Many chefs still crown the belly as their favorite cut, but it’s been popular for so long now. When pressed to name the next big thing in pork, Chang wouldn’t say anything definitively (“I like the whole hog equally”). Mario Batali, in a rushed email, wrote: “Neck and jowl/cheek. [Both have an] incredible, rich and deep flavor.” Dan Barber of Blue Hill seconded Batali’s offal bet, and Casella puts his money on the shank: “because they’re nice and they’re the right price.” And Peter Hoffman predicts that “more and more people are going to be doing their own curing.”

In the age of haute pork, many places now produce fantastic chops (The Little Owl comes to mind). But there was something singular about the Stonewall chop at Maremma. Seasoned with salt and pepper, Cesera Casella’s heritage hybrid was insanely tender and bursting with juicy pork flavor. One bite and you felt you were on the Thanksgiving Farm where the pig was raised, tasting the grasses, vegetables and grains it feasted on throughout its pampered life. Heritage Foods USA also sells the Stonewall to ‘ino, The Cleaver Company, Lupa, The Tasting Room, ’Cesca, Gramercy Tavern, Del Posto, 5 Ninth and WD~50.

As much as it pains me to crown such hoity-toity ’cue, Blue Smoke’s pulled pork sandwich is the city’s best rendition of this Southern staple. Unlike the sandwiches at RUB and Dinosaur, the smoke didn’t dominate the flavor, nor did the sauce—the one downfall of Daisy May’s (a close second). Instead, it was a complex mix of spices, smoke and a feather-light slather of sauce on a toasted, buttered bun.

“Pork is the most maligned meat,” says J. Slab, whose name has been withheld to protect his job. So he uses The Porkchop Express (porkchop-express.blogspot.com) to praise it properly. His favorite pork in NYC includes: smoked ribs from the Sikorski Meat Market in Greenpoint, Prosciutto di Parma from Di Palo on Grand Street, pork tenderloin from Flying Pigs Farm (at the Union Sq. and Prospect Park Greenmarkets), Black Forest bacon from Schaller & Webber in Astoria and the banh mi from Saigon Banh Mi.

Eileene Yin-Fei Lo takes her classes at the New School on field trips to the Siu Cheong Meat at 89 Mulberry St., where you can find roast pork, dim sum to-go or ready to wrap at home.

Both China and Canada are commemorating the Chinese New Year with pig stamps. China’s are way cooler (they’re scratch and sniff), but Canada’s are much easier to get. Call 800-565-4632 (it works from the States) and charge a pack of 25 ($13 CAD) to your credit card.

No joke: lard is prized by pastry chefs, and you can’t make an authentic carnitas taco without it. And since it has both saturated and monounsaturated fats (aka the good fats), there are people—like Nina Planck, director of the Real Food farmer’s markets—who insist it’s no worse than butter. Flying Pigs Farm offers both the leaf lard for making pastry and 2-inch thick back fat—which, when rendered, ratchets up the flavor of everything from black beans to biscuits.

Gotcha! If only he would give it up. When asked to divulge the goods on the best pork bun in New York, he said, simply, “Uh-uh.” As a consolation prize, here’s his version of the Momofuku Braised Pork Belly :

First, acquire the pig. Since you can’t actually buy a heritage suckling pig (selling one young just isn’t fiscally responsible), Jen Small suggests roasting whole shoulders or legs, which at roughly 15 pounds, equals a baby pig. Then, buy a Caja China (online at lacajachina.com). Yes it’s pricey (the smallest one costs $205), but the roasting box, built by a Cubano who knows his pork, will not only cut the cooking time down to a few hours, it won’t break any fire codes. Plus it comes with failsafe instructions. (For a marinade recipe Peter Hoffman used for his birthday pig roast, visit nosetotail.blogspot.com.)

Of all the ethnic pork dishes I could have singled out for scrutiny—pernil for instance, or jerk pork—the carnitas taco stands out for its porkiness. The classic preparation calls for simmering a shoulder in water until the water evaporates and the meat is left to crisp in its own fat. Tacquerias then shred or chop the pork and fry it some more, which makes it extremely difficult to spend a week sampling these instant heart attacks in an attempt to crown one the winner. But after two trips to Roosevelt Ave., a trek to Sunset Park, a taco stand at 96th and Broadway, a tortilleria in Bushwick, plus the acquired taste memory of multiple Brooklyn bodegas and tacos eaten at haute Mexi spots like Bonita, only one stood out for its juicy, crackled pork: Tehuitzingo Mexican Deli at 10th Ave. and W. 47th St. (212-397-5956). Unlike every other taco, there were no hunks of fat to pick out, and rather than soft cubes of often tasteless pork, Tehuitzingo’s boasted crunchy bits of shredded shoulder full of fat-laced flavor. The salsa verde and onion-cilantro garnish could have been fresher, but Tehuitzingo was the only fried pork taco with no false advertising.

Elizabeth Karmel is on a mission to get people to “embrace barbecue with something else than beer.” In addition to teaching the Authentic Southern BBQ class at the Institute of Culinary Education, the North Carolinian author of Taming the Grill is now teaching a “Swine and Wine” course on Feb. 24 at ICE. Her pork pairing pointers: A light red, she says, works well with most cuts, sparkling rosés compliment the smoky saltiness of bacon and zinfandels are perfect partners for pulled pork and ribs.