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By Root 1174 0

of the pig that constituted certain cuts, like the chop or the tenderloin, I was able to grasp how far the art of butchering had dwindled in the last few decades of industrialized agriculture. Nowadays, butchery was generally done with large saws, and shipped to groceries rather than by skilled, in-house butchers. During the class, Tom also explained how he had become a butcher only a few years before. Training under the guidance of Joshua Applestone from Fleisher’s, the upstate New York distributor of small farm meats, Tom had learned to appreciate the differences in free-range and humanely raised animals. This Berkshire hog, for instance, had unique DNA and was not genetically altered, as was 99 percent of the commercial pork available. What’s more, pastured animals raised by conscientious farmers, like that pig in front of us, are granted longer, fuller lives before they are slaughtered, and benefited from a natural, healthy diet. He pointed to a slightly off-hue patch of flesh next to the rib.

“See, that might look kind of weird since it’s sort of yellowish, but that’s actually a good sign. It’s because of the beta-carotene, from the grass,” he said.

At the end of the class, all the students took their turns picking cuts of the pork that Tom had demonstrated on to take home. I’d chosen a hunk of pork shoulder, a piece of loin, and a small strip of spare ribs. I planned to braise the shoulder into a chili for my upcoming Chili Takedown the next week. With about ten pounds of meat in a bag, I had the perplexing dilemma of how I was going to bring it home that night. I’d planned to meet friends at a CD-release party for Matt’s band at a nearby bar in Brooklyn right after class. There was no way I’d be able to carry all that meat on my bike, then put it down at the crowded bar for the duration of the party. I asked Taylor and Harry if they had room in the store’s refrigerator, and they kindly accepted the meat. I’d have to pick it up the next day, though, I was warned—since they were planning on filling the fridge space with a shipment of something or other on Thursday.

After a late night at Matt’s show, I got up bright and early for work the following morning. I brought my container of chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-topped cupcakes to the office with me, and another frozen veggie patty for lunch. I left the patty on my desk to thaw a little during the morning and, at lunchtime, reheated it in the microwave. By midafternoon, I was craving a snack and headed guiltily toward the office vending machines for a bag of chips. It seemed no matter how healthfully I strived to eat, I’d go through junk-food phases like these from time to time.

That afternoon, my friend and fellow food blogger Winnie sent me an e-mail, asking if I was attending the Edible Manhattan magazine launch that night. I was a fan of Edible Brooklyn, and the new Manhattan-based food magazine was throwing a launch party at the South Street Seaport. I told her I’d try to swing by, right after the cupcake meet-up.

The cupcake event turned out to be a lot of fun—I got a chance to chat with Rachel and Nichelle, two of the three bloggers behind “Cupcakes Take the Cake.” I was also duly rewarded for my cupcake innovation. As soon as I revealed what I’d topped my cupcakes with, jaws dropped all around me. Somehow, in this crowd of cupcake enthusiasts, I had done something they’d never seen. The first few people who tried one let out moans of guilty pleasure. My cupcakes were finished off before any other batch at the party. Before leaving, I grabbed a chocolate cupcake for the road. It had been a special request from my friend Chrysanthe, whom I planned to meet up with after the Edible Manhattan launch party. She’d asked me to come along to the opening-night party for a new music venue in Brooklyn called the Bell House. She also loved chocolate cupcakes.

I’d had a suspicion there would be free food at the Edible Manhattan party, but I had no idea what this would entail. The party was stretched along two or three blocks at the southern tip of Manhattan. Some of the