Sabroso Lechon

Becca had a wonderful idea for Mother's Day--lechon!  To satisfy her craving, she ordered a whole pig from Sabroso Lechon, located along Espana Extension, near the corner of Tomas Morato St. in Quezon City.  The one she picked had an uncooked weight of around 20 kilos, and a resulting cooked weight of 9 kilos (the difference is the weight of evaporated water).  This was priced at P6,100, which was reasonable considering that it was just slightly bigger than a suckling pig (lechon de leche).  It was a lean organically raised pig that was given to us, with hardly any fat at all.  We picked it up from the store at 10:30 am, and the skin was still crunchy by the time we had lunch at 12:30 pm.  The whole clan was there, even Lolo Nato and family who flew in from Davao to Manila to visit Lola Dee.  The store uses the Ilonggo recipe for lechon, which means that the pig is stuffed with lots and lots of tanglad (lemongrass).  The aroma is heavenly, and I thoroughly enjoyed my duties as chop-master!  However, there is one drawback to tanglad-flavored lechon: while eating it off the chopping board is fantastic, the resulting lechon paksiw is totally different in flavor, and even if you intensify the dish with vinegar and liver sauce, the taste of tanglad still sticks out like a sore thumb.  This is the main difference with Luzon and Visayas lechon recipes--the lechons in the Visayas are primarily geared for on the spot eating, while the lechon makers in Luzon take the paksiw into consideration (as a dish by itself, or for freezing and storage).  Becca was a quite disappointed, as she was looking forward to some pork fat and yummy lechon paksiw!

One incident marred the enjoyment though.  As we phoned the order a day in advance, we were informed that a delivery to Manila would cost an extra P500, but when I got to the entrance of the store, the sign (see below) said that they had a free delivery promo.  When I asked the counter girls about it, they told me that there was no such promo, and that delivery was still charged P500.  I pointed out the sign and told them to take it down--who wouldn't feel bad about the whole issue?  Would I go back?  Hell, flat NO.  Truth in advertising, please!