On my arrival in the Philippines a few months ago one of the first things I learnt about was lechon. The people of the Philippines seem to love their food and lechon is one of the favourite dishes: sold in the street and served at all special occasions.
It is a young pig of about six months old that is seasoned, skewered and roasted whole on a spit for several hours. I have seen lechon stalls in the streets of Tacloban. Some have a cooked pig on display, while others just have the slices of meat waiting to be purchased. Until this week I hadn't seen the actual cooking process.
On Friday our neighbours at the office were cooking lechon in their back yard. The pig had been skewered with a large bamboo cane and two men were cooking it over an open fire. One man was constantly turning the pig to ensure it was cooked right through while the other was keeping the charcoal hot beneath it by adding dried coconut shells to the fire pit.
A few hours later we were informed that the lechon was ready so work stopped again to go and see what happens next. The head and two front legs had been removed and were sitting on a table.
The rest of the pig was lying on banana leaves on another table and one of the men was hacking it into pieces using a very large machete.
It seemed only right that I should taste this local delicacy so we purchased a kilogram for PHP 320 (about $7 USD or £5 GBP). There was no discussion about cuts of meat. We got the next kg the man cut away from the carcass - skin, fat, bones, meat and all...
I'm told, by others, that this was not the best lechon. By the time we ate it at lunchtime the skin had turned chewy rather than being crunchy and for me there was a lot of fat and bone to pick through to get to the meat (although my Philippine colleagues didn't seem to distinguish between meat and fat). But the meat was tasty and I couldn't really have left the country without tasting their national dish, freshly prepared and cooked right next door.
No comments:
Post a Comment