Unbelievable, succulent and completely decadent are some words to describe the absolutely over the top delicious pork belly I ate last night at a  friends dinner party last night.

As a confessed “pork-ahalic”, I love almost all forms of swine, especially those forms that resemble bacon (I draw the line at my dogs Beggin Strips). Pork Belly is the meat that is derived from the belly of a pig. It is commonly used in America to make bacon. In the past few years more and more top chefs have been serving Pork Belly on their menus often referring to it as fresh bacon – a name a little less graphic than Pork Belly. When it is cooked right, the excess fat renders out and you are left with layers of soft flavorful meat melded together with layers of soft mouth-watering melt in your mouth fat … yuuuuummmmmy.

Pork Belly is such an important staple (We need our bacon!) that it and its futures have been traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange since 1961. This meat is not to confused with the political term Pork Barrel Spending. The latter is a derogatory term referring to the appropriation of government spending for a localized project secured primarily to bring money to his/her district.

As my hosts are readers of my blog, they were extremely courteous in offering carb-free or low carb dishes at the soiree. We started off the evening with cocktails and fresh stone crab claws (zero carbs).

My favorite summertime low carb cocktail is vodka with diet tonic water on the rocks. In fact Diet Tonic Water is one of the best inventions since sliced bacon. The slightly bitter and mildly sweet carbonated tonic mixed with a splash of orange juice and/or vodka makes a remarkably tasty, refreshing and low carb cocktail.

Just when I thought I was in the clear, one of my hosts breaks out the rolling-pin. I innocently asked “What are you going to do with that”  motioning to the wooden pin as he then proceeded to bring out the dreaded white flour from the cupboard. My host proudly informed me that he was making home-made tortillas. I knew I was in trouble. Tortillas contain flour. Flour contains carbs. That pork belly dinner was gonna end up on my belly!

I quickly retreated to their huge terrace and downed a few more cocktails trying to reason with myself. I figured OK, I will cheat this one time. The whole purpose of the “I Love Food Diet”  is to eat what you want, whenever you want and as much as you want. Life is too short to deny yourself life’s gastronomic pleasures. 

When dinner was served, I was ready. I was gonna dig in and worry about tomorrow’s scale tomorrow. I was gonna live in the moment.  I was going to take Eckert Tolle’s – bestselling author of “The Power of Now” advice and  “live in the now”.

The first bite of my pork belly (aka – fresh bacon) was a perfect pas de deux between the delicacy of the meat, and the lusciousness of  the rendered fat.  The home-made tortillas were unbelievable. Maybe it’s because I’ve been flour deprived but I was literally in ecstasy over these warm, slightly chewy, and delicious mexican flat breads. I did, however manage to restrain myself after the 2nd tortilla, pushing my plate away from my sight of vision.

The meal was accompanied by a beautiful salad of fresh heirloom tomatoes and slices of corn on the cob. My lovely host called it a “simple salad” . It was absolutely delicious, although I question the “simpleness” of corn on the cob in a salad. As my fellow guests were all very good friends of mine, I fearlessly gnawed on the cob uncaring about the ubiquitous corn stuck-in- teeth problem, that usually accompanies corn on the cob.

Last night was wonderful. I was happy, slightly tipsy and pleasantly full. 

This morning after I timidly stepped on the scale I was SHOCKED  to discover that I continue to lose weight!!! I kid you not. I mimicked my son and literally stepped off the scale, rubbed my eyes, and re-weighed myself. Yep. I lost weight.

I think I am on to something here. I am literally eating myself skinny. I love the “I Love Food Diet” and so should you. 🙂

Chow for now!