On the menu, Church & State chef Walter Manzke can mask the dish’s identity in French and call them Oreilles de Cochon, but there’s no doubt what you’re looking at when the bowl hits the table. These are pig’s ears, deep-fried and served with a dish of sauce Bearnaise. The quartet of ears ($10) were fried until crisp crusted and golden on both sides, sort of like porcine potato chips. However, the core was nothing like a Lay’s. Instead, the cartilage had become nearly molten in the fryer until it achieved a gelatinous texture. The ears were rich enough on their own, so I applied the creamy, yolk-rich Bearnaise judiciciously.

Church & State offered a different experience from Animal, where the strips of pig ear are crunchy. At a recent cooking demo, Marcus Samuelsson proclaimed that pig ears are the next bacon. As long as chefs like Walter Manzke, Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook are preparing them, that’s a possibility.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.

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