The East Village and Chinatown Battle for Pork Supremacy

A Mexican taqueria and Chinese over-rice cafe offer nose-to-tail eating

Tongue, brain, shank, and jowl tacos, with skin on top at Carnitas Ramirez

As the crow flies, only two-thirds of a mile separate Carnitas Ramirez, at 210 East Third Street in the East Village, and Longjiang Pork Feet Rice, at 121 Mott Street in the heart of Chinatown. Yet their menus are so strikingly similar, you might wonder if one inspired the other, though their points of origin are on opposite sides of the world: Michoacán, Mexico, and Longjiang in west-central Guangdong, an area associated with the Zhuang people, a Chinese minority group. Both places mainly restrict their menus to pork with the sort of comprehensive selection described by Fergus Henderson as “nose-to-tail eating” in his book The Whole Beast.

Above: Carnitas Ramirez in the East Village followed by Longjiang Pork Feet Rice in Chinatown

The Wednesday-to-Sunday experience at Carnitas Ramirez

In its small interior, seating at Carnitas Ramirez is on plastic plaster buckets arranged along the front window, and by a counter that peers into the prep area. An outline of a pig is chalked on a big mirror, with the various pig parts identified in Spanish and English. This panoply is repeated, with daily adjustments, on the glassed-in case where the pig parts reside —gleaming in shades of chestnut, bronze, and umber.

A daily selection of pig parts at Carnitas Ramirez

On a recent visit (it’s only open Wednesday to Sunday starting at noon), the choices included barriga (belly with skin), buche (stomach), cachet (cheek), chamorro (shank), cuero (skin), costilla (ribs), lengua (tongue), maciza (butt), nana (uterus), oreja (ear), papada (jowl), rabo (tail), and trompa (snout). Each has a unique texture: The snout is pleasantly gelatinous and notably unmeaty; the tongue appropriately rubbery; the ear only slightly crunchy but satisfying; the jowl fatty but also meaty, begging comparison to its cousin Italian guanciale; and the cheek and butt most similar to the carnitas found in regular taquerias around town.

Snout and jowl tacos at Carnitas Ramirez

Meats are chopped ostentatiously on a wooden block, then deposited in tortillas. Recently, the place started making its own corn tortillas, which upped the deliciousness considerably. The tacos are $5 each, and include garnishes to add from a sideboard selection of homemade red and green salsas, vinegary canned jalapenos, lime wedges, and a wonderful pickled slaw that tastes of Mexican oregano.

Presiding over the collection of offal at Longjiang Pork Feet Rice

A similar menu with pork over-rice in Chinatown

A 15-minute walk to the southwest, you’ll find yourself at Longjiang Pork Feet Rice, with an interior about the same size and a similar layout to Carnitas Ramirez. The focal point is a glass case with the pig parts laid out in a methodical fashion. Once again, point at the pig parts you want. As you watch, an employee will chop the meats and then spread them over rice with a spoonful or two of dark sweet braising liquid. The choice of pig parts runs to eight or so, but the emphasis on what is served is somewhat different. Here, the cut called “pig leg” includes several different parts among those found at the taqueria, such as shank, trotter, and butt.

There’s also intestine, ear, head meat (an omnibus category featuring cheek and snout), sausage (presumably made with leftover offal), and curly tail. While Carnitas Ramirez avoids intestine and tripe, it’s available here. Lonjiang Pork Feet Rice also emphasizes pork feet, as the name says, and that — along with pork leg — are its most prominent offerings: both feature glistening wobbly skin, and, presumably, plenty of skin-revivifying collagen.

A serving of pig leg over rice also gets you a cup of broth, a tea-boiled egg, and pickled cabbage.

Any of these things over rice is $11 or $12, or you can get a deluxe version for a couple of dollars more that includes fried tofu and assorted other goodies at the whim of the chopper. Most everything is on display in the glass case. Longjiang Pork Feet Rice also peddles a sideline of duck, goose, and beef brisket, but these are far less prominent than the pork.

How did two places from such far-flung locales end up with similar menus? It’s just another example of culinary coincidence — lightning striking twice in the same place, if you will — the result of communities in Jalisco and Longjiang having access to pork and a population that appreciates offal.