A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words…
Thu 07 Aug 2008
Care to take a guess what this is, and how it got that way? :) Please formulate your answer before clicking on the jump and reading other comments and guesses…
That’s what is known as a teaser. And I am curious how many of you will figure out the answer. And the details of your answer are important to really nail this on the head. A post on the subject will be up in a few days. I suspect a majority of you will love it.
Crackling pork skin seasoned with rosemary???
August 7th, 2008Your nth attempt to perfect the lechon recipe yielded a beautiful brown lechon skin that was very crispy; As to how you came about the perfectly looking crunchy skin, then I really have to wait for that post. =)
August 7th, 2008Lyna is right. Its Lechon skin close up with Rosemary.
August 7th, 2008is that letchon kawali or crispy pata
August 7th, 2008itlooks like peanut brittle from good shepherd but is it crackling???pork skin sprayed(?) with water as it is frying to get those bubbles on the surface???…juice mio!masarap na naman ito!!!
August 7th, 2008Lechon skin. :)
August 7th, 2008Ground pili nut with caramelized sugar?
August 7th, 2008That is a yummy looking pork skin! However it’s cooked, I’ll have my favorite sawsawan ready. ;)
August 7th, 2008lechon skin!!! no idea on how it got that way, though. :D
August 7th, 2008lechon skin!
August 7th, 2008Lechon is my first thought, but something tells me it’s sweet or something.
August 7th, 2008my guess is also lechon skin =D
August 7th, 2008I know! I know! A crispy lechon skin!
August 7th, 2008You perfected the recipe didn’t you!?
August 7th, 2008BALAT ng LECHON!!!!!!!!! perfection!!!!!
August 7th, 2008…ready to fry “chicharon baboy”…yummy!
August 7th, 2008Undeniably panit sa lechon with bits of rosemary.
August 7th, 2008pork skin with a result only attained by DEEP FRYING (or a very hot oven), deep frying sounds so much better!
August 7th, 2008Lechon Kawali skin!
August 7th, 2008My wild guess is that it is PRITCHON for the Market Man’s LECHON SERIES!!=D certainly looks like one, especially the charred pig’s hair hehehe!=P
Hope I got it right!=D
August 7th, 2008Boiled pork rind, partially dried in an oven and then deep-fried.
August 7th, 2008Indeed, pork skin! :D
August 7th, 2008My guess is Lechon Kawali marinated in herbs…ding ding ding.. MM, do we get a prize?
August 7th, 2008pig skin, boiled then dried then fried a la lechon kawali, and that’s the pig hair that did not get shaved.
August 7th, 2008Either Lechon Kawali or MM’s version of hornong/baked liempo! Crispy skin but the inside is soft and still juicy!
August 7th, 2008Pig skin (whole lechon or liempo?) pricked with fork and sun/air dried before deep frying. oil bath sprinkled with cold water while pork is being cooked.
August 7th, 2008I am, guesing lechon skin as well, for the same reason as there appears to be hair. And because you have been trying to perfect the perfect lechon recipe. :)
August 7th, 2008my favorite part of the lechon - crispy lechon skin! :)
August 7th, 2008You went sunbathing and got sunburn?
August 7th, 2008Ok, seriously now. You went to Bohol so you must have dropped by your office in Cebu. There, you took another jab at your Lechon experiment. It seems most commenters are guessing lechon skin as well… How it got all the blisters? Hmmm, maybe you used a small suckling pig and blanched the whole carcass in hot water first and air dried it before roasting? And you religiously basted the skin with the drippings while roasting? And the skin must have been salted generously with rock salt? ???
August 7th, 2008lechon! lechon! oh crispy, lechon :D
August 7th, 2008bagnet :)
August 7th, 2008cancer on a fruit?
August 7th, 2008At first glance I’d say crackling lechon kawali skin but on the other hand it does resemble some kind of peanut brittle/pilinut brittle or just plain bubbly caramelized sugar!What is it MM?
August 7th, 2008lechon skin din…
August 7th, 2008pork crackling the hairs are a dead giveaway….or is it???
August 7th, 2008fried lechon skin?
August 7th, 2008Peanut brittle with some herbs thrown in?
August 7th, 2008that looks like a piece of bagnet: first boiled down until almost-off-the-bone tender, and with a little less of the fat; then dried under low heat in an oven; then given an initial frying to remove some of the moisture; a second drying in a low heat oven to remove moisture and render more of the fat; then a second frying to attain ultimate crunchiness, and the aesthetics of blistered skin — just like lola used to make. :)
August 7th, 2008lizard eggs (you know, like caviar) in caramel sauce LOL
August 7th, 2008Herb baste with sugar water lathered on lechon skin.
August 7th, 2008parang lechong kawali.
August 7th, 2008i know what it is but i cannot tell.
August 7th, 2008I feel this is part of your lechon series! Don’t know how this was done but definitely with herbs (rosemary included). In any case, it looks YUMMY. and SINFUL. :)
August 7th, 2008its lechon skin!!!!! I wanna go back there now and munch it!!!! YUM………….
August 7th, 2008super crispy lechon skin w/ lots of rock salt?!?! yum!
August 7th, 2008Lechon kawali skin! Got that way cos water was sprinkled on it while it was frying in super-hot oil!….or cooked sago that was left out in the sun too long and dried out. nahulugan pa ng seeds ng flowering cosmos plant. Hehe
August 7th, 2008it’s pork skin either lechon (regular) or kawali and are those pig hair jutting out from the skin?
August 7th, 2008Lee, why can’t you tell? Pig got your tongue? ;)
August 7th, 2008Extreme close-up of lechon kawali skin. Meron pang straggler strands of hair. :)
August 7th, 2008I think it’s lechon kawali skin… boiled until soft. Spinkled with herbs (rosemary? thyme?) and deep-fried.
Whatever it is, I’d certainly put THAT in my mouth! =)
August 7th, 2008carmelized puffed rice?
August 7th, 2008lechon kawali
August 7th, 2008Chicharon or lechon kawali with some kind of sauce poured on it before frying/re-frying?
August 7th, 2008Going for fried lechon, too. But ick, someone mentioned hairs? I also thought they were rosemary…. I’m sticking with that to keep my lunch in! :p
August 7th, 2008looks like the skin on lechon kawali…..getting hungry here
August 7th, 2008Extremely crisp lechon skin.
August 7th, 2008it looks to me it is the skin of a lechon kawali..and yeah, at first look it was pig’s hair.
August 7th, 2008lechon skin
August 7th, 2008Blistered pork skin. I’m sorry but I don’t agree with anyone who would call this “Lechon skin” (but calling it Lechon kawali or al horno skin gets a pass). It’s blistered pork skin. It’s easy to get extremely crispy pork skin while blistering it. You can get those results using an oven. The holy grail has always been a smooth, shiny skin that is caramelized, thin, and crispy. That’s what I consider a true Lechon.
August 7th, 2008HI EVERYONE, GEEZ, 59 COMMENTS IN LESS THAN 3 HOURS! :) AND SO FAR, NONE OF YOU HAS NAILED IT ON THE HEAD, SO KEEP AT IT… Remember, you need to say what it is and how it got that way…. heeheehee.
August 7th, 2008Its not animal. Definitely something sweet, sticky and chewy.COmmon MarketMan, out with the answer!
August 7th, 2008Yey Marketman,
It’s your next episode of my favorite food. It’s the recipe/episode of the triple by-pass surgery dish. Folks start to take your cholesterol pill and take a dip on the deep in because this is going to be good. Yum, yum w/the liver sauce, ay naku patay.
August 7th, 2008Looks like lechon skin but I would like to make a wild guess if you say everyone hasn’t nailed it yet. It’s peanut brittle with the sugar just starting to caramelize.
August 7th, 2008marketman,
know what i take that back, on the second look, seems like the same lechon they have over here in chinatown deli shop in chinatown SF/BAY AREA or it’s just plain lechon kawali from a deep fried side pork. this difinitely not the regular filipino lechon. 1st, the animal where this piece of meat came from an older animal judging from the thickness of the skin. 2nd,if this is from a young animal the skin won’t blister that much. also problem from an older animal is the skin is so thick that you have fried it in high temp. thus making it blister and the fat and the meat on the other side get’s cook medium well.
August 7th, 2008or could it be a giant size chicharon w/meat on the other side?
August 7th, 2008caramel with rice pinipig ;0)
August 7th, 2008A bald guy who suffered from (an extremely) hot oil session with an inexperienced barber attendant! Ouch…
August 7th, 2008…could it be salted caramel?
August 7th, 2008This is your next Lechon attempt MM, and I wager you kind of used Sprite or cola of some kind hence the bubbles. Hey, do we get a prize for correctly guessing?
August 7th, 2008I know exactly what it is! It is torture! Torture for someone who suffers from high blood pressure hehe.
Lechon Kawali? Bagnet? Chicharon? With thyme?
August 7th, 2008peanut brittle? no, it does look like lechon skin to me…
August 7th, 2008too easy MM..pork crackling…most likely deep fried…yum!
August 7th, 2008Hi Mr. MM. Halos lahat naman lechon oh… hula ko minatamis ng chicharon! Puede bang dalawa sagot? Caramelized sago.
August 7th, 2008Raw honey?
August 7th, 2008Pork skin-lechon or deep fried liempo!
August 7th, 2008Is it some kind of caramel with bashed up rice bubbles with thyme? MM,you’re torturing us!
My dh says it looks like some kind of sauce with skinny tadpoles,hehehe(:
August 7th, 2008Cecile J: i honestly have no idea what it is… Sinigang??? hehehe
August 7th, 2008That is deep fried pork rind. The reason it got those wonderful “blisters” was you sprinkled the rind with water as you were deep-frying it. The moment the cool water touches the very hot skin, the skin “cracks” or “blisters”. It’s a trick I learned from my mom.
August 7th, 2008It’s freshly fried pork skin, with some short strands of hair sticking out!!! Is this part of a lechon? I would so dearly love to eat one, now after seeing this photo. Cheers!
August 7th, 2008Sorry, i forgot to add the alternative to the “hair” could possibly be some herbs like rosemary, but not sure. Do you know that you by adding little bit of rosemary to roast beef, this could taste like it was lamb steak?
August 7th, 2008You can achieve the same effect with a lechon, btw. As long as the skin is superhot when you pisik-pisik with water :-)
August 7th, 2008Crispy skin of lechon kawali is my guess. Had to be deep fried for the blisters. it is probably some obscure animal because pork rind might be too obvious, or is ?
August 7th, 2008lechon smoothered with salt and rosemary then maybe some sparkling water, and oven cooked
August 7th, 2008could it be bibingkang malagkit with caramelized latik topping sprinkled with some anise?
August 7th, 2008Lechon skin! And magic!
August 7th, 2008your perfect lechon
August 7th, 2008Pork skin from a deep fried liempo
August 7th, 2008It is the crisped skin part of a lechon kawali. I can see some hairs still attached!
August 7th, 2008I think this is either peanut brittle or crispy lechon :)
August 7th, 2008i think its the skin of pork.. chicharon or your crunchy lechon skin…
August 7th, 2008Kutchinta heated under a salamander?
August 7th, 2008pork skin - deep fried. yummy!
August 7th, 2008honey right from the beehive and not yet cleaned?
August 7th, 2008Oh MM, if you really want to tease us …. why not send more pictures?
August 7th, 2008CRISPY LECHON TO ITS FINEST!!!
August 7th, 2008Ay naku- ATIS yan. Oo- atis! :-)
August 7th, 2008Come on guys, nearly 100 comments and no one has nailed it on the head yet… :) Some are close, but in a spelling be, you would still get the buzzer. i was actually going to wait several days before doing the post but I think I have to write it soon or I will feel the collective bad vibes from a few thousand readers… :)
August 7th, 2008I didn’t peek into other’s comment and just went straight to the comment portion.
My guess is, pig skin like lechon kawali or pata. And you got it by deep frying.
August 7th, 2008As I clicked the site, even without knowing I said, wow, lechon kawali.. and found this is a teaser posting. So I studied it closely and realized its not pig skin but rather a seafood of some sort. Maybe a deef fried shrimp (that is how I cooked mine), or a sea urchin? cooked with some herbs? Walang pagyayabang, I seen it before in Quezon province, but I don’t know the name.
August 7th, 2008pritchon with herbs
August 7th, 2008Is it honey? Pulut Pukyutan?
August 7th, 2008It looks like lechon kawali, reminiscent of the the skin of the famous Ilokano chitcharon, commonly known as bagnet.
August 7th, 2008Crackling. roasted in the oven 250 deg celsius for about 20 mins then 220 deg towards the last 40 mins…. what got it looking like that is having rubbed the pork skin with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt before putting in the oven… meat part was marinated in balsamic vinegar, salt and rosemary… i wish the picture was from one of those “scratch and sniff” books : )
August 7th, 2008Ampao from Bohol . . . puffed with sugar / caramel :)
August 7th, 2008Lechon skin or caramelized sugar (like in peanut brittle)
August 7th, 2008Pork skin rubbed with salt and herbs (or those black specs could be burnt hair), grilled for bubble-ly and crispy skin
August 7th, 2008Lechon skin or lechong kawali!!!
August 7th, 2008natakam naman ako—bawal yan dito sa KUWAIT!!
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh :(
I didn’t peek! This is lechon kawali skin fried crisp! Yum especially with soy-vinegar-garlic dipping sauce.
August 7th, 2008Crispy Lechon skin!! Did you finally get the lechon you like this time, MM? :D
August 7th, 2008Bagnet. I bet you, you were experimenting how to cook bagnet.
August 7th, 2008Oh boy, i wasn’t reading the comments above and apparently it’s not Lechon. I know na… it’s Brown Ampao! hahahaha :D
August 7th, 2008raw honey on honey comb
August 7th, 2008My knee-jerk response upon seeing the photo was, like majority of the commenters, crisped-up, blistered lechon skin or lechon kawali. I do not know how to make either so I will not venture to guess how this state of cholesterol-laden yumminess was achieved. But now your latest comment gives me pause. Perhaps, as Avic wrote, it is indeed ampao, with 80% caramelized sugar and just 10% puffed up rice. Those bits that look like rosemary could be anise seeds (they do look like dark rice husks). Strange combination but I used to eat torta with anise all the time so I can imagine the exotic aroma of anise in ampao.
August 7th, 2008Or it could be chichacorn dunked in caramelized sugar haha. With anise seeds. Bizarre but tasty I bet.
August 7th, 2008Or candied citrus peel with lavander(meron ba ganon)???Skin of a warty toad brushed w achiote oil then fried til crisp??? Cant sleep til i know what it is!!! Pls pls tell us now!!!
August 7th, 2008Pinipig in caramelized sugar or honey?
August 7th, 2008bagnet from vigan.
August 7th, 2008Now I remember! My mom and I used to make CHICHARON at home…I would help her cut the skin to size and then season it, and then oven dried (in the winter) and sun-dried in the summer. Then after it is nice and hard, we would render the fat on low heat until most of the fat comes out (CHOLESTEROL to the MAX…as my friend MRS.DADD-F would say!!!). Once it turns to like “kutchinta” color, we would heat the oil and drop the chiccharon. That picture looks like the initial stages of the chicharon on its way to be made into PULUTAN!!!
August 7th, 2008oven roasted pork skin sprinkled with water
August 8th, 2008Thickly cooked minute tapioca with brown sugar syrup? Lumpy fresh lumpia sauce? I quit.
August 8th, 2008balat ng lechon
August 8th, 2008☺ ☺ ☺ ☺……..That’s me and my tribe keeping our mouths shut.
August 8th, 2008Alam ko na, parang Flaky Dough ito . something like they have in Tuna Pie .sold or serve in Pinas… di ko lang sure kung ano yung herbal toppings.
August 8th, 2008Lumpia or Turon?
August 8th, 2008im just gonna wait for the post re above picture…..
August 8th, 2008pork skin! looks fried and terribly crispy
August 8th, 2008At first I tought it’s a peanut brittle… but after reading the first comment I’m convinced I thought wrong.
August 8th, 2008this is pork skin, with some kind of herb…(chicaron, lechon kawali and the likes)
August 8th, 2008My guess without reading the comments would be skin of lechon with dried herbs.. probably rosemary.
August 8th, 2008lechon skin =)
August 8th, 2008Fried fuit my second guess… what fruit skin could this be? Rambutan! That’s the effect when the hair gets crisp : )
August 8th, 2008that’s lechon skin!!!
August 8th, 2008crispy fried chicken skin
August 8th, 2008lechong kawali
August 8th, 2008deep fried pork knuckles sprayed with brine?
August 8th, 2008lechon kawali/crispy pata sprayed with buco juice?
Okay its morning and this is killing me! Still for me it’s oven roasted pork then grilled extra. Its a dead look alike for sunday roast! If its honey, ill be blown away, even raw manuka isnt this wild in texture.
Also the herb/spice could be caraway… i just noticed then in my toast!
August 8th, 2008..we’ll find out soon….:-)
August 8th, 2008MM,if this is not a close-up shot of balat ng litson sa kawali, then my next guess is: bubbling sweet pili pie!!
August 8th, 2008Marketman,
I think i got it. It’s a re-fried vegetable lumpia or a turon glaze with plenty of brown sugar!!!
August 8th, 2008deep fried na Budbud Kabog. pinirito kasama dahon.
August 8th, 2008photo magnified 5X.
mm, plsssss i haven`t had work done all day at home coz i was staring at this picture and refreshing this link to see if you had any new post for the answer. Have pity on us. I know it`s something cholesterolicious!!!
August 8th, 2008is it torched lechon skin? or torched chicken skin?
August 8th, 2008is it a lechon leg of lamb with herbs?
August 8th, 2008is it pickled fish roe?
August 8th, 2008lechon kawali = pork skin with pimples :)
August 8th, 2008hi! lurker here but i just have to guess: lechon skin. i remember you did the ’slitchon’ before so i’m guessing this one is something like it but instead of slits you painstakingly ‘acupunctured’ the pig’s skin thus the fat blisters. glaze is something sweet plus rosemary. no way are those pig hairs. :s but then again, i do not cook so what do i know? :P
August 8th, 2008lechon kawali with rosemary, done in the turbo broiler: boil, drain/air dry, season,broil in the turbo (convection) oven.
August 8th, 2008Banana, good one… you got the answer just as I was posting it… But no sweet glaze…. For a non-cook, you nailed it pretty good! :)
August 8th, 2008Wow Banana got it right!=) congratulations!!!=) I just knew it to be pig’s skin because of the blisters and what I thought was pig’s hair hehehe!=P
You’re pretty patient MarketMan for punching “holes” in the pig’s skin before roasting it… Can’t wait to see your post on this one.=)
August 8th, 2008MM–you have wild imagination, and you have the audacity to take those bungang-isip a few steps further. ‘’Others dream things that never were and ask why not.” r.f.k. i could sense the joy behind your posts.. more power to you, and thanks!!
August 8th, 2008wow, i got it?! i am sooo thrilled as that was my first post after lurking for years. :P aside from having zero cooking skills, i am not even a lechon fan but this one might make me a convert.
August 8th, 2008in round 3 (slitchon), a commenter named Tommy (yeah, i had to go back to that post to get his name) suggested puncturing the skin with a needle for ‘finer, less visible cuts’. so i thought maybe MM followed his advice. i used to have a chicken rosemary phase so immediately knew it was rosemary.
AleXena, thanks! :)
It looks disgusting!
August 9th, 2008nonymous, it may look disgusting to you, but it sure tasted terrific!
August 9th, 2008Looks disgusting but a troll just fed on it.
August 9th, 2008without checking responses, I think it’s lechon! I have been on a lechon kick these days, so maybe I am just imagining- haha.
August 9th, 2008Lechon Kawali?
August 25th, 2008