I’ve been wanting to experiment with braising pork cheeks for a while, so I was excited to see that my local Asian market in SF (largely Chinese/Filipino/Latin American clientele) carried them at a very reasonable price.
Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that what they sell as “pork cheek” in plastic bags is more like what Western butchers term pork jowls - whereas the photos I’ve seen of raw pork cheeks are very meaty, these have very little visible meat and a large amount of fat, with a very thick layer of skin covering one side. (I am almost positive that skin is what it is, as many of the pieces are marked with blue ink on that side - I think either from a USDA stamp or from some identifying mark used by the slaughterhouse.)
Do these places typically sell the cheek meat as well, and is there a specific way I need to request it?
