No really, let me tell you about it, before Lisa sees me posting all these pictures...
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love pigs. Honestly, I think they are cute, smart, fantastic animals, and I would own one or two if I had a farm. (to go with my goats)
I do, however, also respect their use as a food source. As I have mentioned before, I think bacon should be a deity, with me serving as high priestess. BBQ is an art form. I am a student of charcuterie. Sorry, I love me some pork products...
Lisa invited me to go to her brother's 50th birthday bash in Easton, PA, which just happened to also be a pig roast. I said an enthusiastic yes to that. I got to meet her wonderful family. One of her cousins has a boyfriend who is Filipino, and he and his family do traditional Filipino pig roasts. They arrived at Anthony's house around 6:30 last Saturday morning, and laid out a bbq pit in the yard. They had a pig that weighed about 65 pounds. They picked it up from a farm in Bucks County, cleaned and prepared, stuffed it with garlic and herbs, and sewed it up. A rotisserie set up was built for them at the local tech school so they had everything they needed. If I remember correctly, they said they brought about 150 pounds of charcoal briquettes for the day. The fire was built, and the heat moved into a ring around the perimeter of the pig on the spit. The motor started the piggy turning, the first beers were poured, and the long day of roasting began..
Well, we arrived around 3 in the afternoon. The pig was starting to look golden, but still had a few hours to go. I met the family, got myself a red cup of beer, and struck up a conversation with Pat and his brother Chris who were the pitmasters. I learned that traditional Filipino pig is rubbed with soy, and stuffed with lemongrass and taro, but since this group was pretty much 100 percent Italian, they did it with garlic and herbs. This is what it was looking like:
I know, I know, not the easiest thing to look at..
By about 5:30, it was time to remove our friend from the coals and let it sit for a bit before carving..
To go with the pork, the guys had brought a dish that looked like a pork lo mein (that's how they described it) and some lumpia, which are like a little beef and vegetable spring roll.
Anyway, it was juicy, flavorful, wonderful...all those superlatives. It was great. The skin was crispy, the meat was succulent. It's not something you get to eat very often, so it was a nice treat. As much as I enjoyed my dinner, I much more enjoyed getting to meet Lisa's family. It's really nice to be around a large, close family. I feel honored and excited to be accepted into the Patti/Grossman clan.
Well, that's all for today. Time to start preparing for Thanksgivukkah. See y'all soon.
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