8 Philippine Showbiz Today
8 Philippine Showbiz Today
October 22 - November 7 , 2016 Jan . 22-Feb . 7 , 2015
Feature Story
Chicharon industry of Sta . Maria , Bulacan
by Jose K . Lirios PST Manila Correspondent
Four days before Valentine ’ s Day , the town of Santa Maria in Bulacan celebrates the Chicharon Festival . It is a special day indeed that celebrates a very popular and delicious Filipino snack that sometimes results in heart burn and high blood pressure if consumed in large quantities .
The manufacturers of chicharon ( pork rind crackling ) in this first-class urban town are given a well-deserved day of recognition during the annual Chicharon Festival that is held every February 10th . The local government of Santa Maria holds the festival in line with the celebration of the feast of the municipality ’ s patron , the Immaculate Concepcion .
During the Chicharon Festival , the makers of chicharon present their product in different stylish ways and in different sizes and shapes . Those who are creative even put on costumes and floats to show off their chicharon in the traditional parade held around Santa Maria . The festivities also held a cooking festival for college students who came up with several new recipes that made good use of chicharon , like chicharon steak .
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 .
According to Jimmy Corpuz , the ex-officio chair of the Bulacan Heritage Conservation Society , the beginnings or origins of the local chicharon industry of Santa Maria can be traced back to Pacencia de la Torre-Tuazon . She is said to have started the town ’ s chicharon industry as a backyard trade when she decided to make use of leftover portions of a butchered pig instead of throwing it away . Santa Maria ’ s chicharon industry started from humble beginnings in the 1900s , mostly from backyard piggeries and swine raisers .
Corpuz proudly said that the Santa Maria chicharon is billed as a Bulacan brand at par with the popular sisig of Pampanga . The producers of chicharon have their own secret preparations or recipes for making chicharon but others have been importing pork skin from foreign countries like Spain , Australia , the United States and Canada .
Reynaldo Buenviaje , the
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 .
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 . 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 . ●
Jose “ JP ” K . Lirios is a graduate of the Universtiy of the East , majoring in English and has been writing for publications such as The Manila Times , Business World and Philippines Free Press . We are honoured to have JP on board as our feature writer on PST .
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 agribased 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 .
Fortune Lorenzo , municipal planning and development officer of Santa Maria , said the booming chicharon industry is composed of more than 20 chicharon manufacturers and they have given the town an unprecedented economic boom for several years .
“ 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 owner of Daboy Chicharon , said the demand for chicharon today is very high and because Filipinos can ’ t get enough of it and keep on consuming a lot of chicharon , he sometimes has a supply problem with pork skin . Hence , the importation of pork skin from other countries . After taking lessons on how to make chicharon from his aunt , Buenviaje decided to put up his own chicharon business in 2002 .
Jennifer Torres , the owner of Jenny ’ s Chicharon , said she and her husband started their chicharon business in 1986 and their brand became more popular and in demand when they introduced microwavable chicharon packs to the market .
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 .
Chicharon with special laman uses pork loin with fat and much thicker meat . Chicharon cocktail is just pork skin without