‘Sisig’ sizzles, bids for Unesco fame

ANGELES CITY — The popular bar chow “sisig” – grilled pig cheeks and chicken liver chopped and served on a sizzling platter – is now officially part of this city’s heritage.

Sisig has always been on every Kapampangan dining table, but a recent ordinance has elevated this gastronomic delight to its new stature as a cultural icon.

A city ordinance was passed to safeguard and preserve the recipe and the manner of preparing authentic sisig. It also called for the promotion of “sizzling sisig” as a tourist attraction.

An annual Sisig Festival has been mandated in the fourth week of April, encouraging the participation of schools and community-based makers of the dish.

Sisig is also envisioned to help the city in vying for the title of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) Creative City for Gastronomy this year “to boost its claim as the culinary center of Central Luzon,” Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan said on Thursday.

A dictionary published in 1732 by an Augustinian priest, Fr. Diego Bergaño, had an entry for sisig, which was defined as unripe fruits or boiled pig ears or tails dipped in vinegar and eaten by pregnant women.

In 1974, out of a need to support seven children, Lucia “Aling Lucing” Cunanan improved and popularized the sisig, which became a hit to beer guzzlers in her stall beside the old tracks of the Philippine National Railways in this city.

The culinary legend was 80 years old when she was stabbed and killed on April 17, 2008.

It started to be enjoyed outside Pampanga province through Dan Tayag, former majority owner of Trellis Restaurant in Quezon City. Trellis used a similar sisig recipe but the dish was served on a hot plate.

“Cunanan invented the sisig as we know it today,” said artist and chef Claude Tayag. His book “Food Tour” has  a chapter titled “Sisig All the Way,” with a sketch of Cunanan, then known as the “Sisig Queen.”

Former Mayor Carmelo Lazatin began the Sisig Festival in 2003. The subsequent festivals produced 177 sisig recipes using, among other ingredients, “bayawak” (mountain lizards), “kamaru” (cricket) and “tugak” (frog).

For the last three years, Marquee Mall has been producing a giant sisig as centerpiece of its “Big Bite” food fest.