By
Jim Duncan
CVFDude@aol.com
Twitter.com/foodude
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Swabian Hall hams and shoulders have
thick layer of back fat. |
With 2,000 stores, Applebee's is by far the
Midwest's largest casual dining chain. They
have at least five restaurants in each of Omaha,
Wichita and Tulsa plus at least 10 in the metro
areas of those towns. They only have two in
our entire metro. How does Des Moines' restaurant
scene escape the usual conformity of Middle
America?
Those of us who like to eat well owe a lot to
a surprising number of visionary locals — the
gang of friends known as Full Court Press, Dom
Iannarelli and Bruce Gerleman, Harry and Pam
Bookey, Steve Logsdon and Kirk Blunck, Scot
Carlson, Mike and Carter Hutchison, George Formaro
and Paul Rottenberg. Collectively those folks
built 25 unique new restaurants here in the
last two decades while preserving historic buildings
that might otherwise have been torn down to
build an Applebee's franchise. In addition,
Des Moines was blessed by the visions of immigrant
chefs who settled here from the American South,
Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. The
latest visionary who is improving our dining
habits is not a restaurant owner though. He's
a pig farmer.
Carl Blake is a refugee from the silicon rat
race. A former computer engineer, he left Apple
Inc to get his hands dirty. He wanted to bring
back pork like he recalled from his youth. "I
remembered brats that squirted when you bit
into them and pork chops that were juicy. I
couldn't find pork that did that any more,"
he recalled.
So Carl investigated the bloodlines of pig
history and discovered a cross breed that was
the rage of Stuttgart 100 years ago. Those Swabian
Hall pigs were half Chinese Meishan (the world's
fattiest pig) and half Russian Wild Boar (RWB).
Carl heard that Iowa State University had given
up its research on the only Meishan herd in
America, so he bought their entire stock. RWBs
were harder to find and far more difficult to
maintain. "I had to build two man traps
in each boar pen. Those pigs are so mean they
will tackle you, hold you down and beat you
half to death," he explained.
Carl fought back. The resulting Iowa Swabian
Hall pigs he raises at his Rustic Rooster Farms
have become a taste sensation. "You can
take the back fat off our pigs and turn it into
whipped cream," Carl bragged.
One won last year's Cochon 555 competition
in San Francisco where chefs preferred them
to Mangalitsas, which are the current darlings
of the charcuterie world. Top charcuterie makers
Perbacco of San Francisco and La Quercia of
Iowa now buy Iowa Swabian Hall pigs. Other chefs
loved their shoulders and loins, which taste
like a cross between pork and goose. Chicago
restaurant legend Charlie Trotter now buys Rustic
Rooster's suckling pigs. Two time Cochon 555
winner Matt Steigerwald uses whole Iowa Swabian
Halls at his Lincoln Café in Mount Vernon. Stephanie
Izard, this year's winner on Food Channel's
"Top Chef," prefers full-grown whole
hogs at her Girl and Her Goat restaurant in
Chicago. She featured one at a James Beard House
fundraiser this year.
Earlier this month, Blake brought a whole Iowa
Swabian Hall hog to Carlisle's Butcher Crick
Farm for their second annual restaurant appreciation
event. Chefs Hal Jasa (Zingaro) and Sean Wilson
(Kirkwood Lounge, Cuatro) made them into tasso,
stuffed trotters, bacon and half a dozen other
pig treats. David Baruthio was so impressed
with their dark meat and two and a half inches
of back fat that he promised to start using
them soon at Baru66 in Windsor Heights.
Side Dishes
One hundred white clad diners attended the
first Flash Dine event in Iowa at Pappajohn
Sculpture Park this month. Some drove as far
as Mason City… Peace Tree Brewery of Knoxville
introduced its Kölsch style beer. It's an amber
lager without their usual bitterness and is
a legend in Cologne. CV |
