Platter of Figs: Give me a pound of listeners

Butchers are great. How bored they must get, endlessly parceling out ground sirloin and boning chicken breasts when they have this amazing arcane knowledge of bellies and trotters and livers and cheeks. Whenever I make a strange request they seem positively exhilarated by the challenge. One of my fears is that all the butchers will disappear and we'll be forced to buy our meat from the refrigerator case at Safeway. This is such a depressing thought that I have just this instant made a resolution to henceforth only buy meat from a human butcher.

So, I just phoned the butcher shop at Mill Valley Market, where I have successfully acquired weird animal parts in the past. I requested pig ears and had to say the words twice, enunciating carefully: PIG EARS. 

Admittedly, it was tempting to ignore David Tanis' recipe for pig ear salad with herb vinaigrette, but what am I, a quitter? Squeamish?

 

It turns out that Mill Valley Market's meat supplier does not supply pig ears. Butcher Mark is exploring other avenues. "Let's not give up," he said. "Call me tomorrow morning. I have an idea."

And I have an ally.