5 Best Lechon in Cebu

Anyone who visits Cebu is recommended to bring blood pressure medications as the almost evil lure to taste the world famous Cebu Lechon will definitely follow you throughout your stay. Lechon has always been associated with Cebu. Even in other cities, there are lechon houses who claim to be authentic Cebu Lechon. So what is it with Cebu  Lechon that everyone craves about? We unwillingly (LOL) took the challenge to find out what is it that makes people crave about it so much. Also, I'm going to give you a rundown of our top 5 considering flavor, juiciness of the meat and the crispiness of the skin.

5. CNT Lechon 

We have been hearing good things about CNT's lechon and saved this for our last lechon meal in Cebu before we flew back to Manila. I have to admit that our expectations were pretty high since we have already tasted 3 of the 5 lechon brands in this review. I kinda had a feeling that this was not going to be a good experience when we went into the restaurant which looks like an old canteen across SM Cebu. As we took our first bite, the excitement in our faces were washed away as we chewed into some pretty tough pieces of meat. CNT lechon was salty but lacked flavor and some parts of the skin were already soggy. Also, the meat itself looks old, as if it was cooked a day or two ago. Do not get me wrong, this is still one of the best lechon we have tasted ever, but among the other popular lechon houses in Cebu, and with a high expectation, this came across as our least favorite. Our taxi driver on our way to the airport told us that the lechon had to be salty to prevent it from spoiling as these were prepared a day prior to serving.

Website: (can't find it)

Contact no: 032-2544249/032-2546641

4. Alejo's Lechon

*image grabbed from http://alejoslechon.com/

We did not know about Alejo's until we tasted it from Mix and Joanie's wedding reception. Even in online reviews their name would appear very seldom as one of Cebu's best. As I've learned (from their website), they have been in the lechon business for 20 years already but since I don't think they have a restaurant, they are not very popular with tourists. Alejo's Lechon was ultra flavorful with very juicy meat and very crispy skin. The meat was so tender it almost melts in your mouth. I felt though that the flavor was too strong that it tasted good on my first bite but eventually my tongue got tired of the taste since the flavor of the herbs were overpowering the pork's natural taste.

Website: http://alejoslechon.com/
Contact no: (032) 261-8575 / (032) 261-1086

3. Zubuchon

Anthony Bourdain dubbed Zubuchon "The best pig ever." and they are mighty proud of this distinction. They even have this posted in their store in Escario Central, Cebu (and I heared in all branches as well). As we walked into the restaurant, very eager and friendly waiters greeted us and catered to our orders. Fresh from our flight, this was our first lechon meal in Cebu so we were really excited to finally taste Cebu Lechon. We were not turned down by this tasty lechon and I would say, the skin on their lechon was the crispiest from all that we tasted. There were some parts that were a little bit chewy but over all the meat was tender but not soggy. It would have ranked higher for me if it was not too salty. There were several cuts that I think were part of the pig's inner cavity where the stuffing were that are too salty. This might be the reason why the waiter was recommending the Kamias Shake but I went for a can of soda to negate the oiliness in my mouth.  Also, the boneless variety was not available when we dined in and the part given to us had a lot of bones in the serving.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zubuchon/187045978068913
Contact no: 032-2365264 / 032-2547342

2. Ayer's Lechon

*Photo grabbed from http://www.ayerlechon.com/

Since we were already out of time, we decided that we will just bring Ayer's Lechon home as pasalubong. We bought the lechon at 3 pm but because of a 5 hour delay in hour flight, we arrived home by 1 am. To our surprise, the skin was still crispy! Ayer's had almost the same flavor as with Alejo's but milder thus allowing the natural flavor of the lechon to bind with the spices. The meat was juicy and even after 10 hours, it was still delicious.

Website: http://www.ayerlechon.com/

Contact no: (032) 268-0327

1. Cebu's Original Lechon Belly

We certainly did not expect that this would be our absolute favorite. Cebu's Original Lechon Belly is the best in Cebu! To start with, they have two variants for their lechon, original and spicy, and both are equally scrumptious. The flavor was not too over powering. It was like a delicate mix of the spices merging with the pork belly's natural flavor forming a very unique taste. The spicy lechon added some kick to the already tasty lechon. The meat was tender and of course the skin was perfectly crispy. Eating this by hand with "puso" rice or ketupat was one hell of a great meal.

Website: http://cebuslechonbelly.com/

Contact no: (032) 232-1155 (Cebu) / 0907-751-9340 (Mall of Asia branch)

The lechon experience in Cebu was certainly memorable. Some of you might raise an eye brow as to the arrangement of these five but collectively Cebu Lechon is... (channeling my inner Bourdain) the best pig ever! It is not the mix of onions, garlic, leeks, pepper, fish sauce, star anise, etc.. that characterizes the Cebu lechon but moreover, it is biting into an important piece of the Cebuano culture that makes this "pig" extra special.

Who ever said a guy can't bake? Part 2!

I love cakes and Marielle introduced me to the Red Velvet Cake and it was AWESOME. I really have no words to describe how much I love this cake and so I decided to try to bake my own. Armed with some knowledge in baking, the ingredients, the recipe I found off Google and some enthusiasm (of course), I was able to make the best ever Red Velvet Cake (that I have tasted). 

P.S.

Marielle (not a cake person) loved it. My mom (who has no appetite for cakes anymore) loved it. Everyone loved this cake... so I guess I'm not biased in saying this is the best. :P

Pork Chop Steak

Me and my siblings have always loved this sinfully tasty (and oily) pork chop steak that my Dad cooks. My sister especially has been whining about not tasting any that comes close to how Dad makes this. Since he is always out of the country, we have been trying to copy the recipe down to the taste, tenderness (and greasiness). This is my latest try in perfecting this dish. :)

My Lechon Kawali

Yesterday's breakfast!!! YUM!!!

Who ever said a guy can't bake?

I made two pastries for my Mom's birthday!

Bon Appetit!

Medya Noche 2011

It has been a family tradition to have more dishes than we can consume to signify overflowing luck for the following year. This year since almost all of us needs to go on a diet we just had a few dishes but still weren't able to eat everything.

Tuyo... bow!

Tuyo
Originally uploaded by RageDevil

I don't eat tuyo, especially this kind. We call this "Hawot" in Batangas. My folks love eating this with Sinangag (fried rice) and hot Barako (robusta) coffee. I never learned to eat it but don't get me wrong I eat Danggit and dilis I just don't like the very foul smell of Hawot.

I love Chooks to Go!

Official Ka-Chooks!

When it first came out I thought it was the same roasted chicken like Andok's so I really didn't know what the fuzz was all about (and may I just say, the Chooks to go commercial is annoying.). I was wrong. It's a little bit sweet, it smells good, the chicken is so tender and best of all, No dripping chicken blood. It was all I can ask for in a roasted chicken with a little bit of a downside. Walang sauce! Even though their slogan says you can eat it without sauce it is still not the same.  You'll miss dipping your chicken into some sauce. We need to buy Mang Tomas as an alternative, no big deal.

KFC - Hair in a Bucket Story

My friend Jo has this craving for Kentucky Fred Chicken. Who wouldn't? KFC's crispy, juicy, delicious fried chicken with some mouth watering gravy will make anyone crave for it. KFC's bucket meal has always been an option when we are having lunch after shift. Last week's incident might have mellowed her craving down a bit. March 26 my other friend Jona asked if we can company her to SM Megamall to have her Digicam's battery fixed. Me and Jo agreed and with Lou and Bino we decided to watch How to Train your Dragon after lunch. Lou was suggesting we eat sinigang for lunch but Jo insisted we have a bucket meal. Needless to say KFC wins and so we went there and ordered a bucket meal. Everyone's excited to have some gravy poured over their hot rice while munching over some hot and crispy or original recipe. We were just starting to enjoy our meal when Jona noticed something. There is hair inside the bucket. Not just any ordinary hair, it's short, it's thick and it's curly. It looks like somebody's arm pit hair or somebody's pubes inside the bucket. (photo below)

Somebody might say we're just being overly dramatic over a small piece of hair but you must also put in mind that this piece of hair shouldn't be there together with our food. Eating it can be just like licking an anonymous person's arm pits. To make it simple, it's unhygienic and unethical to serve something like this. Everyone stopped eating upon seeing it and immediately asked for the manager. The manager graciously went to our table and asked what happened. I don't know, but her face was unusually relaxed upon seeing the hair inside the bucket. The reaction on her face is sorta like saying "sus ang OA naman para buhok lang". The manager then took the bucket inside. We don't really know what happened but she went back after a few minutes with the same bucket on her hands but this time without the hair inside it. Then these amazing words came out of her mouth: "Sa plastik naman po dumikit hindi sa chicken." There was an obvious irritated reaction on all of us then followed by Jona saying: "Excuse me that's human hair!". We decided to just get a refund and went out.

This story aims not to tag any negative reactions or connotations to KFC or their food, crew or branches. I wrote this to ask people to kindly inspect first what you ordered before eating it. Yes we'd still be eating KFC but it might be taking a while before we come back to the Megamall Branch.

Red Pansit

Red Pansit
Originally uploaded by elnombretequilla

No this is not spaghetti with vegetables, it's Pansit na pula from Batangas City. We used to always buy pansit from Letty's Panciteria as a kid. It's like the regular pansit miki but with red noodles. The noodles themselves were infused with Atsuete giving it its distinct Red-orange color. The one from the photo was cooked by me since you can already buy red noodles from the local city market.