Egg and Bacon Pie and memories of a Milk Bar

When I was a Uni student in Melbourne I lived an an apartment that had a Milk Bar nearby - less than a 100 metres away. This Milk Bar was our stop whenever milk ran out(obviously) or bread, for a quick chocolate fix or snack. Even for a can of corned beef or when we had run out of something like tomato sauce. The milk bar was also a 'saviour' whenever we wanted a quick meal and that was usually a four and twenty meat pie with loads of tomato sauce squeezed into the pie. Joe and Claudette, the proprietors of this milk bar, served up another fancy pie that I absolutely loved - Egg and Bacon Pie. Joe and Claudette orginated from Lebanon and since I lived in that apartment for more than 3 years, we became good friends. They would know what I wanted based on what time of the day it was. If I sauntered in at around dinner time, Joe would welcome me before asking "Meat Pie or Egg and Bacon mate?"

Carnitas or Pulled Pork in a Cubano/Sandwhich/whatever

This was made way back in February 2015 but I'm only posting it now. Better late than never right!

For a number of weeks now, my son has been asking if I could make Pulled Pork. We had tried the pulled pork burger in a kids meal when we had taken my inlaws out for dinner almost a year ago at Morgansfields. So over the weekend, I decided I would make some pulled pork!

At first I thought of just making my usual Pork Roast as the meat is so tender that I always serve it 'pulled' anyway. However, I thought I'd take the route of making a real pulled pork where the meat is served in a bowl - pulled away and ready to eat. Also, I figured I would slow cook the meat, kind of like braising it, so that it would absorb the juices and make it more tasty and flavourful.

While looking for inspiration on the web, I came across Carnitas - which basically means "little meats," and is a dish of Mexican origin. Carnitas are made by braising or simmering pork in oil or lard until tender. That caught my eye and I decided to combine a few recipes to make pulled pork simmered in beer and orange juice and also chillis for a bit of spice. So a variation of Carnitas it was.

Then came the decision of what to serve the pulled pork with. Fist thing that popped to my mind was a pulled pork burger. Then I thought of Cubanos! You see, A few weeks ago, we sat down as a family and watched Chef - the movie where a chef leaves his restaurant and starts up a food truck selling Cubanos. The kids seemed to think the Cubanos looked really good and I thought that was the end of it.

However, a recent trip to Fridays triggered their memory of Cubanos as it was on the menu. I mentioned that it didnt look very good though and thats when my little princess asked if I could maybe make it one day.

So with that request in mind, I decided I would make Cubanos.

So on Saturday, my little princess followed me to drop Michael off at band practice. Then we popped into the supermarket at Bangsar Village to get some pork shoulder - without the skin, together with lettuce and nice ripe tomatoes. My princess asked why I was getting Tomatoes and Lettuce and I explained they were for the Cubanos. "But Cubanos dont have lettuce and tomatoes Dads." She remarked. "So you're not really making Cubanos then...."