The folks at the Blind Butcher laminated a new menu recently, adding a number of options for beer drinkers stumbling around Lower Greenville Avenue. Not to worry, the same meaty theme is in full effect, there's just a few new items to round out the menu and close off your arteries.
Let's start with a dish that makes use of tripe and a pig's tail. I'd have included a picture, but it just didn't seem like the responsible thing to do (a combination of low lighting and jiggling pork fat made for a most gratuitous image) but if you venture out and order the dish on your own, here's what you'll see:
The dish is filled with thin strips of tripe, most with visible honeycomb running along one side. The strips are fried to a crisp, reminiscent of the pig's ears that have been served here since the Blind Butcher first opened. They're crisp, a little chewy and laced with a spicy funk that can be attributed to kimchi, according to my waitress. If you're on the fence about tripe, this could be a dish to convert you.
As for the tails, there are four of five of them piled on top of the dish. The fat is glistening and jiggles, but if you explore a little with your fork you'll find a strip of tender, succulent meat hidden away. No, the tails don't arrive in curly q's, but yes, they're laced with Sriracha heat and taste reminiscent of sweet Chinese food.
Then there's the spaetzle pictured above. It's tossed with duck meat and served quite simply -- you could eat this stuff for days. There's also cornish pasties and a shepherd's pie lurking about to pad out a menu that's well-suited for the coming colder days. You unboxed those sweaters recently, didn't you? The larger ones could hide your winter transgressions. Start with the spaetzel and branch out from there. Weather be damned, this is going to be a very cozy season.
