My friend is a butcher. She sent me a visual representation of the weight ive lost recently in pork belly form

These acts of generosity kept staying with me. Kept filling the void. Like with food—like that one miraculous Pret chicken parmesan wrap—when you take the time to savor the good, you simply need less of it.

Like pepper-dusted decorations, the lozenges the size of small loaves hanging in Italian salumerie or delis are guanciale, whole pig cheeks cured in salt. Look at a cross-section and you will see guanciale is mostly fat, streaked with pink meat. But what gorgeous, seasoned fat! That renders into sweet, rounded melted fat and a nugget of meat.