A cookout on the Strip

THE e-mail pops onto my screen in capital letters: NORMAN’S IS DOING A PIG ROAST ON FRIDAY NIGHTS. WANT TO GO?

WHAT TIME? I type back.

It isn’t hard to round up a couple of other pig-loving friends. (Not my 21-year-old niece, though. She hasn’t eaten pork since the movie “Babe” came out 10 years ago.)

We park and ride the escalator up to the promenade that runs through the Sunset Millennium complex on Sunset Strip. Outside Norman’s, on the patio, chef Craig Petrella and his seconds are set up to feed the horde of roast pig fanciers. He lifts a bed of coals off the top of his pig roaster, a wooden box on wheels labeled Caja China. Big in Cuban cooking, it’s supposed to replicate the effect of cooking a pig buried in the ground under coals.

The kitchen brines the pig, usually a 55-pounder, the night before to ensure that the meat is extra moist. When Petrella lifts off that lid to reveal the roast pig in all its splendor, it’s hard not to ogle. It smells fantastic and the skin is a deep gold.

Now we’re hungry.

A few feet away, they’ve got a yard-wide paella pan set up on a stand with a gas ring. The chef adds a squirt of olive oil to the hot pan and throws in handfuls of short-grained Valencia rice.

Since each pig can serve 35 to 45 people, the Friday night pig fest is by reservation only.

You can sit either outside on the patio with a view of the action or inside in the bar or lounge. Everything is served family style. The cost is $19 per person for pig and/or paella.

Beautiful. The paella is beautiful, heaped with mussels, shrimp, clams or any other seafood the kitchen has on hand. It’s richer than the paella I remember from Spain, and definitely the best I’ve had in L.A. We take it slow and easy, savoring each bite.

Here comes the pig: a plate heaped with succulent chunks of roast pork with the skin and crackling on top, the whole thing perfumed with fresh lime juice. There’s a refreshing slaw too, made from lightly brined cabbage in a punchy whole-grain mustard vinaigrette. And mashed sweet potatoes with cubed, caramelized plantains folded in at the last minute.

Is this great or what?

THE cheese cart attempts to make a stop at our table, but, after this feast, we reluctantly have to say no. It’s just too rich.

But we’re tempted by the tropical ice creams and sorbets, all made in-house (and not part of the fixed-price menu). One of us insists on the coconut panna cotta. Sorry, but he has to share. Family-style, we tell him.

We’re brothers and sisters in pig.

(Note: Though it’s tempting to self-park, don’t. We paid $10. Valet parking turned out to be $7. Not so smart.)

*

Norman’s

Where: Sunset Millennium Plaza, 8570 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood

When: 6 to 8 p.m. Fridays; reservations a must. Full bar. Valet parking, $7; self-parking, $10.

Cost: $19, not including tax, tip or drinks; desserts, $7-$12

Info: (310) 657-2400 or www.normans.com