Many, many years ago, an 18-year-old Canadian boy came to Mexico for the summer. He had learned that by spending six weeks with a family in this faraway foreign land, he would receive a university credit in Spanish.

He had dreamed that the Mexican family would, like the pictures in the brochure, live on a white sandy beach somewhere and, like one particular picture in the brochure, would have a daughter with a waist he could encircle with his hands and the longest of Latin legs. Instead, the family lived on a brown, muddy farm somewhere and had a fat pig with only three legs.

It took almost the full six weeks but finally the boy felt confident enough with his Spanish to ask his host about the three-legged pig.

“That’s an amazing pig”, said the farmer. “Last year, a spark from the fireplace set the house on fire and the pig woke us all up and saved every one of our lives.”

“Then, this Spring”, the farmer went on, “right after the heavy rains, little Jose Luis fell into our pond and the amazing pig heard his screams, jumped in and dragged him to the shore.”

“But I was wondering”, said the boy, “why does the pig only have three legs?”

“Well”, said the farmer, “A pig that amazing you wouldn’t want to eat all at once.”

Don Day ate an amazing Mexican pig’s leg this week. It was amazing, not because it had helped save any lives, but because the leg had been smoked.

Where Don Day spends the greater part of his life, in Toronto, pig’s legs are about as common as hen’s teeth. Don Day’s Canadian butcher doesn’t even sell them. And Don Day never sees them on a supermarket shelf. So they are always a can’t-wait-to-get-there delicacy each winter in San Miguel de Allende.

Mexicans just seem to have a greater appreciation for the rich taste and tender texture of pork shanks. Every Mexican butcher stocks them and the shank is often the choice cut of Mexican restaurants. The last two times Don Day has had a pork dish at San Miguel’s Sabores y Salsas restaurant, once accompanied by a wonderful coffee cream sauce and the other with a peach sauce, Chef Maria has chosen the shank for her creations.

As I mentioned though, the shank that Don Day ate this week wasn’t just any shank, it was a smoked shank.

Once or twice a year, Don Day publishes his 60 Scrumptious Things To Eat In San Miguel list (you’ll find the most recent one here: http://dondayinsma.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/60-scrumptious-things-to-eat-in-san-miguel/). One of the items on the list is corned beef from Bolillo Relleno. People see that item on the list and go in search of Bolillo Relleno; then, after they’ve struck out, they send an email to Don Day asking or…if they’re desperately seeking corned beef…demanding the address.

This creates very embarrassing moments for Don Day because Bolillo Relleno doesn’t really exist anymore. The store`s still there. The smoker’s still there. The brisket’s still there. It’s just not called that anymore. It has a sign that says Productos Ahumados San Miguel, but that’s not a name, that’s a description. Perhaps in tribute to Clint Eastwood in those old spaghetti westerns (they are almost as popular in Mexico as France), it now appears to be the store with no name.

If you do find the store with no name (and I do intend to give you the address) and look in the fridge, in addition to the briskets, you will also see a shelf full of smoked pork legs, one of which is no longer there because Don Day ate it this week.

The smoked pork legs come in a liquid that I just call gooky stuff. A haughty taughty food writer, however, might call it aspic. When I first tried this liquid, I thought it might be an interesting sauce. But it’s not. So Don Day’s Wife just rinses it off and makes her own sauce.

First though, she starts a couple of cups of pinto beans boiling in water and chicken stock. Then a couple of hours later, she takes the shank out of its plastic bag, rinses the gooky stuff off, and slices it into big chunks. It then goes in the pot, bone and all. She chops and adds a big white onion, a roasted poblano pepper, a roasted red pimento pepper and about four flame-broiled plum tomatoes and throws all of them into the pot. Last comes the extra added attraction. Sometimes cumin is the primary spice; other times it’s smoked paprika; occasionally, chipotles in adobo; this week it was harissa.

At this point, the haughty taughty food writer who used the word aspic would just go on to the next paragraph assuming you know what harissa is but seeing that, as recently as a few days ago, when Bob and Karen arrived from Canada with jars of harissa for Don Day in their luggage, he wasn’t sure what harissa was, he will quote Loblaws Groceterias and tell you that it’s a “fiery Moroccan seasoning blend of crushed hot red chilis, cumin, ground caraway, coriander, garlic, sea salt and spearmint leaves that adds a bold and slightly smoky kick to stews, grains and vegetable dishes.”

Wow, Don Day should learn to write like that.

Don Day’s Wife let the pork, beans and everything else simmer for about half an hour and then it was finally time for the plating.

It was so good that Don Day would probably give his right arm for another smoked pork shank next week.

The store with no name, aka Productos Ahumados San Miguel, aka Bolillo Relleno is located at Salida a Celaya #7 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.