Chicago Eats - The Purple Pig

Late summer, I went to the Purple Pig for lunch with a few coworkers. One coworker does not like pork, and thus I'm confused as to why she actually went with us to a place called "The Purple Pig." Anyways, onto the meal:

Pig's ear with crispy kale and fried egg

This was pretty interesting, and they definitely like their fried egg here. The pig ear was chewier than I expected, and left a greasy taste in my mouth. The fried kale was fine...although I feel like that's just too much fried "stuff" in a bowl. Never thought I'd say that. Overall, a mediocre dish that I probably won't get again.

"JLT" - pig jowel with fried egg, lettuce, tomato

Where people may refer to a good pork belly as being roughly half meat, half fat (with it leaning toward a higher percentage of fat), pig jowels (basically the face/cheek meat) is probably 90% fat, 10% meat. I was told this would be better than pork belly. It is not. Don't get me wrong, it tasted fine...for the first bite. But I was definitely overwhelmed by the amount of fat. A little too rich for me.

Milk-braised pork shoulder

Juicy pork shoulder, and fork-tender. I wasn't impressed by the sauce, and tried to get at the middle of the pork shoulder to get pure, untainted meat, which was awesome.

Beets w/whipped goat cheese and pistachio

Strangely enough, this was one of my favorite dishes of the day. Who woulda thought, beets? No complaints, this was a good pairing of beet and goat cheese, and it was good to eat something that wasn't all oil and grease.

Proscuitto bread balls

I remember these as having very little flavor overall. I might have also been fried-food'd out by this time of the meal. Next time - less fried foods.