From feast to fast

I had a great lunch today in the company of some of Houston's nicest food luminaries and bloggers (and friends) at Godo's, to continue my current crusade to educate locals about Filipino cuisine. We at at Godo's, which is a Filipino restaurant/bakery/grocery store/community center/remittance zone (yes, FSM bless the immigrant entrepreneur), where we sampled the small but capable buffet steam table, and some additional goodies besides. Lechon kawali was a big hit - the name refers to lechon (roast pig) done in a wok (kawali). What it is is pork belly, simmered in vinegar and spices, and then deep fried, then chopped into unctuous and crispy cubes.

But of course, I had to bring up a shock value dish: day old chicken. I doubt if this will ever be served here in Houston :). Basically, when one is raising chickens, roosters are less valuable than hens. Unfortunately, with every batch of eggs, they will yield 50% roosters. Yet there is no way to sex a chick until it is hatched; not wanting to waste food on unwanted roosters, male chicks are usually immediately dispatched shortly after hatching.

Jay Francis tells me that here in America, those day old male chicks are ground into cat food (I contend that they may be mixed with meat glue and turned into McNuggets). In the Philippines, the chick is battered, deep fried, and served on a stick with beer.

I won't go much further into describing food, as we are approaching the start of Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday of atonement, which dictates fasting for the observant. No need to tempt :).