Zubuchon, Showcasing Cebu's Specialty, the Suckling Pig

 On the evening of our first night in Cebu, we went to try lechon at Zubuchon, the restaurant deigned by Anthony Bourdain as having "the best pig ever!" 

However, after sampling Zubuchon's wares I have to say either Bourdain was given a different lechon dish or he does not know what he is talking about.  Plbbbbbt.

Excited about the food ahead

Let's get right to it.  Beautifully cooked pork belly with just the right amount of crispy skin and layers upon layers of fat (that I try not to think too much about) and meat.  It had good flavor.  I particularly loved the vinegar dipping sauce that they had for the meat (but not sure that's saying much  as I would drink vinegar if it were socially acceptable)… 

But, I have two main complaints.  1) The pork was not served hot; it was served lukewarm-borderline-room-temperature, which meant that some of the fat had congealed, and 2) The bottom part, the actual meat, was a little tough and stringy.  

Food porn.

 Appetizers.  I wanted to try their pickled vegetables because I was picturing… well, pickles.  Dill pickle, pepper pickle, sweet pickle… Nope.  Instead we got pickled mangos, jicamas and something I could not identify.  It was not good - it was weird and had a funky aftertaste.  Pass!

 But it made for a pretty picture along with our refreshing shakes, which were made from mini star fruits.

 Have you seen this fruit before?  The mini starfruit.  I certainly haven't!  It was really, really tart.  Like eye-squinching, tongue-hurting, piercingly tart.  And that is from someone who loves things sour!

We picked stir fried rice and stir fried adobong kangkong (morning glory with huge pieces of garlic, strips of chicken and crispy pork skin) to go with our 300g of boneless pork.

Sorry Cebu, I like you (I mean I have visited you twice now) but why, oh why, does everything have  to have meat?  I tried to get us a vegetable dish but clearly failed because this was what was served.  I thought vegetarians had it bad in Hong Kong...

For dessert, we had budbud kabung, which is a Philippines dessert of millet cooked in coconut milk and wrapped in bamboo leaves.  It was served piping hot and it was so delicious!