The main ingredient in this dish is pork belly with skin. I started my search by assuming that any butcher would have it. Turns out, that is not the case. Mason and I drove to Andy's Meat Market in Colorado Springs, and the women at the meat counter informed me that they only sell pork belly withOUT skin. She sent me to a market called Carniceria Leonela. 

So, off we go to Leonela's. We park and Mason stays in the car with the dogs. Upon entering the building, I am overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people in this small store. The isles wind around the store in a confusing path, but eventually, I find the meat counter. I stand for 5 full minutes before I realize I have to take a number, and I end up asking a stranger for help. I realize pretty quickly that the workers are calling numbers in Spanish, and I wrack my brain for my high school Spanish class on numbers. Finally, they call my number. I get up to the counter, realize I don't know how to say pork in Spanish, and fumble until the kind workers realize what I want. At the end of the day, I got my skin-on pork belly AND a new experience. 

Everything else in the recipe was easy to get at our regular grocery store. Baby potatoes, parsley, lemon, asparagus, sauerkraut, milk, butter, cream, nutmeg. 

The recipe I used: https://www.foodtolove.co.nz/recipes/danish-stegt-flaesk-med-persillesovs-grilled-pork-belly-with-parsley-sauce-8613

The goal of the skin-on pork belly is to get crispy crunchy cracklin' on top! To get that, I had to salt the top rind, leave it uncovered in the fridge for two hours, and then wipe off all the beaded liquid the salt drew out. I did that three times the night before, and then I left the meat uncovered in the fridge overnight. 

I set the meat on the counter for an hour to bring it down to room temperature before I rubbed a lemon on it and put it in the oven at 475 for 25 minutes. Then, I turned down the heat to 325, set a timer for an hour and a half, and sat down to watch Sunday night football with Mason. When the meat got close to being done, I boiled little baby potatoes until tender. While the potatoes boiled, I added the asparagus to the oven with the pork. Finally, it was time for the sauce. It was a basic white sauce, or bechamel, with butter, flour, and milk. I added parsley, nutmeg, heavy cream, and salt/pepper.  

The meat came out of the oven in a cloud of delicious steam. It rested for 10 minutes before Mason cut it into 8 pieces.... well, he tried. The skin was so thick that it was difficult to cut. We added the potatoes to the plate with the asparagus, piled on the meat, and poured the sauce on top. We served it with some mild sauerkraut. 

Honestly, the meat was delicious, but the skin was too thick. I swear I thought I was going to chip a tooth eating parts of it. But, when I ate a piece that was the correct thickness, it was absolutely stunning. The sauce was on the sweet side.... because I maaay have put too much nutmeg. Either way, it was still pretty good over the potatoes, and it was actually really good over the meat. They worked well together. A piece of meat, a little scoop of kraut, and some sauce married together in my mouth. It was tasty, but we both think it's not worth the absurd amount of effort it took to make. I'd order it in a restaurant, but I'll never make it again. 

I would say 3/5. Mason says 2.5/5.

Denmark is a country in Northern Europe. It is mostly gentle hills near long stretches of coast. Glaciers carved Denmark's exquisite coastline, and no place in the country is more than 32 miles from the sea. Early in its history, Vikings and other conquerers roamed the land. Ironically, the country found itself conquered by German occupation during WWII. After gaining its freedom from Germany, Denmark rebuilt itself into a Constitutional Monarchy. Currently, Denmark is a highly developed nation that participates in both the UN and NATO.