Last year, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo opened Animal on Fairfax and their minimalist restaurant with bold cooking has been filled ever since. Their menu changes daily, based on market-driven ingredients. Happily, no matter what Shook and Dotolo source, almost every dish incorporates pork, making Animal a perpetual candidate for Dose of Vitamin P.

Pig ears are notoriously chewy, with a cartilage crunch, but Dotolo and Shook transformed the off-cut into a must-order appetizer, tossing the still-crunchy but tender ears ($10) with scallions and tangy, slightly spicy chile-lime vinaigrette. The ears were draped with an over-easy fried egg. A quick poke of the fork and the rich yolk was free to mingle with the surprisingly addictive hog meat.

Dose of Vitamin P is a new feature that spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.

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1. Pingback: Twitter Trackbacks for Food GPS » Blog Archive » Dose of Vitamin P: Animal Pig Ears [foodgps.com] on Topsy.com on August 27, 2009

3 Comments

1. choisauce, August 26, 2009:

   ooh I’ve had these and they were tasty! my vote for next week’s dose of vitamin p goes to rivera’s sous vide pork shoulder! *oink oink*

2. Nanciful, August 26, 2009:

   This is my favorite dish at Animal right now! Such a surprise of flavors for me because I’m usually use to having my pig ears stewed in soy sauce only.

3. Protein Bar, October 22, 2009:

   There are a lot of good opinions here. Really gives me a new way of looking at things.

This entry is filed under Dose of Vitamin P, LA Culinary Compass.