A specialty of Ilocos Norte, above all Batac: a whole slab of pork belly boiled, air-dried and fried twice until the skin cracks like glass. Ilocanos perfected the method in a dry region without refrigeration, since the double fry keeps the meat for days. Cold leftovers end up in pinakbet or over the next day's rice.
Ingredients
1 kg pork belly, whole slab
2 tbsp coarse salt
1 L oil for deep-frying
3 ripe chopped tomatoes (for the KBL)
4 shallots
1 tbsp bagoong monamon
steamed white rice to serve
650–900 kcal per typical serving.
Per 150-180 g fried serving without rice; each cup of white rice adds ~200 kcal. (estimated from the typical recipe)
