Lechon

The first lechon was at the Casera House in Ilag. 75 lb pig raised by my cousins Arvie and Maricel. Delicious!

Roast Host

So I mentioned a couple of posts back that we were going to roast a pig this weekend. The first time I had lechon was back in April 1999 at my mom's house in Florida. Scott, my sister and I drove to Pinellas Park to pick up a pig that someone else had roasted for us.

It was definitely a fun occasion...

Trying to get out of the box...

And no part of that pig was wasted.  All family members left with baggies full of pork to enjoy in a another meal or two.

Uncle Pete (RIP) was joking about using the pig's teeth to replace some of his own!

Peace

The first pig roast we did ourselves was back in February 2008 when my mom and sister got back from the Philippines. We were celebrating our birthdays (mine and my sister's) in the typical Filipino fashion, by roasting a pig and inviting a bunch of people over to eat.

Emi decided to try a pig's ear...I believe they call it Chicharrón...

[Note: This was David's first experience with lechon and he wasn't as adventurous as his big sister (no surprises there). He saw the pigs on the pole and opted not to have any pork at all.]

We did the roasting in our fire bowl and had a hard time keeping the temperature consistent and at one point the pig's sutures came apart and emergency surgery was performed. But the pig turned out wonderful and we sent everyone home with lechon after the kids had scavenged parts like the ears, eyeballs and brains. Kids are gross!

The next time we roasted a pig was in April 2009 for Scott's birthday.  We thought that the pig would be done by 2:30 pm, so friends and family came by early to have a drink or two and check out the pig.

This was 2 hours AFTER the pig was supposed to be done...

Pork was finally served around 7:45 that evening so you can imagine what shape our guests were in...




So this time the guys got busy prepping the pigs early in the day Friday. They decided to get 2 pigs as they were deemed a little on the small side and they also decided to build a pig pit this time.

My brother-in-law, Gabe, with the piggies.

My man having a turn turning...

Shortly after this picture was taken the guys had an emergency situation (as per usual) in that the pole broke in the middle. They had to run to Home Depot to make repairs.

I didn't capture a lot of pictures that day as I had to be at Emi's school (her last day of 4th grade!) to run the Sundae Bar after lunch. And then later I was busy playing host in the back yard. It was a very nice time with my family and friends. Loved seeing the kiddos running around making new friends and catching fireflies!

It was a great start to a summer filled with promises of more fun with family and friends!

Hakka

As promised from Scott's Birthday Pig Roast, I give you Phil (our Cajun Kiwi friend):

Roasted

So we survived Scott's Birthday Roast this past weekend. No time to elaborate on the happenings or post the vid of Phil's challenge so stay tuned... for now, here are some pictures.

Okie Lechon

We could not have arranged for a better day for a pig roast. The guys were up at the crack of dawn stuffing the pig with lots of good stuff (lemongrass stalks, garlic, onion, rosemary and jalapenos with olive oil), then they performed minor surgery to close her up and roasted her for about 6 or 7 hours. That was hard work because they were tied to the rotisserie that Uncle Gabe (aka "Cool Guy") made especially for our huge fire bowl. The guys had to constantly monitor the lechon. They modified the bowl with some metal vices to keep the bar from rolling too far.

My mom fried lumpia and we had chicken adobo and rice, buko pies and cassavas cakes.