Remember a few weeks ago I was lamenting the lack of chicharrones up here? Turns out there’s a carniceria right across from her bus stop, and she’s been kind enough to get some for me – twice – even though she’s sort of freaked out by the hanging carcasses.
The first bag was the dark, meaty ones. The ones waiting for me on my desk this morning were the ones I’m used to from L.A./Orange County with the crunchy skin and just a little meat.
Yum.
The mass transit riding chicharon fairy, duh.
When you can’t get chicharon, you can easily make some with pork fat scraps. Toss them in a medium heat pan & let them cook down in their own rendered fat. Then, while they’re still hot, salt, pepper, & garlic powder to taste.
Sorry, SHE was talking to me and I was distracted. ‘She’ is my coworker.
A few years back when we were still living in NJ, my wife and I went to a Cuban restaurant in Somerville (or Somerset, I always mix them up.) Anyway, we ordered the the chicharrones and they were pretty good, until I pulled out a piece of snout with some whiskers still intact…
At least we knew they were fresh.
A few years ago I was working the night shift on a loading dock at a fruit packing plant. One night, one of the Mexican forklift drivers and I were having dinner in our little break room. He asked me if I wanted a burrito, claimed that they were delicious and that his grandma had made them. Well, of course, anytime you get offered burritos from a Mexican grandma you must partake. I bit into it and whatever it was had the texture and consistency of a wet sponge doused in Tapatio and rolled in a homemade flour tortilla. I am a huge fan of both Tapatio and homemade flour tortillas - the wet sponge, not so much.
After choking it down, I asked him what it was. He asked me if I knew what* chicharrones* were and I replied that yes, in fact, I was both very familiar and a big fan of deep fried pig skin.
“It’s chicharrones but Grandma doesn’t fry them in oil… she just boils them.”
Well there is a version like that. One taco joint I like serves it stewed in a green chile sauce of some sort, folded into corn tortillas. It’s great, but I doubt it’s healthy! I admit it’s an acquired taste.
Yeah, when I get chicharrones tacos around here, they’re quite often of the boiled variety. (Actually, I don’t think I’ve had the crispy chicharrones in a taco. They’re usually simmered in a sauce of some sort.) I like 'em all. Pork fat is good.
You and I are kindred spirits.
I assume you have been relocated to the O.C. (Orange Curtain for those of us born in LA county) . My apologies for the dearth of good ethnic food.
My favorite chicharrone spot is a place near the 710/5/10 mess in LA. It is next to a place that sells live chickens. Pigs come in live, but they don’t leave that way.
They sell the best chicharrones, trompetas, AND carnitas.
In the OC, I would try 4th street in Santa Ana. It’s about as close to LA as you will get.
I generally have my chicharrones brought in from Mexico by my coworkers who travel there monthly.
Details, man! Details!
Worse than that. (And, of course, I’m speaking culinarily. Although you have to admit OC has plenty of good Vietnamese food.) I’m in the WC (pun intentional) – Whatcom County, just south of the Canadian border. On my non-telecommuting days I work in Seattle.
I’ll have to ask her. I think she lives in West Seattle, and catches a bus in White Center.
“Pig Skins” as we say down here in Jawja! 
Q
I should say that the ones my coworker obtained for me weren’t as good as the ones in SoCal. But good enough for me.