Swine flu may be preventing Hugh Jackman from promoting X-Men Origins: Wolverine in Mexico City, but the virus won’t stop Sunday’s Pork Off at the Loki Lounge in Brooklyn from happening. Although Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has released a statement stating “you cannot get H1N1 flu from eating pork or pork products,” the pork industry is nonetheless taking a beating. On the restaurant front, Grub Street reports that Zarela Martinez of the Mexican restaurant Zarela has experienced a steep drop in business, and elsewhere, pork belly stock is down.
Regarding this Sunday’s Pork Off—a benefit event for survivors of toxic waste in the Philippines—organizer Laurel Fantauzzo told us that “it’s unfortunate that an ominously-themed disease struck just days before this charity event, but I hope people's love for the well-cooked hog will win out in the end. I hope carnivorous folks will still come out to support the charity and eat some good food.”
It’s too soon to tell whether swine flu will affect the city’s largest, extremely busy pork-themed event, the Big Apple Barbecue, scheduled June 13-14. Robert Sietsema at the Village Voice has handicapped the just-announced roster of this year’s fourteen barbecue contestants.
