I'm a gal who likes to keep a few foodie friends around, for to feel a little less like a freak when eating in public--kinda like a tapeworm playdate.
Alas, we're of that age when peeps are wandering away from NYC to seek more affordable living, procreate, fight calamitous crime, etc. Last year, dear Heathie and her baguette-baking ways left for the West Coast. Next week, Big-Eyed Curvy Bombshell will start a shinier life in DC, free of the crushing tyranny of NY expenses.
<SOB> It's the end of an effing era.
Naturally, a sadistic schedule of ritual overeating is underway. (Hurray!)
We got wind of legendary lechon at Pistahan via Roboppy of Serious Eats; I sent Bombshell a text about pork fat on a Monday, and we were fanning ourselves in the languid heat of the tiny restaurant by Tuesday night.
If you require speedy service or air conditioning, this isn't the place to be. But if you have patience to spare and a hankering for home-style Filipino food, pull up a seat and ready the Pepcid.
Surprise! We unconsciously incorporated pork into everything we ate! Of course, there was the keystone lechon:
See how blistered-yet-glossy, burnished and beautiful? Drool. Crispy skin and moist, fat-laced meat, with a goodly cushion of, yep, MORE FAT separating the two layers. The dipping sauce is a vinegar-spiked, sweet, liver-y affair that manages to cleave through the lipid wonderland. THIS is fatty pork before fatty pork jumped the phucking shark.
I pussed out on the lechon, only eating 2 pieces--turns out, we hedged our crispy pork bets:
Pinakbet is my new favorite way to assuage vegetable guilt. A mix of tomatoes, okra, kabocha pumpkin, eggplants, bittermelon, skinny Chinese long beans, and fat waxy green beans stir-fried in shrimp paste and topped with lechon, this is definitely an omnivore's plate of veggies. Fermented-seafood-funky, fresh, impossible to stop eating, and the main reason I didn't have more room for straight-up lechon.
Bombshell, nostalgic for her Momma's cooking, made a beeline for soupy childhood comfort:
Meet Sinigang Na Baboy, or sour tamarind soup with pork and veggies. Bombshell watched expectantly as I sipped, and laughed when my face gathered into the inevitable pucker of the uninitiated. I've got a pretty good tolerance for wicked spicy or salty things, but the sour receptors on my tongue are not nearly as full-powered as the vinegar-loving Bombshell's.
Once I got past the first couple of face-scrunching spoonfuls, sinigang went down pretty easy. As the pork-rich broth settled into the cracks in my stomach, the sticky, sleepy surroundings won me over, and I felt my shoulders slump in satisfaction.
I am really, really going to miss her.
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Pistahan
229 1st Ave
(Btwn 13th & 14th St.)
East Village
NYC, NY 10003
Ph: 212-228-9000
We liked everything we had: Lechon Kawali, Pinakbet, Sinigang Na Baboy
Want to try:
- Ginataang Sari Sari (Mixed Filipino vegetables cooked in coconut milk)
- Laing (Taro Leaves simmered in coconut milk served w/ chopped lechon)
- Relyenong Talong (Stuffed eggplant cooked with egg and ground pork)
- Inihaw Na Bangus Sa Dahon Ng Saging (Tomato and onion stuffed milkfish grilled in banana leaves)
- Tinapang Bangus w/ Salty Egg (Smoked boneless milkfish served w/ tomatoes and salted duck egg)
- Kalderetang Baka (Chunks of beef sautéed in a spicy tomato sauce w/ raisins, potatoes and pickles)
- Kare Kare Oxtail (tendons and vegetables cooked in a peanut sauce served w/ a salty shrimp paste)
- Bulalo (Chunks of beef and marrow cooked in a vegetable soup), Sans Rival (Layers of crunchy cashew meringue with light butter creme)
RED ALERT: A commenter on Serious Eats mentioned that Pistahan is looking for a new owner; sadly, 'tis true, Bombshell and I spied a sign on a storefront.
Et tu, Pistahan?!
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