Pig's face and ears boiled, grilled and chopped fine with onion, chilli and calamansi, served on a sizzling iron plate.
What makes it sisig
Pig's face and ears — boiled, then grilled for char.
Chopped fine with onion, chilli and a little liver.
Soured with calamansi; served sizzling.
Where it comes from
Old Kapampangan dictionaries record sisig as a sour dish — green papaya or guava dressed with vinegar — and the sourness has stayed. The pork version most people know is usually credited to cooks in Angeles in the second half of the twentieth century; one story says the pigs' heads came cheap from the American air base nearby.
It's drinking food first. The sizzling plate, the raw egg or mayonnaise some stir in, and the argument about whether either belongs are all more recent.
How it varies
With egg
A raw egg cracked on top to cook on the hot plate.