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On the windswept plateau where Madrid is perched, it's too dry to raise cattle and most crops. So pork has long been a mainstay, from jamn ibrico and charcuterie tapas to stews of pigs' ears and entrails.

But when locals want a really special treat, they go for an entire piglet roasted whole — head, hooves and all — on an oak wood fire.

Cochinillo asado, or roast suckling pig, is part of a tradition of farm-to-table eating that's appeared in literature, from Cervantes to Hemingway, for centuries. The pigs have typically been raised on family farms in the Spanish provinces within about 100 miles from Madrid.

They're fed only their mothers' milk and slaughtered at 4 to 5 weeks before being transported to restaurants in the capital. In olden days, that was at least a day's ride on horseback. Now it takes a couple hours by truck.

"A baby piglet is very delicate. Any bacteria or parasite could hurt them," says Victor Manuel, whose family runs Carnicas Tejedor, a cochinillo distribution company outside of Madrid. "The newborns ... haven't built up any natural defenses, and drink only their mothers' milk — we don't give them any vitamins or artificial hormones."

The piglets are slaughtered when they still weigh less than 10 pounds. One cochinillo usually feeds four people.

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"We are not asking America to go to war," Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee early Wednesday afternoon, as he and other top administration officials continued to push Congress to support President Obama's call for military strikes aimed at the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Parallels

Damascus: Anxiety, School Shopping And Soldiers Everywhere

In perhaps the largest nationwide fast-food strike in history, the employees who make your 99-cent burgers and tacos were planning strikes in 50 U.S. cities Thursday. Workers are calling for a $15 minimum wage and hoping to raise attention to the fast-food industry's low pay and limited prospects. The current federal minimum wage standard is $7.25 per hour.

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President Obama landed in Sweden on Wednesday — the start of a European trip that will take him to Russia for a summit of world leaders at which he'll try to build support for his plan to strike targets inside Syria.

As The Washington Post says, it's a "high-stakes trip ... that could show whether the United States has broad international backing for action."

The most prominent skeptic about taking military action in response to Syrian President Bashar Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons is the G20 Summit's host, Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Wednesday, Agence France Presse writes, Putin "suggested Russia could approve military strikes against the Syrian regime if the West presented watertight evidence of chemical weapons crimes but warned the use of force without U.N. approval would be an 'aggression.' "

The two-day G20 Summit is set to start Thursday in St. Petersburg.

While Obama is in Europe, debate continues in Washington, D.C., over his request that Congress authorize military action against Syria. On Tuesday, as we reported, the leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee "came to a bipartisan agreement that would allow President Obama to use force against Syria, but would also give him a time limit."

Wednesday morning, the committee is expected to vote on that resolution.

Over on the House side of the Capitol, the Foreign Affairs Committee meets at noon ET to hear from the same administration officials who testified before the Senate panel on Tuesday: Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.

We posted Tuesday about the "4 exchanges you should listen to" from the officials' Senate testimony. They're expected to get a more skeptical reception from the House members Wednesday.

Related headlines:

— "Senators Rand Paul And John McCain Differ On Syria Strikes." (Morning Edition)

— "How Concerns For Israel's Security Enters Into Sryria Plan." (Morning Edition)

— "Syria Crisis: Vladimir Putin Under Growing Pressure." (The Guardian)

— "Standing Firm, Assad Wages War Shielded With A Smile." (The New York Times)

— "Middle East Strains Under The Weight Of Syria's 2 Million Refugees." (The Wall Street Journal)