A South Philly Style Asado

Whatever you call it, cooking meat on an outdoor grill is the best. Argentina is famous for its barbeques, or parrillas (say, puh-REE-juh). The best one I had when we visited Buenos Aires last year was outside on a patio in the middle of San Telmo. Dudes were serving up chorizo sausages on a bun (Choripan!) along side other slabs of roasting pig and cow pieces. Mmmm!

Well South Philly has its own way of charring up pork. We don't let tiny, concrete "backyards" stop us from setting up spit. This weekend, our friends Eric and Megan hosted their second annual pig roast. The star: a 65 pound girl with feet, tail, and snout in tact. They built the spit out of cinder blocks and kept hot coals going down inside it. The pig was splayed out and held between two racks made of metal piping. Miss Piggy was attached at the hooves with metal zip ties. She was flipped once an hour and coated in homemade chimichurri sauce. We could smell her throughout the house as we enjoyed every kind of typical, American side dish; potato salad, mac n' cheese, kale and beet salad, chips and salsa, local beer, and red velvet cupcakes! South Philly's very own asado!