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Daily Dish

Tokyo X

By Betty HallockDeputy Food Editor 
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What is “Tokyo X”? It sounds like it could be the title of a Nobuyoshi Araki photo or a sequel to “The Fast and the Furious,” but it’s pork. The kind I always order at Park’s BBQ in Koreatown. Big, fat slabs of Tokyo X pork belly that sizzle and sputter when they hit the hot grill.

Tokyo X is a hybrid of Beijing Black pigs, English Berkshire and Duroc, first registered as a breed in Japan (where breeds such as Kurobuta and Super Golden are also popular) by the Tokyo Metropolitan Livestock Experiment Station as part of an effort to promote stock farming on the outskirts of Tokyo. It’s got plenty of marbling, so it’s tender and juicy and tasty.

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At Park’s, it’s on the menu two ways, with or without the marinade. I opt for the marinated Tokyo X. Washed down with some cold Hite beer, it’s fantastic.

Park’s BBQ, 955 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 380-1717.

-- Betty Hallock

Daily Dish
Betty Hallock

Betty Hallock is deputy Food editor at the Los Angeles Times. She has co-written four cookbooks, including “Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles,” “Amá: A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen” and “Baking at République.” She started her journalism career at the Wall Street Journal and Scientific American in New York, worked on the L.A. Times’ Business desk, and was interim food editor at Los Angeles Magazine. Hallock also helped launch a food and nutrition vertical for wellness app RoundGlass. She’s a graduate of UCLA and New York University.

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