philippine food trip : September 22 2024

the last day before my vacation to the philippines ended, it was such a short trip. tomorrow, i will be back in the hustle and bustle of tokyo. gone are the lazy days, gone are the long chatters, gone are the worry free lunch and dinner 'coz everything has been prepared.

on this last day, we ate the world famous lechon of cebu, a whole roasted pork seasoned with herbs and spices. and one of the best part of this dish is the very crispy skin, people from next town would hear every bite you made to the skin. the other best part is the meat itself, you will know how good the lechon is when you can still taste and smell the aromatics to the bone. not really sure if it is world famous but i think the pork loving communities would definitely know what it is at the very least. i'm not sure of the authenticity but when i was young i was often told that long ago a pig grower's house got burned and the pigs burned down with it; this was the origin of lechon.

beside it is another world famous meat, this time it is the chicken variant. lechon manok is so juicy that you won't need water for days after partaking the dish. of course that is an exaggeration, but i think you get what i mean. when the lechon has crispy skin, lechon manok has that blend of charred oil free thin skin.

both of these meats are usually paired with rice, and the best uniquely cebuano or at least uniquely visayan (referring to the central island group of the country) way of serving rice is puso. casually called hanging rice, rice is cooked in coconut leaves shaped in tetrahedron diamonds and hanged together for easy transport. there are other shapes of puso, this diamond shaped one is the most common probably because it has the least volume; thus, sold cheaply. cooking rice this way also preserves the rice a bit longer as long as it remains aired out and dry.

rambutan! do you even know of this fruit? with a thicker lychee like skin and the curly thick hairs, breaking the skin will reveal an ivory white flesh with a single seed in its core. i really think that this is a lychee cousin, except that it is bigger and i like it better. i heard that rambutan can also be found in other south east asian countries, how do you call this fruit in your place?

and last but not the least on the menu was lanzones. i'm not the best with colors but this looks yellow green if my color blind eyes were to describe it. it is a round fruit that grows in clumps just like grapes, but unlike grapes the skin are usually not eaten. at least i don't, i don't know if it is edible though. the edible part is inside, a round flesh segmented in 5 or more (just like orange segments but not as regularly sized). the bigger segments have a seed but there are also seedless variants. now i don't know if these are also found in other tropical countries, but if they are, can you also share how these are called in your place?