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    Ohio’s Own: Kim Chi Pork Rinds

    Between lo-carb diets and fancified treatments on menus in local restaurants, pork rinds are experiencing a bona fide heyday. Once a weird, niche, vaguely creepy snack, fried pig skin is now widely accepted as a cool munching option.

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    And so it was only a matter of time before the snack food industry started launching more refined, artisanal pork rind flavors for the snack’s expanding fan base. Enter Lima’s Rudolph Foods and its pork rind line up that now includes Pineapple Ancho Chili, Thai Style Curry, Cuban Mojo and the flavor du jour: Korean Kim Chi BBQ.

    All the house flavors are cooked in small batches. Health-wise, in both baked and fried versions, they’re all gluten free and trans-fat free, as the fried ones are cooked in sunflower oil. The aforementioned Korean Kim Chi BBQ flavor is amped up with garlic, vinegar (well, “vinegar solids”), and something exquisitely spicy in the pepper department. Just like regular Kim Chi.

    The outcome? The distinctive airy crackle that defines the rinds is punched up with a serious kick. It’s enough to make a muncher pause, but not stop eating the rinds.

    For what it’s worth, the packaging mentions that the Kim Chi BBQ version also has about half as much sodium as the house regular BBQ pork rinds.  All that fire replaces the saltiness that might otherwise be expected. We’ll call it a net gain in the flavor department.

    While the company’s website is short on its history, it does have a robust pork rind recipe section. It’s not sharing instructions on how to make pork rinds (after all, that’s what the company does), but rather, how to include rinds in recipes.  For example, they’re suggested as part of the crust in Hawaiian Style Low Carb Pizza, as a replacement for flour in waffle batter, or paired with bourbon bacon jam.

    Pig skin never looked so good. We found our flavors at Hills Market, but you can score them online too: southernrecipesmallbatch.com.

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    Miriam Bowers Abbott
    Miriam Bowers Abbotthttps://columbusunderground.com
    Miriam Bowers Abbott is a freelancer contributor to Columbus Underground who reviews restaurants, writes food-centric featurettes and occasionally pens other community journalism pieces.
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