February 24, 2009 | Story
Ryan Farr got hooked on chicharrones when he moved to the Mission district. “I used to buy them at the bodegas. Add hot sauce and lime to the bag and shake them all together—so good,” he says. The experience launched Farr on a mission of his own, and he's spent the last five years perfecting his own recipe for fried pork skins. He used them to garnish a dish of pork and clams when he worked in the kitchen at Fifth Floor, and his chicharrones later appeared on the charcuterie plate at Orson, where he cooked until last August. These days, he's producing them under the label 4505 Meats, and he has plans to distribute the ridiculously good pork rinds at bars throughout the city. Currently available at Elixir, these seriously salty snacks pack a spicy wallop and are made with pork from Devil's Gulch Ranch and Niman Ranch and chilies from Tierra Vegetables. But how does Farr get them to be so impossibly light? “That's a secret I'll take to my grave,” he says. Elixir: 3200 165th St., S.F., 415-552-1633; 4505meats.com
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