Latino butchers in Queens slice out a niche market in meat

“Three cartoon pigs dance on a sign in the west window of La Risaralda, a Colombian meat market on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights. A mother pig in a frilly hat and her two children in button-down vests smile below the words “lechona tolimense,” the name of a Colombian roast suckling pig specialty, stuffed with seasoned rice and peas. Two butchers in white aprons hefted the real thing through the shop’s doorway on a recent Saturday. Its golden snout rested on the lip of the silver platter.

There are many ways to cook a whole pig, but lechona tolimense is the envy of the Latino culinary world. A Cuban food writer for the Miami Herald, who experienced the suckling pig during a visit to Queens, called it “an extreme pig from the land of magical realism” that “out-pigged” his country’s version.”

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