Gordon Ramsay And Anthony Bourdain Were Enamored By This Filipino Dish

While Thai, Japanese, and Chinese dining comprise most Asian restaurants in the U.S., Filipino cuisine offers a mouthwatering array of culinary creations, too. Famed dishes you should know include adobo — a range of vinegar-inflected stews — as well as crunchy lumpia egg rolls, and Filipino pancit (noodle) dishes. Yet for culinary icons Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Bourdain, it's the meaty delights of sisig that especially captivated.

Across his shows, Bourdain recommended pork over chicken and other meats; sisig takes the delights of the protein to a pinnacle. The dish consists of pork head cuts like ears, brain, and cheeks, mixed with more offal like liver (occasionally of chicken), as well as pork belly. All the meat is cut into small, bite-sized pieces, then simmered and fried. Meanwhile, the crispy pork bits are flavored with chiles, garlic, and a dose of calamansi citrus juice, before being smothered in eggs and mayo. Served on a sizzling pan, sisig comes together into a decadent dish full of savory, tangy, and creamy elements, perfect alongside rice.

Often a street food, sisig is also frequently associated with drinking. "Possibly the best thing you could ever eat with a cold beer," noted Bourdain in his "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" Manila episode (via YouTube). Not to mention, the food is considered a hangover cure in the Philippines. A rich dish often enjoyed in a buzzing setting, sisig offers a visceral experience, an appeal that continues to intrigue. Ramsay even once called it the best dish he'd tasted in recent memory (via YouTube).

Although pork dishes have long served as a prominent part of Filipino cuisine, sisig is a relatively modern creation. Intriguingly, the dish first emerged as a salad, defined by its tangy vinegar or calamansi dressing. While meats and seafood increasingly appeared in the template, the food typically functioned as a side. Pork didn't appear until the mid-20th century, when local cooks started using pig cuts thrown away at an American military base.

One of the city's chefs — named Aling Lucing —  promoted the dish to iconic status. She melded together the techniques of grilling, frying, and boiling the meat, serving it on a sizzling platter, all while balancing the sisig with a tangy sauce. Her stall became an Angeles City destination, visited by Anthony Bourdain himself in an episode of "No Reservations." Aling Lucing's culinary efforts spread the joys of sisig, both into other regions of the Philippines, and beyond.

In fact, the version Gordon Ramsay lauded came out of Melbourne, Australia, restaurant Serai. An innovative sisig taco crafted by Filipino-born chef Ross Magnaye, the rendition captivated the chef; "To see what he's doing with that evolution of Filipino food is exceptional," said Ramsay (via YouTube). So look out for sisig, more underrated offal cuts, and Filipino dining as a whole — it's a cuisine with remarkable creations.