Press Kit

PRITCHON™
Ang Lechon ng Bayan!

By Robie Sandoval
June 1, 2001

LECHON, LECHON, LECHON. The traditional, spit roasted oinker. Where there’s a fiesta, there’s lechon, the highlight of every buffet. It’s almost a status symbol!

And it’s delectable. But the spit - roasting system is soooo old, that some variation is called far. Admittedly, a fiesta minus the lechon is not a fiesta. It looks grand on the table. Everyone gathers round, pinch off skin, and before you know it, the pig is rendered naked faster than the chopper can chop!

Then they disinterestedly turns their backs on the pale carcass of fat, ready for the paksiw pot Tradition is good, but lechon could use some reinventing. After all, it is a new milienium!

"Ano kaya kung ipinirito natin ng buo!" Charlie Esguerra pondered one day in a traffic jam. The son of enterprising couple Engr. and Mrs. Pastor B. Esguerra, Charlie ruminated on business possibilities, given the resources available to him.

A food business was practical. So he gathered his wife Diana. two of his friends, Engr Tito Mirando and Mr. Noel Flores and their wives, and toyed with the idea of frying one whole pig.

The task had inherent problems, though. First, where could they get a frying pan that big?! They tried a commercially available pan, but the legs stuck out They needed one the size of a small bathtub!

Loaded with Pinoy ingenuity and " abilidad", they come up with the THE FRYING PAN designed and made by them. If you see it, you are reminded of the bathtub of the old days.

Next problem: Would it taste good? Charlie’s older brother Oca runs the family piggery in Bulacan. That made "test subjects" accessible. They started with a 45 day old piglet weighing 15 kilos, their target size for their "merchandise".

Next came the marinade. What oil? Toyo ba, patis ba, o asin lang? Or, will we marinade it at all? Finally, they came up with their marinade (secret) They put a couple of pails of palm oil into the tub and after on hour of frying a new venture was born.

It was delicious. Because they used a piglet its fat was almost non-existent. It wasn’t even greasy. Still thev fell something was missing Dina suggested they chop it up and put it in mini pita bread, a la peking duck complete with spring onions and hoisin sauce. End result: the gastronomical find of the new millennium!

To add variety, they experimented with other sauces aside from hoisin, particularly garlic sauce, sate, honey mustard, tagalog, honey lemon and good old liver sauce (home made with their own blend).

They all tasted great, so they sold it with four out of seven sauces to choose from. All equally tasty, and complementing the pork very well. I particularly liked the sate sauce, an "in-house blend" that is sufficiently spicy without losing the taste of the meat.

To date, they have sold over a hundred of these delicacies to over a hundred satisfied customers! We had one for Easter lunch and we have been talking and dreaming about it since. Kids (young and old! enjoyed it so much that nothing was left for the next day’s paksiw. And to think - its s more or less the price you'd pay for on ordinary lechon from the more famous lechon houses.

The Pritchon™ (as opposed to peking pig) stands piniritong lechon, on innovation and a welcome change from the old tradition. It still sports the some roosted look but more brownish than reddish, and minus the oily shine It’s a must for all the fiestas for this new millennium!.

Where it is available? At 187 Ilocos Sur Street Bago Bantay, Quezon City. Orders require a 24 hour lead time (as in all lechonans), so call Charlie first at 926-2984 or 9210405 or text them at 0918-531-8851 or 0919-358-4627

By the way, because of all the testing and tasting came up with many other dishes too, such as the Pritcharon the Chicharong lechon, the Lion's Head (their version of spy ulo) and the Peking Manok. What are they like? Imagine.

Read Articles About Charlie’s Pritchon™

• It's A Wrap for Charlie's Pritchon
  Philippine Daily Inquirer
  Eric S. Caruncho
• The Whole Hog
  People Asia
  Patricia M. Romualdez
• A Tale of Turkey and the Deep Fried Pig
  Food Magazine
  Lori B. Baltazar
• Reinventing the Native Lechon
  Weekender -Business World
  Cherry C. Bobadilla
• Pritchon™... The lechon reinvented!
  Manila Bulletin - Sunday Leisure
  Lai Suarez-Reyes
• Pritchon™: The " Pritong Biik" Deep Fried in Stainless Steel Tub
  Philippine Star
  Millie Reyes
• Pritchon™ - Lechon Noveau
  Filipinas Magazine
  Ma. Regina Luz Danguilan
• PRITCHON™- Ang Lechon ng Bayan!
  By Robie Sandoval
  

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