(upbeat percussion and piano)
- Hi mom.
- Hi.
- Welcome to the show.
We are driving to Wilmington, Delaware,
which I have never been.
Have you?
- [Vikki] I've never been to Delaware.
- I wanted to bring you because I found out
about this place that does both American barbecue,
and they do Cebuano-style lechon,
which is the region that you're from.
I don't think there are a lot of Filipinos in Delaware.
So we're actually going to a place
called Philippine Smoked Barbecue and Grill.
It's owned by Lalaine and Romeo Balan.
Lalaine is from Cebu.
- I'm wondering how it's gonna taste,
'cause in the Philippines it's on an open cook.
- [Francesca] Yeah.
- For me, a lechon is like, how it tastes.
It's not just the way that you just roast a pig
that's a lechon.
- I agree.
Okay, well we're here.
Hey tito Romeo, you're gonna show us how to
stuff the lechon.
- Okay, the best one on this one is the labor of love.
- Aww!
- First thing first, we put salt,
rub it in.
I cut right there in between the ribs in the meat.
That way, there's flavor in it.
The next one is garlic and lemongrass.
It's all ground up.
So we don't have the exactly the same in the Philippines.
The fresh one came from the backyard itself.
- There's different types of lechon.
The Philippines isn't the only one that has it.
This is a very specific style.
- Cebu style got more garlic and the lemongrass
and a lot of spices in it.
I usually put bay leaf too, a little bit.
And then--
- [Vikki] Green onions.
- The green onions.
- In Cebu, there's a place called Rico's Lechon,
and they popularized spicy lechon,
'cause you didn't grow up with that.
- Yeah, that's just something new now.
- [Romeo] This is the fun part.
- Oh, he's in concentration mode.
- Yup!
- [Francesca] Do you enjoy this process?
- [Romeo] Oh yeah, I love it.
The hardest part is to prep.
- [Francesca] How long is the entire process?
- Probably about an hour and a half just to prep,
and then three to four hours cooking.
- So you go one pass, and then you do it again
going back.
- Yes, again I'll do the bottom, the inside meat,
and then the outside skin.
That way, the juice will stay inside.
- How long did it take you to get the right technique
for the lechon here?
- About a year.
- Yeah, because of the different seasons
and the weather. -Different season, yes.
Especially snowing.
Sometimes humidity affects the skin too.
I'll pull it out and hand it to you guys.
There you go.
- [Francesca] Okay, got it mom?
- Yeah, I got it.
(speaking Tagalog)
- Bugat is heavy!
- [Vikki] First time I'm doing this.
- I'd like to say that everybody underestimated us
Dump it!
- [Vikki] Yeah, hold that one.
(Filipino drums)
- How do you feel?
- Good!
- I never thought this would be a bonding moment
that I would share with my mom.
(acoustic guitar and techno beat)
- Yes!
- The lechon.
- Tita, do you wanna do the honors?
- What will I do?
- [Romeo] Carve it up!
- [Francesca] It's so much easier to eat lechon
with you hands.
- Mm-hmm.
So easy with your hands.
- And you enjoy it more.
- I'm so hungry.
(Vikki and Francesca laughing)
- She already started!
Ready mom?
- [Lalaine] See, you made me carve so I'm gonna
start eating.
- [Vikki] There goes my cholesterol.
- Mm-hmm don't think about cholesterol.
Doesn't exist here in Philippines mode.
- I've had quite a few lechons here in the U.S.
I can honestly say that this is probably the best skin
that I've had.
It's very similar, I think, to lechon in Cebu.
- Yeah, it's similar to the lechon that I had growing up
in the Philippines.
It's really good.
- SHe's gonna cry.
(all laughing)
- Don't cry!
Come on, you eat.
- [Francesca] Arguably, people say that Cebu
has the best lechon.
- I really don't know because I haven't tried
the lechon in Manila.
Even when I was still there, what, 30 years ago?
A lot of the people from Manila order lechon
from Cebu, right?
- Yeah.
- I just cannot understand why.
They ship it through, like what, Philippine Airlines?
Until now, that they said that our lechon
is a lot tastier than Manila.
I do not know how you eat lechon in your place,
but in our place we don't use Mang Tomás.
I use Mang Tomás here, but I still prefer vinegar.
- But this one is like, even without the sauce,
it's tasty enough.
The sauce will just enhance it.
- What are you gonna do Joshua?
- I'm gonna cut off the head.
- He's gonna cut off the head.
- [Lalaine] Why are you cutting it off?
- Joshua just came here so he could eat the cheeks.
(Francesca laughs)
- Take off the cheek on that.
There you go.
Most of our customers, I would say 90, 95%
are Americans.
They love our brisket, the ribs, the pulled pork.
- When you started, did you always have the lechon
on the menu?
Or you slowly--
- Yes, yes.
We always had this in the menu.
And then slowly, we made this into the lechon sisig.
- Yeah that's the thing with the lechon.
It's very versatile.
Like roast pig, after that, you can cook it into paksiw,
or you can cook it into sisig,
or you can cook it into something else.
You don't waste any part of it. - Any part of it.
Can you talk about what led you to opening this place?
- So Romeo was working in a steel mill for 25 years.
They found out that the mill was going to close for good.
That was also the time when my mom was so sick.
He said to me, "Why don't you go home?"
I said, "How can I go home?
"We have no money" because we already started this place,
not that we were open.
So he said, "We'll find a way."
He found a ticket,
and so I only had four days with my mom.
So my mom passed away in the 19th.
That was also the time that he lost his job.
- [Francesca] So it was all happening at the same time?
- It was all happening in June.
And so we came back here, and we decided to do this.
We opened this place June 5th, 2015,
which was my mom's birthday,
and that was also the month of her first death anniversary.
We were late in opening for eight months,
and for eight months there was no money coming in.
It was all money out.
That's why the day before we opened this place,
we only had five dollars left in our pocket.
What are you gonna do with five dollars?
We could not even afford to buy everything
that we needed here.
I just could not believe that we were able to open
this place.
There were so many people, and they saw that name,
and they were so curious what it was all about.
Then that's where we saw new faces, new friends,
and those people kept on coming back.
Probably, if my mom was still alive,
I would not get to open this,
because my mom did not want me to do something like this
because she knew how hard it is.
It's not easy.
The customers that has been coming here,
they really accepted us with open arms.
I wish that we would be able to share this stuff
with more people.
- Tita Lalaine, thank you so much
for having me.
Thank you so much for having my mom.
I'm gonna cry for some reason.
I don't know why.
Hold on.
This is a really, really great experience,
and I'm really happy for you.
Why am I crying?
Hold on.
- See, the thing is, I should be the one crying.
I am so jealous that you still have your mom.
I don't.
- I think that's what I am most grateful for,
is being able to experience this not only with my mom,
but also, I think seeing the restaurant that you
and tito Romeo have built here in Delaware,
and you wanting to share our cuisine,
I think that's really, really awesome.
And you've been here for three years,
and I really wish you so many more.
- We're so proud of you for putting it out there.
- Thank you so much for watching this episode.
If you'd like to see more episodes of Halo Halo,
you can click here.
- Oh do you know that we have halo halo?
- Oh no!
- Yes!
- That's so bad.
- Yes, and our halo halo, you have to try,
because in English, that's gonna be called mix mix.
- [Romeo] No!
- Yeah-huh!