Pigs do fly in Charlotte

Last summer, food writer John T Edge came through working on a story about Charlotte for Garden & Gun magazine. I took him around several places to get a taste of what's happening around here these days.

We started his trip with a quick lunch meetup at the Diamond, where I remember tucking into the hot pimento cheese dip. And a plate of . . . "hey, John T -- does that menu really say 'pig wings?'"

Indeed it did. They turned out to be little bones with a nub of tender white meat on one end. And we enjoyed them very much. Later in his trip, he alerted me to another pig wing sighting at Mac Speedshop.

Edge does get around. And apparently, he has since found pig wings in a lot of other places around the country. He also found a story in this week's New York Times food section, about the pig wing phenomenon (remember the Times only gives you limited downloads for free). It includes Mac's, although not the Diamond.

I'd love to play with cooking pig's wings, but I haven't seen them for sale in supermarkets. If you have a source for them, let me know.

Photo: Culinate.com