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Lent starts on Wednesday, and as many as 25% of observers give up food or drink during the season. If you're one of them, we've got you covered with the best places to indulge before you abstain. In the era of the bacon explosion, giving up pork just might be the ultimate sacrifice. If you're prepared to make it, here's where to have your goodbye dinner to our porcine friends first.

• Bina Osteria may be a relative newcomer to the Boston dining scene, but the pancetta-laced spaghetti carbonara has already won a cult following. For extra piggy decadence, get the pasta as a first course and the crispy suckling pig confit as your main.

• Indulge in a porky dim sum feast at Gitlo, where you can order everything from pork chop noodle soup to pork buns. The can't-miss dish for the true pig enthusiast, however, has to be the deep-fried bacon-wrapped shrimp paste.

• Listen, if you're indulging pre-Lent, go big or go home, you know? You can't go much bigger than the whole pig's head served at Estragon, the eating of which is depicted in the video above. Go ahead. Order it. You know you want to.

Bina Osteria [Official Site]
Gitlo [MenuPages]
Estragon [Official Site]

[Video: CarolynGrantham/YouTube]