Deep-fried pork rinds of the Philippines… That’s chicharón!
Munch, munch, munch… dip in vinegar spiked with chili peppers and pray you don’t get a heart attack later in the day.
Did you know that there are many different kinds of chicharon in the Philippines?
Chicharon with laman
Laman is the Tagalog word for “flesh” or “meat” so this pork rind has the meat still attached to it.
Chicharon with special laman
This uses porkloin with fat and much thicker meat.
Chicharon “cocktail”
just pork skin without the fat
Chicharon Bilog
pork belly skin
Chicharon bituka
Deep-fried large intestines… Bituka is the Tagalog word for intestines.
Chicharon Bulaklak
Pork intestine railings thoroughly cleaned, blanched and cooked.
Chicharon Bits
without fat or meat… size and shape similar to popcorn
Ground Chicharon
Crushed pieces of chicharon mixed into classic Filipino dishes like ginisang munggo, binagoongan, lugaw and pinakbet… Used as a topping for noodle dishes like pancit palabok, pancit Malabon, and batchoy.
Since there are all these types of chicharon referring to different parts of a pig’s body other than the skin, what would you call the original chicharon that’s the pork rind… you know, the actual skin?
That would be Chicharon Balat. The Tagalog word for “skin” is balat. Pork King calls its packaged version Pururuca Crocante.
How about if chicken skin is used? Then it’s Chicharon Manok! The Tagalog word for “chicken” is manok.
The name? It’s spelled tsitsaron and even as sitsaron in classic Tagalog orthography.
Spanish speakers call their fried pork rinds chicharrón or chicharrónes — that would be Latin-style pork cracklings.
The leading purveyor of pork rinds is D’Original R. Lapid’s whose stalls sport the tagline Laging Bagong Luto (Always Newly Cooked). That means made fresh, instead of coming from the factory. Of course, R. Lapid does also produce tons of the stuff at their factories. They even export overseas, and you can find their snacks on Amazon from time to time, if you’re lucky. Don’t be taken in by Elena Lapid, which is different and unrelated.
Chichabog is another franchise with stalls in different malls in the Metro Manila area. They also sell chicken skin, fish skin, spicy dilis (anchovies), spicy squid, kasoy (cashew nuts), and mani (peanuts).
What’s the brand that’s most likely to send you into cardiac arrest? Without a doubt, it’s Daboy’s Special Backfat. Product of Santa Maria, Bulacan!
That’s 250 grams of putok-batok goodness per pack.
Address: 1147, Governor Fortunato Halili Avenue, Santa Maria, San Jose del Monte City, 3020 Bulacan, Philippines
Phone: +63 918 965 5641
In the United States, you can buy Filipino-style chicharon on Amazon, where you can compare with Mexican versions! #aff
