SETH: Chef.

JAVIER: Welcome.

SETH: Thanks, man.

JAVIER: Great to see you.

SETH: Smells petty good in here.

Is that the lechons roasting?

JAVIER: Definitely.

We got a lechon starting roasting probably about 5:00 this morning.

So it's been going throughout the day.

SETH: So this is the belly, right?

JAVIER: Yeah, this is the star of the show.

Basically it's a belly slab.

You can actually make bacon with this, you can make pancetta.

Basically, we're just going to score it all around.

SETH: Help the flavor really seep in there.

JAVIER: Definitely.

Yep.

First things first we have our house spices here.

Next, we're going to put the minced garlic, some pineapple chunks.

I put about two to three star anise as well to give it a nice little licorice aroma and flavor.

Next, we're going to do lemongrass.

Lemongrass is one of the most important ingredients for the lechon.

Green onions, scallions.

SETH: All right, so now it's time to trap all this flavor inside?

JAVIER: Yep.

Now we're going to start rolling it up.

You want to keep this as dry as you can.

That's going to help with the crispiness of the skin.

SETH: Can't wait to see it turn into a lechon.

JAVIER: Yeah.

Obviously the final product comes out burning hot, so you gotta really be careful.

SETH: Oh my God.

JAVIER: And this is a pretty big belly.

I mean every belly's a little bit different in size and weight.

SETH: So how long has this one been in the oven now?

JAVIER: This has been in there a little bit over five and a half hours.

SETH: And what are you looking for on this skin right here?

JAVIER: Basically, you just want that mahogany color, as smooth as you can.

SETH: So how you planning on slicing this one up?

JAVIER: I usually work in halves, so we'll cut it in half right from the get go.

SETH: Oh, look at that steam escaping.

I love to see that.

Wow, you can see all the fat right there, kind of, uh... JAVIER: It renders out over a period of time when you're, the slower you cook it.

That's kind of what you want, the little separation from the skin and the meat.

SETH: And then, you know, I know we're going to taste out there, but I gotta try just a little piece of the skin right here.

JAVIER: Grab it yourself and just... SETH: Oh my God.

JAVIER: It's crunchy.

It just shatters in your mouth.

I mean, it's like candy almost.

SETH: It's kind of a delicious kind of pork potato chip or something.

JAVIER: There you go.

SETH: And I mean, it's just, it's so crispy.

How is that even possible?

JAVIER: I mean, it's the art of cooking it for a really long period of time.

Filipino households, when they see a lechon and the skin's not crispy, you will get it.

SETH: Get out of there.

JAVIER: You will get it.

So the skin's the art of it, and this is my art right here.

I actually started my career cooking in a lot of local French restaurants in the area, but it was pretty easy to transition because I knew the techniques and transitioning it to Filipino food.

And that's kind of what got me where I am today.

Chefs all across the world are, especially these young Filipino chefs who've been cooking at a lot of fine dining restaurants, are going back to their childhood and trying to promote what they've been growing up eating.

It's amazing to see all these chefs doing that.

SETH: Chef, man, this looks, this looks pretty impressive.

You can see all the different sort of flavors inside, all the lemongrass, all the garlic.

Okay.

Coming in.

JAVIER: Little bit of salad on the side would go great with that as well, which is our ginger papaya salad.

I know you tried the skin in the back in the kitchen, but now you are going to have the full experience of actually eating the whole dish at once with the sauces, with the salad, and all that stuff, so.

SETH: I'm going to take a bite first and then we'll go for the sauces.

(crunching).

JAVIER: You hear that crunch?

SETH: Oh my God.

Javier, between the meat seasoned all the way through and the skin.

I don't even know if my mic's picking up that crunch, man, but I can hear it.

I can hear it, it's loud.

JAVIER: To tell you the truth, I've been making this for over five, six years, and every time I take a bite, it just, it brings me back to Cebu.

SETH: So this is kind the Rockville lechon belly.

If I went to Cebu, is this kind of what it would taste like?

JAVIER: Yeah, and that's why I pretty much go back almost every year.

Refresh my palate.

It gives me opportunities to actually make other specials as well when I come back here to America.

SETH: I was going to say, because you got the signature dish, but man, that's a big menu up there.

JAVIER: Yeah.

SETH: There's a lot, there's a lot to try.

JAVIER: As a chef, you always want to create stuff, you always want to come up with something new.

SETH: So what sauces should I be trying?

JAVIER: Over here we have the two sauces.

We have the spicy vinegar which we make in the house, and we have the famous Mang Tomas sauce which is like a all-purpose brown gravy.

Where I'm from in Cebu, we basically just use it like some type of vinegar.

Same goes for the salad.

I mean, it's such a rich, fatty dish, that you kind of want these acidic flavors to kind of refresh your palate a little bit.

SETH: So I'm a Montgomery County kid.

You moved to Montgomery County when you came from the Philippines?

JAVIER: Yep.

I actually moved here, to DC actually, in 1991 when I was about seven years old, but pretty much grew up here in the DMV area.

I moved to Montgomery County, in Germantown, to be exact when I was about in high school, and I've been here ever since.

SETH: And did you ever imagine, when you were growing up here, that Filipino food would be having kind of the moment it's having right now?

JAVIER: I mean, growing up as a kid, I never imagined it would actually be in like Montgomery County or Maryland in general.

We actually had to drive over the bridge to go to Virginia to try some Filipino food.

Over the last couple of decades, and it's obviously the new generation of Filipino chefs are changing that, and they're opening up all over.

SETH: It's kind of cool that you guys are focusing on this one dish because I know there's a lot of great Filipino restaurants in this area, but this is unique because it sort of showcases this flavor of Cebu where maybe, you know, there's a lot of islands in the Philippines, right?

JAVIER: Over 7,000.

SETH: 7,000 islands.

And no one, no one does roasted pork better than Cebu?

JAVIER: For me.

I think Cebu makes the best lechon in the world.

SETH: I believe you.

If I'm not careful, I'm just going to keep eating this all day.

That is so, so good.

JAVIER: Pork heaven?

(laughs).

SETH: You've taken me there.

Hey, Javier.

Thanks a lot, man.

I really appreciate it.

JAVIER: No problem.

Thank you for coming by and introducing my food to the world, to the DMV.

SETH: DMV, then the world.

JAVIER: Yeah.

There you go.