The Ingredient Hunt

It all starts with a recipe. In this case it would be the tonkotsu broth from norecipes.com.  I have to say, there's nothing I like more than an ingredient scavenger hunt. It's not so much a function of the chase as much as it is learning where to find this stuff.

The recipe calls for 2# of pork leg bone cut into mulitple pieces, 1.5# of chicken bones, and 2 trotters cut in half. 

Let's start with the leg bones cut into multiple pieces. A call around numerous butchers in the Cleveland area yielded jack squat. Since I was heading out to Miles Farmers Market I figured I'd give it a shot. As luck would have it, Bo at the meat counter said he was going to have some ham bones ready in a few hours. News to me. You want pork leg bones? Ask for ham bones. BAM!!! One down.

Trotters (pigs feet) cut in half are actually pretty easy to find. I went with D&R Meats in Maple Heights simply because it was in the general vicinity to Miles Market. BAM!!! BAM!!! That's two down. 

The recipe calls for chicken bones, which I could have easily broken down a whole chicken, but I wanted to actually use chicken feet simply because I think the broth will benefit from the collagen in the feet than it would marrow in the bones.

By this time it was 7:00 o'clock and the butcher shops were closed. My options were dwindling when I realized....duh.....where does one buy ingredients for an Asian dish? An Asian market! I stopped over at CAM Asian Market over by the now desolate Randall Park Mall. BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!! That's three up, three down.

I was hoping they had a couple of pork cheeks for chashu, but the butcher told me they had sold out this afternoon. I've got enough to get my broth rolling, but tomorrow's will be another hunt....