Pata Negra

My friend Carlos brought us back some special ham from Spain called Pata Negra, which I have heard a lot about from my friend Francois and from Carlos as well. Its a special ham made from a special breed of pig which is fed oak acorns.

Carlos told me to slice it as thin as possible which meant that it was time to re-sharpen my yanagi and aritsugu paring knife

We harvested some of the beautiful tomatos from our terrace

and made a cheese plate with some three year old Comte de Montagne, "VSOP" Gouda that I bought at Schipol during my layover, some Tomme Crayeuse and some real Bufala mozarella

I found that the ham wasn't easy to cut into the large slices that they sell at the grocery store without making them too thick, so I just made small paper thin slices.

The ham was better than any prosciutto or french ham that I have ever had. In particular, the lightly marbled section of it was sweet and delicious. Hopefully we'll be able to find this in the states!

We also went to Caro de Lyon today with Mark and Amy. It was fantastic as usual, and my favorite part of the meal was the lobster farfalle: perfect.