The bird is NOT the word here, as this unholy matrimony of roast pork belly and mussels is all about when porcine met mollusk. Yes I know, Crispy Pork Belly & Mussels? The name alone is crazy enough, but follow me down the rabbit hole and you’ll see how deep this goes.

The mussels are just standard issue mollusks straight out of the shell, nothing special really. The crispy pork belly, on the other hand, was deliciously decent even on its lonesome. Sure, the rind could’ve been a lot crispier, but the juiciness of the superbly seasoned meat and the tantalizingly well cooked lard made the pork belly stand out.

However, the thing that manages to seamlessly fuse the two elements together isn’t black magic. It’s a sweet & sour black tamari sauce, as I have been reliably informed by alittle tashi themselves. That sourness works well to cut through the admittedly negligible brininess from the mussels, as well as the fatty richness of the pork belly. Seafood excels when paired with sweetness, and the mussels really shone with that hint of sweetness, and so did the pork belly.

It’s a daring dish, and it’s true, who dares wins. This dish was one of the two outstanding dishes that night, but I still can’t help but think that at $30++ for a plate, this was overpriced. Fortunately, with #BurppleBeyond, we did get another dish free with this baby, so it made that $30 oh so absolutely worth it.