My philosophy is that if I were putting something unhealthy or fattening in my system, be it pork, steak or chocolate, it might as well be the best in quality and taste.
When we were taping the Christmas segment of our food show, Foodprints, we featured what we felt were the best lechons around.
In that segment, we showed Tinee De Guzman’s Cochinillo. He cooked three perfectly tender crunchy baby roast piglets that made me an instant convert of that one dish I had forever been avoiding.
I had eaten the most lechon in one day that evening.
Two days after, we were at Lyn and Bryan Ong’s residence taping for our another segment of the lechon series. It was the Negros Occidental version. To me, this was the lechon I liked the most. It was a bit similar to Cebu lechon, but I preferred Negros Occidental’s for its clean, crispy taste, its subtle flavors and the lemon grass aroma.
Bryan described to me the detail in perfecting their roast. He had to go through around 50 whole pigs and lots of his friends he had experimented on as food tasters.
Finally he came up with the original version in which he was able to determine methods on how to get the best crunch in the skin, make that crunch last longest, how to season the inside and outside of the pig and the ribs, and how to make the flavors reach the remotest areas of this delicacy.
That evening, they prepared two versions—the Original, which I simply loved, and Chili Garlic.
With expertise, Bryan got a chef’s knife and cut a line from the nape down to the lower back of the Original. That skin cracked and gave way to the sharp knife, revealing crispy skin, a thin layer of fat underneath and then the flavorful meat with the aroma of lemon grass and spring onions.
He then asked which part I liked best and gave me the crunchy skin and the ribs under. The taste was heavenly.
Then he got the whole roast of Chili Garlic and cut it the exact same way. When the incision was made on the skin, the aroma of chili and cooked garlic surrounded the air.
The lechon had very crispy thin skin, with flavorful melt-in-your-mouth tender meat.
The taste of garlic was not as strong; there was a shot of intense spice from the chili that very soon disappeared.
Lyn, his wife, asked me to try it with their vinegar which reminded me of Pinakurat. Sarap!
Then they insisted that I try it with piping hot rice. It was another level of experience.
That evening, any personal diet was thrown overboard. But I didn’t mind because it was great lechon.
General’s Chili Garlic Lechon. Tel. 0917-8975966; follow Sandy Daza at www.sandydaza.blogspot.com or in Twitter, @sandydaza
