In back rooms of Chinese restaurants across the San Gabriel Valley, families and friends hold banquets on a nightly basis. Organizers often negotiate menus weeks or months in advance to honor birthdays, anniversaries, marriages and more. At Elite Restaurant in Monterey Park, which is best known for dim sum, I’ve now enjoyed multiple Cantonese style feasts in their private dining rooms. Sunday was my first time trying their porcine specialty: suckling pig!

All of the pig’s prized organs were mysteriously missing. What did Elite Restaurant do with the liver, kidney and surrounding offal? Hopefully they found homes on plates or in bowls. Instead of having LAPD detectives unlock the internal riddle, I started dismantling the remaining half (hooves included). The animal sported crispy skin and featured a grid of deep slices, which made it easy to pluck from the bed of seaweed salad. Accompaniments consisted of thin-shaved scallions, savory hoisin, and sugar, all designed to join the pig meat in steamed clamshell buns. I steered clear of sugar, since the juicy roast pork already had enough natural sweetness. As I expected from a young pig that was still nursing, the meat was also plenty tender. Truly banquet worthy.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.