The Best Thing We Ate This Week: Damon Wise's Pork Taco

By James Mulcahy

Marc Forgione may have won the heritage pig cook off Cochon 555 when all five of his dishes were judged together, but another chef there had what we thought was not only the best dish at the festival, but the best thing we ate all week. We still haven't had a chance to swing by Monkey Bar to check out former Craft chef Damon Wise's new menu, but we made a reservation soon after trying the dishes that he cooked up with his little piggy. While his blood sausage was one of the better ones in the room (numerous chefs made a version of this dish), it was his pork taco that had us drooling all week. Topped with a spicy bit of salsa verde, some tasty red cabbage and a cream made with the Aleppo pepper, it was everything a taco should be - a little spicy, a little moist, and packed with a wallop of flavor. It was the only dish that at the event that had us scarfing a second helping, which is a feat seeing that we were in a pork coma by the time we rolled out of there.

Sadly, we doubt this Mexican-inspired dish will make its way to the Monkey Bar menu, but if Wise decides to open his own haute taco shack a la Empellon, Alex Stupak better watch his back.

Photo: Gabi Porter