep fried brioche donut
Okay, this wasn't called a doughnut, but that's what it was in essence. Yea, I love brioche, and using brioche for a doughnut was just a brilliant idea. The outer dough was crunchy and aromatic (think of deep fried brioche), and the filling was delicious, but the layer of dough immediately under the filling was unfortunately raw, and I had to eat around that. It was a very good concept, and could have been an amazing dessert had it not for the poor execution.
  
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I'm just wondering, how did you get so good at noticing the nuances in food?
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Damn that looks great...
I didn't know there were bone marrow dishes o_O;
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On February 27 2011 09:23 ghrur wrote:
I'm just wondering, how did you get so good at noticing the nuances in food?
by eating lots lol...
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People eat ears and marrow? I learn new things every day.
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On February 27 2011 09:40 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2011 09:23 ghrur wrote:
I'm just wondering, how did you get so good at noticing the nuances in food? by eating lots lol...
Good answer haha
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Ahhhhh. That marrow looks so good.
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That bone marrow dish looks mighty delicious.
I wouldnt have to suck and scoop out the bone marrow from leftover soup pork bones all the time! Sometimes people think Im going a bit to far just to eat some nasty bone tissue, they are missing out for sure. More for me!
Pig's ear have no funky flavors like pig innards(Its almost impossible to mask the stench), theres really nothing to hide. Did they cut it like the size usual for braised 豬耳朵?
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On February 27 2011 09:43 Lexpar wrote:
People eat ears and marrow? I learn new things every day.
Marrow is like premium butter, its that good. D:
edit: You can actually buy it pre-made in a container but that seems pretty nasty to me. I prefer to get it straight from the source.
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On February 27 2011 09:47 Disregard wrote:
That bone marrow dish looks mighty delicious.
I wouldnt have to suck and scoop out the bone marrow from leftover soup pork bones all the time! Sometimes people think Im going a bit to far just to eat some nasty bone tissue, they are missing out for sure. More for me!
Pig's ear have no funky flavors like pig innards(Its almost impossible to mask the stench), theres really nothing to hide. Did they cut it like the size usual for braised 豬耳朵?
It was about 1/2 this wide, maybe thinner, but much shorter (just sticks, no bends)
![[image loading]](http://www.dreamstime.com/braised-pig-s-ear-thumb4864429.jpg)
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i don't usually like pork, but some of this stuff looks amazing. I've never tried marrow, what does it taste like? Is it literally buttery/greasy?
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It doesn't really taste like anything; it's mostly just like oil.
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is that the same as
![[image loading]](http://wirkochen.oe24.at/images/stories/kochjournal/krapfen_125328a.jpg)
?
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holy shit, I'm so jelly right now.
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Good god - What is the consistency of your stool after a meal like this?
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Hmm, interesting. A lot of these dishes look heavy-handed though, like something Emeril would come up with. And the name, fried deviled egg, etc makes me think it's a rip-off of The Spotted Pig. Then some of the techniques, like runny egg over X, and milk braised make me roll my eyes at the lack of originality. Not because they taste bad, but just because they've been done a million times already. The neck gravy sounds fucking amazing though. Especially with the compote. Now that's a dish I could get behind.
I'm with you though on the egg, I think a scotch egg would beat a just plain fried egg any day. The Scotch egg over at The Breslin (same chefs as Spotted Pig) is divine.
Was the egg simply a hard-boiled egg rolled in breading? I'm not understanding what was deviled about it either.
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damn, cambium! i'm always jealous whenever you make these food blogs. it seems like you go to a lot of different places to eat (high end too) possibly?  what exactly do you do btw?
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5003 Posts
This thing was freaking amazing, easily the best dish of the night! The pork was so tender, and (almost) melted in my mouth. Flavours were good, the sauce was delicious, it was just a simple dish that was executed extremely well.
This was easily the highlight of the meal i had there too
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fanta:
Something similar, but it's definitely more crispy, and the filling is cheese (probably mascarpone) and chocolate
HCastorp:
solid
StorkHwaiting:
It was definitely very heavy-handed. The devilled egg was a devilled egg (so hard boiled, yolk mixed with some cheese, not spicy at all though...), put together again, then deep fried in batter. I think the novelty was supposed to be putting two halves together? Not sure.
Metal:
I'm studying right now, literally eating my savings and future earnings lol...
Milkis:
:D
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Thats actually Italian parsley and not cilantro on the marrow dish.
Roast marrow bones with parsley salad is a fairly classic preparation that was first brought back in to prominence by Fergus Henderson about 10 years ago.
I agree that I don't like it when they oil or butter the bread in this dish and the parsley should be hit lightly with lemon and not be overdressed in oil as you want the herby acid to counter the richness of the marrow.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20968/photos/2011.02.20.purple.pig/IMG_2145 (Small).JPG)
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