it doesn't get any better than zubochon!

ah, cebu.

to this date, i still think of you fondly. i think of your sweet mangoes. i think of your wonderful beaches. i think of the cheap danggit to be had.

but most of all, i think of zubochon.

{according to ate marivi's driver, "ay ma'am dun sa may lumilipad na baboy"}

*sigh* zubochon. once, i said if i were dying of some deadly disease like cancer, i'll just eat bacon rather than have chemotherapy. now, it's going to be bacon + zubochon lechon. i promise you, happiness doesn't even begin to cover the feeling of partaking of their lechon.

but first, let's backtrack.

theo, cathy, and i volunteer in tuloy sa don bosco. we're from the thursday group (so kuya germs, i know!) ate marivi used to be a full-time volunteer. on theo's first summer, we were assigned to work on the summer program with the namuncura boys, ate marivi's dorm. all the other volunteers were deathly afraid of her; we weren't.

{technically, this should be the last pic ...

halata bang busog na kami?}

it was a sad day when ate marivi left and went back to cebu to take care of her parents. so imagine how excited we were to visit and catch up with her. when she picked us up from ayala center, she asked us, "cebu lechon or seafood?" smart theo replied, "lechon, since we can get seafood anywhere."

bless ate marivi's brother who recommended that we go to zubochon which, anthony bourdain christened as the "the best pig .... ever!"

{while i'm fat, best pig ever is the lechon, not me}

thing is, if there's one thing my friends know about me (or at least gay does), it's that i'm not a huge fan of lechon. not only that, i'm not a huge fan of the skin of the lechon. if at all, i love the meat part slathered with a whole lot of sauce. and, the few times i've tasted cebu lechon, it was okay. no choirs of heavenly angels, no smile slowly spreading over my face, no life changing moment. it's just lechon, and for me, without the sarsa, it wasn't my cup of tea. but, since i believe in a democracy (sometimes ... i tend to be a dictator with my friends, ha! ha!), i was okay with trying out zubochon.

deep inside, though, zubochon meant only one thing for me: i'll be able to try the kamias shake that tin recommended i taste. of course, i was a bit skeptical, but since i loved playing with kamias when i was a kid, i was okay with this choice. worst case scenario, i hate it.

{the kamias shake that changed my life. seriously}

first sip and i wished i could knock at my old house in pilar village and ask for our old kamias tree in the backyard. it was the best thing ever! perfect blend of sweet and sour, it was cool and refreshing, it was nothing at all like i expected when i first received the text message asking me to try it out. (and it was so good that my friends and i, on our last night, passed by zubochon just to have another glass of this kamias shake)

bit by bit our food started arriving ....

{everything in zubochon is good, including these seaweeds that i don't normally eat}

{sinigang na hipon}

i know, i know there should be a picture of the lechon we ate but, what can i say? as soon as it landed on the table, all thoughts of taking pictures for this blog (and for posterity) flew out the window. i wanted to claim my stake on the crispy skin (something i rarely eat in a traditional lechon) and if i could trick my friends into giving me more, i would've most likely done it. it was THAT good.

we also had fish but while it would've been great elsewhere (as well as the sinigang na hipon ... as i said, everything in zubochon was amazing), it was simply eclipsed by the fabulousness that came in grilled pig form. perfect is insufficient to describe the wonder that they turned the pig's skin to. and the meat, the meat ... i wouldn't mind sacrificing high cholesterol scores if i could eat that every single day (with bacon, of course, let's not forget my first love!).

the only sad thing was that zubochon was one of my first meals in cebu so everything else that came in after that just paled in comparison. there were times where i'd stare off in space and i'd have zubochon fantasies ... the crispy lechon skin, the refreshing kamias shake ... one meal, and i was a goner.

and you know what, i still have fantasies of that flying pig ... even more than a week later.