baby rambutan

sisig is a popular Filipino “pulutan” or appetizer or cocktail accompaniment of chopped up roast pig parts, especially the pork cheeks or jowls, the brain, and the ears, with an internal organ or two (liver especially). the whole mixture is then sizzled on a hot plate then served with lime juice and hot pepper sauce.

the skin on the cheeks, that part that is called the “maskara” (mask) and is really the entire face, just roasts up really impossibly crisp and tender. the ears lend crunch, the brains and livers, the mush.

all together, you must eat it to believe it.

me want it! even though it is so bad.

this is what husband almost did, after i begged him to please please please go up to the Butcher’s counter of the Chinese grocery, and ask for a fresh pig’s head:

once in a while they do sell cooked pig’s head but it’s flavored, i am guessing with five-spice powder and soy, and somehow it does not compute with the sisig formula.

my neighbors brought me some on our first barbecue together, and that is how i got inspired to make sisig with other pig parts, since my husband who had vowed to love and to cherish, to have and to hold… refused to procure me a pig’s head.
they also suggested the sizzling plate.

my sisig-sisigan, made with deboned boiled pork leg and hocks, ears, chicken livers, roasted over charcoal, chopped up, then poured into a hot plate, with red onions and hot red chili peppers (i used my fajita pan), then broiled under the toaster oven heating element, and THEN drizzled with lime juice:

i was a finalist in one of the contests of the “does my blog look good in this?” four years ago when i started out babyrambutan.blogspot.com.
i did not win.
i suspect it was because i described it as a “weird salad.”

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 4:53 pm and is filed under mammals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.