Besides a lot of great craft beer on tap, Alewife in Baltimore also has awesome food. This is the Smoke Burger: 11 oz of ground ribeye, brisket, skirt, and filet topped with smoked Gouda, Gruyere, bacon, caramelized Cipollini onions, and chipotle aioli on a Brioche bun… and served with duck fat fries. It’s $15, but totally worth it. I’ve had it 4 out of the 5 times I’ve been to Alewife, definitely one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.

I was totally stoked to find Mast Brothers chocolate at French Broad Chocolate Lounge while in Asheville. The two brothers have a shop in Brooklyn NY where they make (from everything I've heard) super delicious craft chocolate. I bought 4 bars but haven't tried one yet.

Madagascar: cacao from Sambirano Valley in Madagascar, 72%

Venezuela: cacao from Ocumare de la Costa in Venezuela, 75%

Serrano Peppers: 70% Dominican Republic cacao with dried, stone ground Serrano peppers from Mexico

Black Truffles: 74% Dominican Republic cacao with black truffles from Italy and Trapani sea salt

The chocolate bars are also vegan and individually hand packaged.

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From Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York, Three Philosophers is a Belgian strong ale, or quadruple, married with kriek (cherry) lambic. It is 9.8% ABV. It pours reddish brown with a light head. You can immediately smell the cherry. The body is light and slightly viscous, with prickly carbonation. Flavors are dark fruit, vanilla, molasses, and a little caramel. The finish is dry and tart, but not overwhelmingly so. The yeastiness and cherry flavor will remind you of cherry pie. Actually, it's probably a good pairing for a slice of hot cherry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Recipe:
4 lbs of pork shoulder
sea salt
vegetable, canola, or other neutral cooking oil
water
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon chile powder
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
5 cloves of garlic, minced

Start with about 4 lbs of pork shoulder (1st photo). Cut the pork into slices about 1.5" thick and remove excess fat. Season all sides well with sea salt (2nd photo). Heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a pan and brown the meat on all sides (3rd photo). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once browned, remove the meat from the pan and place in a large braising or roasting pan (4th photo). Pour a cup of water into the pan you used to brown the meat and scrape the bits off the sides. Add the cinnamon stick, bay leaves, chile powders, cumin, and garlic and mix until blended thoroughly. Pour the mixture over the meat and add water until the meat is about 2/3 covered (5th photo). Braise in the over for 3-3.5 hours, turning the pork over every hour or so (I actually dropped the temperature to 300 about halfway through). Much of the liquid will evaporate and the pork will become so tender it will practically fall apart during the next step...

Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the meat to a plate (6th photo). Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves, strain the liquid into a bowl, and skim off as much fat as you can. When cool enough to handle, pull the meat apart into smaller pieces and return to the pan. Pour the remaining liquid back in (7th photo). Put back in the oven, raise temperature back to 350, and cook until the liquid evaporates and the pork is dark brown and crispy.

I got some avocado and lime (8th photo) and put the meat on a flower tortilla with onion and salsa verde (last photo).

Great success!!! I made this especially for Robin for her return from Paris.

I adapted this recipe (with just a few small alterations) from food is luv, who got it from David Lebovitz. Thank you very much!!! It was delicious!