I just have to do a little segway into one of my all-time favourite Filipino dishes. The most amazing Sisig, the multi-personality Filipino dish. I don’t know if you ever read my version of this blog for the Thai dish Larb Gai? Well, this is just some exposure to how different the same dish can be. In this case, it is showing differences in the dish on the same island in The Philippines. And the difference is quite exceptional as you will see from the photos.
This is what I love about food. This is not even a regional variance. This is like 200 yards apart variance. So what is Sisig, the multi-personality Filipino dish? A little bit of DaddyPedia here. It’s a dish from the 17th Century, I kid you not when it got its first mention in a Kapampangan dictionary. It’s usually made from chicken liver and various bits of a pigs head. Then you normally season it with calamansi, onions, chilli peppers, top it with a raw egg and serve on a sizzling platter. The word, apparently, means to snack on something sour and salad.
I stole this from Wikipedia, but man oh man are Filipina’s serious about their food, and Sisig. Sisig has been a culinary tradition of Pampanga and the Kapampangan people feel very strongly about it to the point that they declared Sizzling Sisig Babi (pork) as an intangible heritage of Angeles City through a city ordinance. City Ordinance No. 405, Series of 2017 “An ordinance declaring Sizzling Sisig Babi as an intangible cultural heritage of Angeles City, and establishing systems and policies in safeguarding the original recipe of Sizzling Sisig, providing mechanisms of implementation, and for other related purposes. WOW!!! Go Sisig!!! You clearly have earned your name on the map!!!
I even had a crack at making my very own version of Sisig, using what I had available at the time. Luncheon Meat and Corned Beef. It came out pretty dam well actually. Have a look HERE AT THE RECIPE if you fancy having a crack. Pretty simple and bloody delicious!!! See what I mean re Sisig, the multi-personality Filipino dish? There is even my version.
So there you have it, folks. One of my all-time favourite food dishes from The Philippines. Sisig, the multi-personality Filipino dish. This would absolutely be on my death-row cuisine list. Maybe not the one from The BBC though. It’s so simple, but versatile in the same breath. I have eaten tonnes of this and every single version has been different. For this trip, I really liked the cheapest and more traditional version from Fiesta. In fact crazily cheap and good all in one. Great work you guys – just stunning. So if you happen to be in Bohol and/of Panglao you have a few recommendations above of where to get your Sisig fix. Get in a tricycle and get chomping. Here’s hoping you do, and here’s hoping you do!