The Ravens and the 49ers won’t be the only ones fighting over the pigskin during this Sunday’s Super Bowl.
A number of restaurants are offering porcine feasts so that gourmet game-watchers can do some swine-related scrimmaging of their own.
“It’s a big thing right now,” says Eli Collins, the executive chef at DGBG, where customers can get a whole pig roast package for takeout this weekend. Here’s where else to go whole hog for the big game:
Berkshire biggie
You can cheer for either team at David Burke Kitchen’s whimsical bar, Treehouse, so long as you come hungry. “We’re bipartisan,” says executive chef Chris Shea, who plans to cook a 60-pound Berkshire pig in a wooden roasting box on the patio. To prepare the porker, Shea will soak it in a salt, sugar, garlic, seaweed and herb brine for two days, and inject it with a mixture of cilantro, garlic, orange juice, shallots and jalapenos. “It basically marinates from the inside out,” he says. The buffet will also feature deviled eggs, maple- and black-pepper double-smoked bacon skewers, short-rib and jack-cheese dumplings, pickled vegetables, jalapeno- and jack-cheese cornbread and buttery Parker House rolls.
$25 per person, dinner starts at 5:30 p.m.; 23 Grand St.; 212-201-9119.
Get ’em while they’re young
At Raymi, a Peruvian restaurant in the Flatiron District, this weekend only, you can order chef Erik Ramirez’s special suckling pigs to go. With the young oinkers, the flesh “is still tender, very soft and delicate and moist,” Ramirez says. He adds to the tastiness by first salt-curing the piglets for 24 hours and then brushing them with annatto oil before roasting to give the skin a deep red hue. They’re served with a spicy cilantro-jalapeno sauce called aji verde for a kick, as well as charred scallions, potato bread, roasted sweet potatoes, sauerkraut and bacon. The kitchen will package your pig whole or break it down into prime cuts for pigging out with ease.
$350 per pig, serves six to eight people; orders must be made by
3 p.m. today; 43 W. 24th St.; 212-929-1200.
Backyard bacchanalia
Watch the big game at Cannibal, a butcher-shop-brasserie, and enjoy a pig roast party in the 800-square-foot heated and tented backyard. “We’ll do it gyro style, with pita bread, tzatziki, Calabrian salsa verde and watercress salad with pickled onions,” enthuses owner Christian Pappanicholas. The food lineup also includes a pig’s head terrine, pork liver mousse, kielbasa, kale salad, beets and cauliflower.
$75 per person for the dinner, not including tax, gratuity or beverage; reservations must be made today, contact Louann at louann@restonyc.com; 113 E. 29th St.; 212-686-5480.
A little smokey
Fatty ’Cue’s game-day take-out special includes a whole hickory-smoked Berkshire pig, two dozen Martin’s potato rolls, a tray of smoked mac ’n’ cheese and rice crackers with garlic-chili dip meant to taste like a high-class nacho cheese. As for the little porker, it “has a fusion-Asian flavor profile,” says chef de cuisine Anthony Masters, “You’ll taste some sweetness, some fishiness. It’s served with a smoked fish palm, which is a smoked syrup we make from palm sugar blended with fish sauce.” They deliver, too.
$495; serves nine to 12 people; order at least 72 hours in advance by e-mailing events@fattycrew.com; 50 Carmine St.; 212-929-5050.
The good stuffed
Daniel Boulud’s downtown spot DGBG specializes in housemade sausages, and each whole hog, which you can order takeout, is a sausage in itself. Instead of just roasting the animal, chef Collins carves it out, stuffs it with sausage, slowly poaches it and finishes it off in a very hot oven. “When you cut it in half, it looks like a mosaic,” says Collins. “You see sausage dotted with Swiss chard, chestnuts, pieces of bacon lardon and pork loin.” In addition to the elaborately stuffed porker, the hearty take-out dinner package includes roasted Brussels sprouts and bacon, roasted root vegetables with apples, a potato gratin with leeks and gruyére cheese, and an entire baked Alaska.
$495, serves up to eight people; order by 5 p.m. tomorrow; 299 Bowery; 212-933-5300.