The dish features a cut of meat that is not user friendly in its complexity. That is to say, there are many bones to chew here. This is a good thing if the long and slow cooking included spices and peppers that leave you simmering, not scorched; heat that leaves you wanting more. The chunks of sweet potato, not yam, add richness to the sauce and the dish is presented on a bed of kale. The sweet flavors of the meat, the simmer of the spices, richness of the potato and the bitter kale are a complex but highly entertaining combination of flavors.
The beverage most suited to enhancing the flavors of the dish in concert, and showing off a bit itself was an obvious choice of the barman and myself… Brown Shugga from Lagunitis Brewing Company.
Brown Shugga offers a lush rich roasted, almost “brown sugar” base flavor with only a touch of tang from the bittering hops made even toastier by about 9% alcohol by volume. These flavors complement and refresh the sweet and spice of the dish. The refreshing cool brew, rich and warming at the same time meets the luscious heat of the dish and good things happen. The relatively high alcohol content meets the simmering peppers and both are rendered too tame for safety. Distracted by the selection of tap handles I never got to order a second serving. I would have…
