The yummy Cebu lechon

At the mere mention of lechon, two people immediately come to (my) mind: Sen. Tito Sotto and Annabelle Rama, who actually had been long-time neighbors in White Plains.

Sen. Sotto is the official lechon taster (and tester) on the Eat, Bulaga! set. However, I have yet to see him in action.

But Annabelle — watching her eat lechon conjures images, stories and theories in my head. Had it not been for the fact that I know she is blessed with good genes, I would have believed that lechon is her beauty secret (her face is still lovely to this day).

The first time I saw her eat lechon — a whole plate (no rice and no other viands, just pieces of pork and skin of the roasted pig) — I felt numbness on my nape just looking at her finish her meal.

This was in May 2001 (Rosanna Roces’ birthday party at Via Mare). I have to stress the date because if her (very concerned) children find out she had been eating lechon lately Annabelle will get a scolding from them.

In showbiz gatherings that she attends these days, her and husband Eddie Gutierrez’s advance party always brings a whole lechon or two from Cebu. Now, my beloved Gutierrez kids, I’m not telling on your Mom, okay?

I have no idea if she eats what she brings (I always look the other way). But you can’t fault her for her thoughtfulness and generosity — two traits I’m glad you all inherited from your parents — because the celebrator or organizer of the event who invites her always appreciates this lechon contribution from her.

One time I sat beside her and she was eating lechon (this was a long time ago — again, I’m carefully pointing that out to avoid a family world war), I was tempted to ask: “Belle, how can you eat your lechon without the sauce?”

“Dong, if you eat lechon Cebu, you don’t need sauce because they stuff it with herbs and spices that make the meat flavorful.” Those were not exactly her words because the truth is I had difficulty listening to her explanation. It was brief and she clearly wanted to brush off whatever distraction that came her way while she was eating. I understood that. She takes her lechon-eating business seriously. Like it is a ritual that is not to be desecrated in any manner.

I had already long been aware that lechon Cebu is not eaten with the traditional liver sauce because of the lemongrass and all that stuffing. Is that the real reason? Or is it because Cebuanos were raised to eat their lechon that way? In the same manner that I know of some Cebuanos who eat their siopao with ketchup.

Although Cebu had long been second home to our family, we are actually pure Tagalog — with a little strain of Bicol blood from my mother’s side. We eat our lechon with the liver sauce. Without the sauce, we’d rather not eat lechon at all. Except maybe for my sister, who had happily become Cebuana through and through by virtue of marriage — yes, to Annabelle’s first cousin, Cebu Mayor Michael Rama.

I recall an Easter Sunday family gathering that elders had organized in our Bulacan home and my Dad’s contribution was a whole lechon. We merrily drove two hours — excited at the prospect of having our lechon fill upon reaching our destination. But horrors — the lechon was ferried all the way to Bulacan minus the liver sauce!

We are from a barrio and the town proper was a long stretch away (it’s more accessible now with improved roads). Finding the nearest lechon stall where we could buy the sauce was not an option because roast pig was not readily available that time — not even in Manila. You had to go to La Loma for your lechon fix.

My mother was starting to scale the wall out of sheer frustration. There were no mobile phones yet — not even a landline because we didn’t have that then in our part of the province. Our only hope was that the passengers of the second car (the late risers) would notice that plastic container parked on the dining table and bring it with them.

Their arrival was most anticipated. To our relief, they brought the sauce with them and we had a merry lechon feast. Just to show you how Tagalogs take their lechon — nobody among us dared touch any part of the lechon until the sauce came in.

I know that lechon Cebu is tastier compared to the Luzon versions. Most Tagalogs, however, would still prefer to dip the already flavorful lechon Cebu in Mang Tomas bottled sarsa. A lot of us though are learning to appreciate lechon Cebu as it is.

I’m writing about lechon today because most of my gym buddies from showbiz have stayed away from this dish for months and months in preparation for the Cosmo bachelors’ ball this September. They had actually been starving themselves and as a reward had promised to treat themselves to lechon after the event.

I went through my own starvation diet in preparation for a Flawless billboard project that we shot two weeks ago. And now that it is over, I rewarded myself with a lechon treat from Lydia’s.

It was a magical moment for me — one of the happiest episodes of my life and I want to share it with you and I beg for your indulgence. Yes, I bathed every piece of it — crispy skin and fleshy meat — in liver sauce and that to me was a slice of heaven.

That also drove me to think: Is it really the lechon I relish or is it just the sauce?

I am the type to soak my rice with the sauce from menudo, adobo and afritada. Even my KFC chicken has to swim in gravy.

I love sauces — maybe in my attempt to be sosi.

As youngsters today would exclaim when they are near exasperation: Asos!