If I were to do exactly what you're trying to do, only using postgres, I'd do something like this:

$ create table foo (bar varchar);
$ insert into foo(bar) values('quark');
$ select * from foo where 'something about quarks and stuff' like '%'|
+|bar||'%';
  bar  
-------
 quark
(1 row)
[download]

Which seems to work, in a way.