Hip Tastes Blog

Besides a very good selection of wine, beer and custom mixed drinks, the event featured the dapper Ms. Wizansky herself, copies of the mag's "Issue Zero" and a plethora of cured, cooked and dried meats from the likes of restos Perbaco, Incanto and Bovolo (how's that for lots of "o"s?!), amongst others.

When it came to the meat, the weirder the better seeemed to have been the direction (if any) given the purveyors. I'm pretty sure I had some pork heart, the back fat of another animal (I'm thinking pig here too), some snout and maybe even a little trotter. Never one to shy from a weird food fest, I dug straight in. The place was packed so it took some time to make it to every table, but I eventually succeeded. And it was mighty good, let me tell you!

When dieting and socializing stars align
And this is totally random, but: in a strangly fortuitous twist of fate, my trainer just put me on a protein-only diet every day after 4pm - and the launch party was my first day! Needless to say it was pretty easy to stick to the rules that night, although he doesn't need to know about the piece of fabulous French bread I sneaked from the Cote Sud table.

Where's the beef?
For all you curious carnivores out there who are wondering just what a magazine dedicated entirely to meat encompasses, read on for a few highlights:

Meat as Art - Issue Zero includes artwork and an interview with Michael Arcega, a local artist whose installation called "SPAM/MAPS" explores the role of Spam as symbol of American commercialism/influence in Philippine culture. And as you might imagine, his work is literally a map of the world created from pieces of dried SPAM tacked to a wall. Weird? Yes. Interesting? Absolutely.

Carnivorism as Responsibility - An interview with SF resto Incanto's head chef, Chris Cosentino (pictured here in pink), includes some interesting remarks, including his position that Americans need to be more responsible in their meat consumption. How to? For starters, we need to try to eat the whole animal, rather than letting what Tony Bourdain ("Kitchen Confidential") refers to as the "nasty bits" (think entrails, head, skin, kidneys etc.) go to waste. And don't worry - Cosentino's interview is much too amusing to seem like a lecture. The guy pens the popular food blog "Offal Good" (mostly about cooking these "other parts"), so readers are in good hands.

Pig Slaughter as Philosophical Journey - An American Fulbright Scholar chronicles the butchering of a pig in a tiny Italian town east of Rome, where the traditional act is a source of pride for community members. Chronicler John Caserta describes watching the life leave the pig and contemplates the year-long cycle it took to get a piece of sausage from the same pig six months later (six months raising the animal followed by six months of making the sausage). What's the point? Mostly that this cycle probably seems unimaginably long to most Americans.

True indeed, and thought-provoking. Not the most hilarious piece in the mag, but definitely interesting and proof of the fact that this mag's about more than just surface-level meat culture.

I hope you enjoy a few snaps from the launch party, including one of moi with Ms. Wisansky. Happy carnivoring - or abstaining - whatever floats your boat!

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