The Salty Pig
130 Dartmouth St
Boston, MA 02116
617-536-6200
http://www.thesaltypig.com

What I ate:
Meats: Speck, Alto Adige, IT, (Cured, Smoked, Aged Pork), Porchetta, Langhirano, (Wood-Oven Fired Pork Shoulder)
Cheese: Gouda & Goat (I forget the names!)
Jams: Balsamic Onion Jam, Fig Jam
Pizza: The Tony Rocco Pizza, (Spicy SP Sausage, Onion, Tomato, Ricotta, Mozzarella)
Drink: Red wine

What does a Dietitian eat at a restaurant named the Salty Pig? This RD didn’t hold back and no bacon was involved! I’ve been meaning to check out this restaurant for a while. It’s located in my old neighborhood and it opened this past summer. It’s such a great space – much bigger than I thought it would be, very comfortable seating and great tunes. We were treated to a fun selection of Motown music all night! I was a little intimidated looking at the menu ahead of time online…I’m definitely not a stinky cheese connoisseur. Ok, so full disclosure – I love all types of food and sometimes I like to forget my RD initials at home when I go out to eat. However, I know I have to be extra careful this time of year. From November 1st through New Years, there are a lot of celebratory occasions in my life. Beyond the usual holidays, most of my family and close friends entered the world in November so I’m never too far away from birthday cake or a wine list of some sort. My approach to staying healthy through this time of year is to try to be careful with my decisions when I’m out to eat and try to get to the gym as often as I can.

Ok, back to the hog…knowing that I would probably be eating a rich meal at The Salty Pig, I made sure that I went to the gym that day and had a lighter lunch, consisting of a salad with grilled chicken. I went here with two of my close friends from my hometown. Our waitress was very helpful in making suggestions for which meats and cheese to select. Our “strategy” for ordering was to try to order two types of dried meats, two cheeses, and two different jams – split between the three of us. Our meats and cheeses came out first (pictured above) and were delightful – so much flavor to experience in each small bite. Our jams paired very nicely with the cheese. I loved the spicy mustard we had with our meats. The Gouda cheese was my favorite and I probably could have eaten a whole plate of that but I kept myself to about 3-4 small pieces knowing we had more food coming. We also ordered one pizza for the table. It was so good that by the time I remembered to take a picture, it was gone! Not too much cheese, thin crust, wood grilled – so yummy! This meal was definitely a treat, but I didn’t feel like I overindulged given my portion control. Was this a healthy dinner? Not exactly…but given that the foods weren’t the most nutrient dense I tried to be really mindful of how much I was eating.

I’m very interested in coming back to the Salty Pig and trying out some of their salads and other main dishes. I’d definitely give this place my endorsement – Cheese Lover, RD.