Chicharon is pork rind cracklings and an all-time favorite by Filipinos. It's a preferred "pulutan" or a food eaten with alcohol, a snack or as a dish to eat with rice. It varies from just plain salty to spicy flavor.
Famous place that manufactures chicharon? Santa Maria, Bulacan!
Image credit: Wikipedia
Quoted below are from the article: Chicharon Industry of Santa Maria, Bulacan.
Image credit: Philippine Asian News Today
"Santa Maria is a first-class urban municipality located 32 kilometers northeast of Manila. It gets at least a tenth of its income from crackled pork skins that remain a favorite snack of Filipinos. It has a booming agri-based industry that focuses more on poultry and raising pigs with more than 150 poultry and piggery farms scattered around the municipality. The swine farms are the main source of pigs whose skins become the pork rind cracklings that many Filipinos love to consume."
“This need for chicharon has made Santa Maria into a popular tourist destination, attracting people from around the country who are curious and want a taste of the town’s most famous product,” said Marina Concepcion, municipal tourism officer of Santa Maria. She also added that the chicharon industry and the tradition of making chicharon, was inherited from our grandparents.
"Did you know that there are many different kinds of chicharon in the Philippines? Chicharon with laman is pork rind that has the meat still attached to it. Laman is the Tagalog word for flesh or meat.
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Chicharon with special laman uses pork loin with fat and much thicker meat. Chicharon cocktail is just pork skin without the fat attached to it. Chicharon bilog is pork belly skin while chicharon bituka is deep fried large intestines of the pig. Bituka is the Tagalog word for intestines.
Image credit: https://www.aboutfilipinofood.com/chicharon/
Chicharon bulaklak is pork intestine railings that are thoroughly cleaned, blanched and cooked. Chicharon bits are chicharon without fat or meat. The size and shape of chicharon bits is similar to popcorn.Ground chicharon is crushed pieces of chicharon which is ready to be mixed into classic Filipino dishes like ginisang munggo, ginisang mixed vegetables, binagoongan, lugaw (porridge) and pinakbet.
Image credit: https://www.aboutfilipinofood.com/tag/chicharon/
Ground chicharon is also used as a topping for noodle dishes like pancit palabok, pancit Malabon and La Paz batchoy.
Since there are these types of chicharon referring to different parts of the pig’s body other than the skin, what will you call the original chicharon that’s the pork rind, like with the actual skin? That would be chicharon balat. The Tagalog word for skin is balat. The name chicharon is sometime spelled tsitsaron and even as sitsaron in classic Tagalog orthography."
Image credit: https://margauxlicious.com/2014/12/27/porky-gifts-for-the-holidays/
Image credit: http://alvarezhervin.blogspot.com/2012/12/chicharon-pambansang-junk-food-ng-pinas.html
Did you know that this deep-fried pork rind originated from Spain? Chicharron is a Spanish name of pork rinds. Though the origin of the dish is lying in the Andalusia state of Spain, but it has gained popularity throughout the world. Source: https://pinoychicharon.wordpress.com/history-of-chicharon-2/
Just remember not to overeat this bad boy because you have to watch that weight and cholesterol!😜😎