Pizza Ribs

The spare ribs of Fiorino are served with an enormous piece of pizza bread. Why would anyone come up with such a ridiculous idea is beyond me, because the only outcome of it is a lot of wasted bread. The ribs themselves are big, oily and heavy enough to leave no space in the stomach, while the bread, while warm and fresh, does nothing but reduce the appetite.

Perhaps the purpose of the bread was to provide some exercise to my jaw muscles, because the ribs hardly required any chewing efforts. One can effectively chew them without having any teeth left. Fiorino obviously slowly cooks them for so long that the result is pulled pork with bones. Moreover, the meat detaches from the bones so quickly and easily that one can literally shake it off. If, like me, you prefer your encounter with spare ribs to have an element of fight, you will be disappointed at how nonresistant these ribs are.

In addition to having the texture of pulled pork, Fiorino’s ribs also taste quite a lot like pulled pork, albeit a very well marinated one. It is the subtle spices and the homemade piquant sauce that make these spare ribs worthy of an above-average rating. I wish that the marinade tasted less of black pepper and that the restaurant provided a couple of different sauces instead of one, but still it is clear that some love and skill went into the preparation of the dish, and this is more than most other restaurants can boast of.

Several other types of ribs, including very spicy and garlicky ones, are available at Fiorino and I might try them one day. At the time of this writing, however, with my stomach full and complaining, I would rather think of green salad and cucumbers than pork. Especially pork with bread.