The Art of Sisig

"Sisig" is to Pampanga (Philippines) as pizza pie is to Naples (Italy). Many pretenders and imitators claim to be "the" real original, etc. sisig. All they end up doing, of course, is flattery. So, to all who love sisig (and everything about Pampanga's cuisine), "cavete comedentis" - beware eater. The only sisig worthy of true palateal adulation is Pampanga sisig. Mere mention of the word turns me into Pavlov's drooling pooch.
My first memory of sisig was at Aling Lucing's (Lucia Cunanan: RIP) in the city of Angeles. Aling Lucing's stall was just one among the many other side-street hawkers in that short strip near the railroad called "Boulevard." But hers was the most frequented and the most thickly populated. People from as far as Manila were known to drive in the night, via the North Luzon Expressway, just to have a first-hand experience of the buzz and intrigue called "sisig." It was easy to understand why. Aling Lucing herself was there to prepare the individual orders. Watching her in her apron (soiled from constant swipes of greasy, sauce-stained hands: which evoked the image of the paint-stained apron of a Picasso), arms and face glowing with the sweat of diligence, smoke rising from the grill and enveloping her in an almost surreal aura, I thought that there was art and love divine in what she was doing. The "bonus" to that my initial foray into the giddy world of sisig was that I got a front seat "view" of the recipe and the procedure of her art, so much so that, in my own humble way, I have learned how to do sisig the "original Pampanga" way, i.e., Aling Lucing's way.

Here's a youtube video which might interest you. (Just be reminded that nothing, at least to my knowledge and "taste," beats Aling Lucing's.) ----

http://youtu.be/qs9l3GUcNsA