Ahh, The Pleasures of Pork Belly

I don't remember my life before I discovered the fatty wonder of pork belly, but I must have had one. Now it's one of those menu items that immediately grabs my attention and causes me to plan the rest of my meal around it.

Phillip Denny from Philly is the new chef at Six Burner and he comes to rva with an impressive resume, including a stint at one of the top five DC restaurants (and, no, I'm not telling you which one. Go in and find out for yourself). He has the letters f-o-i-e and g-r-a-s tattooed on his knuckles; I mean, come on. But that's not the point. The point is his food.

Last night I started with the Cranberry Bean and Bacon soup with Chive Oil, which I can't recommend highly enough. I happen to love cranberry beans, but I'm not sure that's even a prerequisite. It's creamy with an appealing depth of flavor and, as we all know, everything's better with bacon.

Then came the star of the evening: Pork Belly, Pearl Barley, Glazed Carrot Puree, Swiss Chard and Pork Jus with every kind of deliciousness possible on that one plate: the fatty pork goodness of the belly, the addictive saltiness of the Swiss chard and pork jus, the nutty creaminess of the pearl barley and the sweetness of the glazed carrot puree. I didn't exactly lick the plate, but it was embarrassingly clean when Josh cleared it away.

I've said before that I don't know anything about food except what I like. But what Phillip does to a pork belly is a beautiful thing. You know, I must have had some sort of gustatory life before pork belly; can someone please remind me what it was?