Lechon is an inextricable part of a Filipino’s life and our kababayan will try to get their hands on one no matter the weather and where the diaspora takes them. The recent holidays and celebrations wouldn’t have been cholesterol extravaganzas were it not for our beloved purveyors of the porcine delicacy.

These handful of Pinoy culinary artisans were featured in a recent Chicago Tribune article written by Vikki Ortiz.

Aling Tining, 70, of Forest Park learned to make lechon as a young girl, listening to her grandmother give cooking instructions at her childhood home on the island of Cebu. A few years after moving to the United States in 1984, Tining asked her husband, an engineer, to design a motorized half-barrel roasting oven so she could cook lechon in their back yard.Today, Tining and her husband prepare lechon — which sells for at least $150 each — for word-of-mouth customers. She prides herself on sticking to the Cebu-style recipe, stuffing the pig with onions, lemon grass and garlic before cooking it outside for four hours at a stretch, even during the winter.

“That’s why you have to bundle,” she said. “Long johns, three pants, sweater and then sweat shirt, and then hats — three.”

Back-yard pig-roasting can raise the eyebrows of neighbors, prompting some to do the cooking by stealth. But sometimes, the smell of pig on a cold January morning also helps the cooks and their neighbors bond.

Read the full-length article here.

Photo: “And save us from cholesterol..” by A. B. Frasco ©2007 All rights reserved
Through Ambibo.

Update 2.10.07 12:34A CST
Barbeque Police Cites Pinoy Lechonero