The Burong Baboy of Tarlac

I went home to my father’s hometown, Tarlac, Tarlac, in Central Luzon, to hunt for the burong baboy of my youth. The burong baboy is the Kapangpangan version of the tocino—cured and fermented pork slices that are eaten for breakfast with fried rice and eggs [tosilog, short for tocino, sinangag at itlog]. Burong baboy differs from tocino in that in place of thin pork slices, it is made with huge slabs of butterflied pieces of pork belly with a cross section of skin, fat, meat, and bone. The pork is layered with a cooked rice and salt mixture in a nonreactive container and allowed to ferment for several days to a week depending upon people’s preferences. To cook, the burong baboy is first simmered in water to render its fat and then sugar is added to produce caramelized pork with hints of sourness.