Is it too early to get back on the pork wagon? I don’t know about you, but after festively feasting on leftover ham for weeks through January and half of February – toasties! ham steak! frittata! pasta! – I’m just about ready to (with all respect to Samuel L. Jackson) dig on swine again.

And the most perfect place to rekindle that love affair with all things porcine is Lamaro’s Bodega, which has just reopened its doors after spending summer down at Portsea, as is the wont of much of South Melbourne.

With parent company links to Greenvale Farm, Lamaro’s has a direct line to glorious heritage breed pigs that have roamed the open plains. It’s truly excellent product, and chef Louis Naepels (ex Grossi Florentino) lets it shine, using the Josper oven to bring out its best – and there is no plate of pork better than the suckling pig.

Under a sheet of incredible crackling pieces of equally memorable meat lie. Tissue soft and delicate, the meat’s served with deeply dark, densely rich gravy to create a plate of pork that’s best-in-class.

But first, a serve of ham that’s giving the Spanish a run for their acorn-fed money. Slices of the glistening ruby-coloured meat are crowned with a thin ripple of salty, creamy fat. These whisper-thin slices are teamed with hunks of charred oiled bread slathered with stracciatella – chopped burrata cheese where the curds and cream are mixed together – for ham and cheese that makes the heart sing (and a darn sight cheaper than a plate of Iberico jamon will set you back elsewhere).

And it’s not just pork – the vegetables here are equally memorable, from broccoli that’s spent just enough time on the grill to become nutty and charred served with hazelnuts and curd, through blackened savoy cabbage studded with extra bacon bits.

The dining room is marvellously handsome, with pale green leather banquettes and light tan leather chairs playing off the deep red checked carpet with subtle black and white photographs – a matador here, a streetscape there – adding just a hint of theme.

Or pull up a stool in the front bar – this is still a pub with sport on the big screens, albeit one whose art on the walls and marble on the bar speak to the aesthetic of the neighbourhood – and snack on empanadas or a choripan, the chimichurri-chorizo bun so loved across South America.

And to finish? A Latin love affair is nothing if not sweet, and the dulce de leche that tops the sweet potato ice cream sandwich (which is more like an éclair) is exactly that. For a pinky-up pig out, Lamaro’s Bodega is the cure(d) for what ails you.