Chicharon is pork crackling or deep fried pork rinds in Tagalog. I got this pack in Manila for 30 Philippine pesos (about RM 2). This is sold as a snack in ’90s style popcorn packaging. Well, at least popcorn was packaged that way in my hometown of Sibu at that time and sold in bakeries (!!!).
The price for chicharon can range from 10 PHP to either side, depending on the brand. Also, the price can change from vendor to vendor for the same thing depending on how much they reckon they can rip you off for. The different brands mostly looks the same, with the manufacturer slipping in a small paper insert to differentiate their products.
This one is called Angelo Special Pork Chicharon and comes with a smiling pig, very much oblivious to what he’s about to become by the looks of it. 
You can see that it’s slightly wet – the street vendors in Manila will offer to open and douse the packet of chicharon generously with vinegar from a dodgy recycled bottle with a hole at the top. It’s apparently the local way to eat it. I found it quite nice but there’s only so much pork crackling you can eat before you get sick of it.
7-Eleven in the Philippines also sells a microwavable chicharon under their 7Fresh store brand. The price is heavily inflated but you can actually bring it back home – I brought back 2 packs, one for my family and one for a friend of mine. I think some people actually do eat it like popcorn!
The fresh ones packaged like the one I had in Manila doesn’t keep too long though – it’ll start to become stale after a couple of hours. You can usually find it where they sell balut. It’s quite tasty though but very, very oily, so if you don’t adore pork, this is probably not for you. 🙂
I love these pork rinds. Had a bit too much than I should when I was in Thailand. Can’t wait to do Manila next year and go silly on these rinds.
I love pork rinds too! 🙂
Haha! Yeah, that’s the same problem I had too, even sharing the packet, I couldn’t finish it. There is such a thing as “too much of a good thing”.
Nice! I haven’t eaten the ones in Thailand. The ones in Manila is given a lot of shakes with a bottle that contains vinegar – it wasn’t so much offered to me as the street vendor seeing that I was not from around town and opening it for me and shaking the vinegar into the package. Heh.
Not me. I would happily eat the whole bag and get another one.
I would too, but that’s *a lot* of pork rinds mate. 🙂
It tastes good with the vinegar mixture that came out of a bottle though. A great way to eat it, although it can get very messy with the oil from the pork rinds (these are relatively freshly bagged) and the vinegar on top of that.
However, that’s part of the fun. I ate balut and chicharon at the same setting (the vendors are the same) so after a couple of the former I didn’t have much room for the latter.
Yet to eat the packet you sent me, buddy… Probably will wait till I get back from NZ – going for my girl’s convo but will be home before Christmas. Or maybe I can save for Chinese New Year and serve it to guests dropping by – share the love!!! Nom! Nom! Nom! LOL!!! Thanks again for the thought, Huai Bin – so sweet of you to go through the trouble. Much appreciated.
No worries buddy! 🙂
It’s not going to expire so soon – I brought the other packet over to Singapore for my parents during my last trip there.
The Filipinos eat it with vinegar, it really does taste better that way but I don’t know what kind of vinegar it was, I lacked the lingual skills to communicate, only knew that it was vinegar.
It’s my pleasure mate, hope you had a great birthday this year!
came from your fb page share. this made me laugh like crazy man in the opis:
This one is called Angelo Special Pork Chicharon and comes with a smiling pig, very much oblivious to what he’s about to become by the looks of it. smirk
Haha! Glad you liked it mate! 🙂
Well, I just wrote what I felt was a bit off with the picture. There’s another rather hilarious sign that I saw, you just made me think of it. Let me see if I can scare it up.
http://sixthseal.com/2004/07/hot-pot-herbs-spices-mutton-soup/
Took me a while to find, the old posts are missing all the comments and the tagging is off.
Anyway, that was another sign that didn’t quite gel with the product.
Thanks for reading!
Ooooo… Looks sinful!!! @_@
They have rice in 7-11 there!
Yeah, they have all sorts of things in 7-11 there. 🙂
I bought this *HUGE* 1 liter bottle of local beer that I got the first night we arrived. They also have rice and other pre-packaged meals that you can just heat up in the microwave. It’s quite good and relatively cheap but the portion is small.
Chicharon is very sinful indeed! They usually eat it with beer over there (as well as balut) but I can’t for the life of me pair beer and balut, the latter tastes good on its own. Chicharon goes well with beer though.
I used to go to manila every month and i like the chicaron from R.Lapid’s those are the best!!!
Nice! Where can you get the R.Lapid ones? From the stalls or in a shop?
I would love to go to Manila again.
Thanks for the tip Eiling! 🙂
Oh gosh…what a sinful snack!
U know what, I love to check out 7-11 whenever I am at oversea. Cos they have lots of interesting stuffs inside especially HK. I will refrain myself to go in Msia 7-11 unless my other half desperately need a condom.ahhahahahahh
Haha! Yeah, it is indeed, but that’s what so awesome about it. 😀
Pork rinds with a generous dash of vinegar, can’t get better than that.
I agree! The ones in Bali are pretty awesome too – they have seats outside, unlike the ones over there. I know there’s a very popular 7-11 in Lam Kwai Fong where people go to get alcohol before going to the full priced bars when I was in Hong Kong.
Haha! I guess that’s the convenience of a 24 hour shop. 😉
I go there when I need to get food at odd hours.
Cheers Yee Ling! 🙂
Mmm, looks good. One correction though, chicharon is a Spanish word (I live in the Bay Area of California so there is a heavy Hispanic population). The Phillipines were a Spanish colony so there is still a heavy linguistic and cultural legacy left by Spain. Actually, many Phillipinos who are upper and middle class have Spanish surnames because, as with any colony, the local political and economic ruling class interbreeds and intermarries with their colonizers and due to the prevailing racism of that era native peoples who had English/French/Spanish etc. blood were often given more rights and privileges to better education and access to the important political and economic positions within the colonies. In fact, even to this day in Liberia the upper class clings onto the distinction that their ancestors were from America (freed slaves were encouraged to immigrate to Liberia in the 1800s from the USA) and this mulatto ruling class uses this as justification for the Liberian caste system.