Mmm...Delicious Pig head....
In the Philippines, lechon is the equivalent of Thanksgiving's turkey dinner. It is the crème de la crème for a celebration, and certainly memorable when you see it. Basically, it's a pig roasted on a stick over a charcoal fire. However, a full size pig costs an astronomical price, so the locals often buy only one delicious but affordable part...the head.
Last week was Ghay's cousin's 9th birthday. A.J. (Allen James) was the reason for the party, and Sea Slugs restaurant spent the greater part of the afternoon cooking the food. As I have always experienced when there's a family party, there is a lot of food involved. There is always pancit bihon, which is a thin rice noodles fried with soy sauce, some kind of sliced meat (chicken or pork) and chopped vegetables. Ito ay masarap! (It's delicious! See, I'm learning.) There is also always spaghetti...random, right? It's different than the usual spaghetti, cooked with a sweeter sauce. It's all right, but I'm not a convert yet.
While Sea Slugs was in charge of these 2 dishes, Ghay was sent to the canteen (where I always eat) to cook the pig's head. He sat for 3 hours turning the head on a spit! Here's a video I took of him when I took pity on him and visited for about 10 minutes. It was waaaay too hot and smelly to stay longer - sorry! Ha.
A.J. the kid was pretty hilarious. I know him fairly well, because he was my neighbor for 2 months. In essence, he's a very sweet boy who hardly ever causes his mother worry, quickly runs errands without complaining, and is always shy with me but says "Hi Ate Kathleen" when his mother makes him. As I was sitting in their room watching TV with the 3 boys while the adults set up the room next door for the "adult" party (mainly because it only consisted of empty chairs and Tanduay Rum and Iced Tea!) he was eating a giant bowl of Choco Krunch cereal (which I also now eat religiously) while clutching a fist full of money in the other. I noticed that he counted it every once in a while, disappeared out the door, returned with some sweet in his hand, and then counted the money again. I finally asked Auntie Grace if he was the family banker or something. She laughed and said that his birthday present had been 300 pesos (About $7 and a sizable amount here) and that he was already down to 130. Little spendthrift!
I then joined the adult party, which consisted of A.J's parents, Auntie Grace and Jun Jun, the owners of Sea Slugs, Ray (sister to Grace), and his wife, Grace (confused yet?) plus a few other friends and co-workers. We drank traditional Filipino style - one cup, one pitcher full of Rum and Iced Tea - and you pass the cup around in a circle after your shot. Luckily we were able to pour our own serving, so mine were small, but it still packed a punch! About 10 o'clock I remembered I was supposed to call Mom and Dad...so I left the party to make a Skype call in the kitchen of Sea Slugs, while everyone kept walking behind me to see what I was doing. I believe Mom and Dad mentioned that everyone seemed pretty drunk. Haha, yes we were. A somewhat sensible conversation ensued (I think...right Mom?) and then I returned to the party.
Auntie Grace called me into her room and told me to look at A.J., who was passed out on his mattress. I didn't know what I was looking for at first, but then I realized that he had fallen asleep with his money clutched tightly in one fist and cradled by his chest with the other. We laughed so hard I'm shocked the poor boy didn't wake up in a fright!
After that we just HAD to go to the disco - a frightening experience, trust me, and finally I was allowed to go home around 2. The next day we didn't see anyone til after 2 in the afternoon, and we all wore looks of pain. Tanduay Rum is a beast, and that night was the only night I've touched it since I've been here. Hangover's here are 10x worse - there's no fan on when you wake up, you have a shared bathroom you really shouldn't get sick in, and all your favorite hangover foods do not exist. What's a girl to do but moan and go back to bed, begging that her boyfriend have mercy on her and go buy her a pizza?? Thank God for pizza.
Last week was Ghay's cousin's 9th birthday. A.J. (Allen James) was the reason for the party, and Sea Slugs restaurant spent the greater part of the afternoon cooking the food. As I have always experienced when there's a family party, there is a lot of food involved. There is always pancit bihon, which is a thin rice noodles fried with soy sauce, some kind of sliced meat (chicken or pork) and chopped vegetables. Ito ay masarap! (It's delicious! See, I'm learning.) There is also always spaghetti...random, right? It's different than the usual spaghetti, cooked with a sweeter sauce. It's all right, but I'm not a convert yet.
While Sea Slugs was in charge of these 2 dishes, Ghay was sent to the canteen (where I always eat) to cook the pig's head. He sat for 3 hours turning the head on a spit! Here's a video I took of him when I took pity on him and visited for about 10 minutes. It was waaaay too hot and smelly to stay longer - sorry! Ha.
A.J. the kid was pretty hilarious. I know him fairly well, because he was my neighbor for 2 months. In essence, he's a very sweet boy who hardly ever causes his mother worry, quickly runs errands without complaining, and is always shy with me but says "Hi Ate Kathleen" when his mother makes him. As I was sitting in their room watching TV with the 3 boys while the adults set up the room next door for the "adult" party (mainly because it only consisted of empty chairs and Tanduay Rum and Iced Tea!) he was eating a giant bowl of Choco Krunch cereal (which I also now eat religiously) while clutching a fist full of money in the other. I noticed that he counted it every once in a while, disappeared out the door, returned with some sweet in his hand, and then counted the money again. I finally asked Auntie Grace if he was the family banker or something. She laughed and said that his birthday present had been 300 pesos (About $7 and a sizable amount here) and that he was already down to 130. Little spendthrift!
I then joined the adult party, which consisted of A.J's parents, Auntie Grace and Jun Jun, the owners of Sea Slugs, Ray (sister to Grace), and his wife, Grace (confused yet?) plus a few other friends and co-workers. We drank traditional Filipino style - one cup, one pitcher full of Rum and Iced Tea - and you pass the cup around in a circle after your shot. Luckily we were able to pour our own serving, so mine were small, but it still packed a punch! About 10 o'clock I remembered I was supposed to call Mom and Dad...so I left the party to make a Skype call in the kitchen of Sea Slugs, while everyone kept walking behind me to see what I was doing. I believe Mom and Dad mentioned that everyone seemed pretty drunk. Haha, yes we were. A somewhat sensible conversation ensued (I think...right Mom?) and then I returned to the party.
Auntie Grace called me into her room and told me to look at A.J., who was passed out on his mattress. I didn't know what I was looking for at first, but then I realized that he had fallen asleep with his money clutched tightly in one fist and cradled by his chest with the other. We laughed so hard I'm shocked the poor boy didn't wake up in a fright!
After that we just HAD to go to the disco - a frightening experience, trust me, and finally I was allowed to go home around 2. The next day we didn't see anyone til after 2 in the afternoon, and we all wore looks of pain. Tanduay Rum is a beast, and that night was the only night I've touched it since I've been here. Hangover's here are 10x worse - there's no fan on when you wake up, you have a shared bathroom you really shouldn't get sick in, and all your favorite hangover foods do not exist. What's a girl to do but moan and go back to bed, begging that her boyfriend have mercy on her and go buy her a pizza?? Thank God for pizza.
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