Roasted Pig Dinner
Ok so I just got back from my 3 day spontaneous road trip with Ken Leo and GF. I must admit to gaining a few pounds due to the amount of eating we did. But more so, the quality of food served. (Whoever said that province = vegetables, I now can prove them wrong.) From the minute we touched down what greeted us was a beautiful little suckling pig roasted to perfection over a charcoal pit on a manual rotisserie.
The juicy-ness of the meat of the pig could already be felt just by looking for it. This was a pig slaughtered just for us. It was killed the morning before we arrived and cooked for the whole day just in time for our arrival. The pig or piglet was cooked to perfection. The type of perfection one can only achieve through years of practice and knowledge gained throughout the years. Truly this was a specialty of the house.
As you could see, we could hardly contain ourselves from posing with the pig! We were so excited to eat that we already plopped down the tables and started getting ready for the feast the awaited us.
Even the girls with GF was posing with the pig and getting in on the action!
One last quick look at the pig before it got chopped up.
After a grueling 20 mins. of just looking at the pig, the dinner bell finally sounded. With the sudden on rush towards the table one can't help but feel excited to taste the roasted pig even if just to see how perfectly well cooked the insides are.
The dinner consisted of a generic mushroom soup for starters, 3 main fares, and a dessert.
(Due to excitement I forgot to take a picture of the soup.) So onto the main dishes.
1st Main Dish: Roasted Pig.
The meat was so perfectly cooked that one could literally just feel the mean just melting away from the bones. It was also so tasty, that you couldn't help but avoid not using any condiments such as lechon sauce or soysauce & calamansi. And of course who would not eat the skin? To put it simply, I've been an avid lechon eater as long as lechon was served at any family gathering or restaurant, and by far this was the best skin I've ever tasted. The skin was both crunchy and soft. Not tough to the taste but contained enough texture to satisfy that sensation. It had a thin coat of fat underneath to provide that complimenting taste to the juicy-ness of the skin. One could literally hear or feel the skin go "crrrruuuunnncccchhh" upon biting into it. Sweet with a hint of saltiness at the same time. The joyous celebration of flavors that erupt in your mouth as you start chewing on the skin is to put it simply sublime. The sinfully delicious part of the roasted pig is just unavoidable. With every bite knowingly adding to your cholesterol count, you chug along and for a brief moment, simply just enjoy being alive. Need I say more?
But it didn't end there. As I started digging in, I was looking around for the usual accompaniment of lechon, the lechon sauce or Mang Tomas. I finally summoned up the courage to ask our gracious host and chef, for the lechon sauce, and she pointed at the bowl you see in the picture. This was home made sauce. It was made from pure liver seasoned with spices and herbs. (Due to the complicated nature of doing this liver patee and the fact that it is a family recipe, I didn't want to post here the ways of making it.) The liver patee was heavenly. Complimenting exactly the taste of the meat without overpowering the flavors of the meat themselves. This was 2 food soulmates finding each other. The texture of the liver patee was a bit rough and unlike the usual lechon sauce which usually is a thick liquid, this patee was more of a paste that you slathered all over your lechon meat. It was a little sweet without the usual taste of liver. GF loved this part of the lechon and was the reason she ate a little bit more that usual.
2nd Dish: Pan-Fried Bangus with fresh Tomatoes
Due to me being a meat eater, I really didn't find anything exciting about this dish, that was, until I tried it. The fish meat was so soft and the fish was already deboned earlier on. The saltiness of the fish skin complimented the almost milky soft of the fish meat. The tomatoes added a hint of sweetness to the dish as well. The skin was both crunchy and salty. The fish belly was soft and flavorful. Also known as the fish fat, it melted in your mouth. GF loved this dish. The fish was freshly caught from a neighboring town. And it was only caught a few hours before we arrived. This was becoming a pattern.
3rd Dish: Assorted Vegetables
Now, I'm not really a big fan of vegetables, but these vegetables were so good that I couldn't keep from getting again and again. The cauliflower, beans, carrots, pea pods, and brocolli were all stewed in chicken stock and was absolutely delicious. Not being a vegetable lover, I was taken back by the different flavors and textures each kind of vegetable had. The tenderness of each vegetable was also just right. They were not soggy, but also they were not tough. They were boiled just right so as to not lose the flavors to the soup. They were not tough or undercooked either, with each bite providing just enough crunch and texture to satisfy the palette. I enjoyed again. Tita Chit (our gracious host and chef) mentioned also that these were freshly brought down from Baguio. I now attribute the tastiness of everything due to the freshness of the ingredients. (and also the skilled hands and work of the chef!)
Dessert: Fruit Salad
The dessert was a simple fruit salad. With cherries, melons, pineapples, langka, coconut, and a few others which I failed to recognize, all chilled together in cream. It was a bit too sweet for my taste, but as the salad thawed out the sweetness was ok. The fruits were fresh and the ripeness just right (as expected!). It was the perfect end to a perfect meal.
All in all the dinner was great. I've never tasted such great food coming from such a simple household. One could already open up a restaurant with the quality of the food that was served and we had the joy of eating for free. If Tita Chit's becomes a household name around Pangasinan, I can proudly say that I was there! It was the perfect welcome for us. The Food was just simply divine.
What a great start to our adventure!
Cheers & Happy eating!
The juicy-ness of the meat of the pig could already be felt just by looking for it. This was a pig slaughtered just for us. It was killed the morning before we arrived and cooked for the whole day just in time for our arrival. The pig or piglet was cooked to perfection. The type of perfection one can only achieve through years of practice and knowledge gained throughout the years. Truly this was a specialty of the house.
As you could see, we could hardly contain ourselves from posing with the pig! We were so excited to eat that we already plopped down the tables and started getting ready for the feast the awaited us.
Even the girls with GF was posing with the pig and getting in on the action!
One last quick look at the pig before it got chopped up.
After a grueling 20 mins. of just looking at the pig, the dinner bell finally sounded. With the sudden on rush towards the table one can't help but feel excited to taste the roasted pig even if just to see how perfectly well cooked the insides are.
The dinner consisted of a generic mushroom soup for starters, 3 main fares, and a dessert.
(Due to excitement I forgot to take a picture of the soup.) So onto the main dishes.
1st Main Dish: Roasted Pig.
The meat was so perfectly cooked that one could literally just feel the mean just melting away from the bones. It was also so tasty, that you couldn't help but avoid not using any condiments such as lechon sauce or soysauce & calamansi. And of course who would not eat the skin? To put it simply, I've been an avid lechon eater as long as lechon was served at any family gathering or restaurant, and by far this was the best skin I've ever tasted. The skin was both crunchy and soft. Not tough to the taste but contained enough texture to satisfy that sensation. It had a thin coat of fat underneath to provide that complimenting taste to the juicy-ness of the skin. One could literally hear or feel the skin go "crrrruuuunnncccchhh" upon biting into it. Sweet with a hint of saltiness at the same time. The joyous celebration of flavors that erupt in your mouth as you start chewing on the skin is to put it simply sublime. The sinfully delicious part of the roasted pig is just unavoidable. With every bite knowingly adding to your cholesterol count, you chug along and for a brief moment, simply just enjoy being alive. Need I say more?
But it didn't end there. As I started digging in, I was looking around for the usual accompaniment of lechon, the lechon sauce or Mang Tomas. I finally summoned up the courage to ask our gracious host and chef, for the lechon sauce, and she pointed at the bowl you see in the picture. This was home made sauce. It was made from pure liver seasoned with spices and herbs. (Due to the complicated nature of doing this liver patee and the fact that it is a family recipe, I didn't want to post here the ways of making it.) The liver patee was heavenly. Complimenting exactly the taste of the meat without overpowering the flavors of the meat themselves. This was 2 food soulmates finding each other. The texture of the liver patee was a bit rough and unlike the usual lechon sauce which usually is a thick liquid, this patee was more of a paste that you slathered all over your lechon meat. It was a little sweet without the usual taste of liver. GF loved this part of the lechon and was the reason she ate a little bit more that usual.
2nd Dish: Pan-Fried Bangus with fresh Tomatoes
Due to me being a meat eater, I really didn't find anything exciting about this dish, that was, until I tried it. The fish meat was so soft and the fish was already deboned earlier on. The saltiness of the fish skin complimented the almost milky soft of the fish meat. The tomatoes added a hint of sweetness to the dish as well. The skin was both crunchy and salty. The fish belly was soft and flavorful. Also known as the fish fat, it melted in your mouth. GF loved this dish. The fish was freshly caught from a neighboring town. And it was only caught a few hours before we arrived. This was becoming a pattern.
3rd Dish: Assorted Vegetables
Now, I'm not really a big fan of vegetables, but these vegetables were so good that I couldn't keep from getting again and again. The cauliflower, beans, carrots, pea pods, and brocolli were all stewed in chicken stock and was absolutely delicious. Not being a vegetable lover, I was taken back by the different flavors and textures each kind of vegetable had. The tenderness of each vegetable was also just right. They were not soggy, but also they were not tough. They were boiled just right so as to not lose the flavors to the soup. They were not tough or undercooked either, with each bite providing just enough crunch and texture to satisfy the palette. I enjoyed again. Tita Chit (our gracious host and chef) mentioned also that these were freshly brought down from Baguio. I now attribute the tastiness of everything due to the freshness of the ingredients. (and also the skilled hands and work of the chef!)
Dessert: Fruit Salad
The dessert was a simple fruit salad. With cherries, melons, pineapples, langka, coconut, and a few others which I failed to recognize, all chilled together in cream. It was a bit too sweet for my taste, but as the salad thawed out the sweetness was ok. The fruits were fresh and the ripeness just right (as expected!). It was the perfect end to a perfect meal.
All in all the dinner was great. I've never tasted such great food coming from such a simple household. One could already open up a restaurant with the quality of the food that was served and we had the joy of eating for free. If Tita Chit's becomes a household name around Pangasinan, I can proudly say that I was there! It was the perfect welcome for us. The Food was just simply divine.
What a great start to our adventure!
Cheers & Happy eating!