WE CAME TO CEBU CITY FOR THIS! The ULTIMATE Lechon in Cebu Philippines 🇵🇭 (first time trying lecho

I didn't expect all this. Early, early June breakfast. Oh, yeah. First bite. I cannot remember when something tasted that good. I'm obsessed with this. Thank you. We feel like we're family here, though. Yeah. We have marine spaghetti here. Am I going to like this? Yeah. That came from this. Oh, my God. You guys tricked me. Welcome to Cebu City. We've been here on the island of Cebu for about a week now. We've been exploring the southern region. And now we decided to come back to Cebu City because it is known as the capital of Lechon. And we knew we needed to come back and try Lechon directly from the source. So as I was doing research to try to find the best place to try Lechon here in Cebu City, I came across Mark Wine's video. And one of the places he went to really stood out to me. And it's called Gogo's Lechon. So I contacted the owner on Facebook, asked him if it was OK if we came to film one morning. He said, of course, be here at 4 a.m. on Sunday. So we woke up at 3 a.m. this morning. It took a 45 minute taxi to come to Gogo's Lechon to try the famous Cebu Lechon for ourselves. So we just arrived. You can see the smoke coming up from down below where they're already roasting Lechon. Oh, it smells so good. It's barely 4 a.m. We just got here. They're already making like 10 plus pigs. And it honestly looks like they're almost finished cooking. It's crazy. What time do you start today? 1. 1 a.m. A long day, man. Looks like they have this system that's automatically turning the pigs. This man here is doing it manually still. Yeah, I saw your post last night. Nice to meet you, man. It smells so good. So you got to take a breakfast Lechon breakfast. Are you the owner of that? Yeah. Yeah, OK, sweet man. Well, thank you for having us. We really appreciate it. It's a pleasure. We're excited to be here. That's the next batch, huh? Yeah. That's good work, man. That's a lot of work. I'm sweating for you. Wow. We just saw the whole process. That is so crazy. So what they do is they take the clean pig. They take this like huge, long surgical needle, weave it through the rib cage. Then they take the big pole that it's going to like spin on on the spit and they shove it through it. Then he ties the threads from the rib onto the pole. And that's what like holds the pig onto the pole. How long have you been doing this? Four years. OK, nice. And what's your name? Hilbert. Hilbert. Nice to meet you, man. Then they just stuff it with all of the seasonings. Salt and then the umami. Mix it with some egg. And then the star anise, which we. Yeah, you got a lot of flavor. Oh, wow. That is fresh, isn't it? That smells so good. A little bit of bay leaves. OK, yeah. And then the white onion that they cut. No secret. Yeah, no secret. Good seasoning. And then he takes the needle and sews it up and make sure it's like really nice and tight so nothing falls out. It is so labor intensive. But I mean, it's a big process, but it's also quite simple at the same time. So did you do all these ones? Yeah. Wow, you're busy, yeah. How many pigs do you cook a day? Every day, maybe five to ten. Five to ten? Other day, Saturday, Sunday, we sell six to seven. OK, wow. Then Sunday, we sell 15. 15? Yeah. Wow, so today's a busy day. Yeah. OK. We call this budbud or suman in Manila. What is it? It's made of sticky rice. OK. And you roll it with a banana leaf. Try it. Oh, thank you. If you insist, I guess so. So sticky rice with mango. With mango, yeah. Yum. You're, thank you. And then this one is also, we call this in here is puto. Same sticky rice and then different in the way they cook. How is it? Good. I love sticky rice. And for breakfast, it's perfect. Yeah, it is. With the mango. Yeah. Thank you so much. I didn't know we were getting breakfast. He's so sweet. He even brought us breakfast. There's some sticky rice with mango, which is one of our favorites. Hold this over until the lechon's ready. That mango is so perfectly ripe. He also gave us, it's like some purple sticky rice. Oh, it's so good. Wow. And some apple, an apple beverage. Did you bring it down? He said it's like an apple tea. We haven't had this before. Heck yes. I didn't expect all this. No, we didn't. It was hard to make the salmon you get up at 2.45 today, but we're here. I mean, it was hard, but it really didn't take much. What are you guys doing here? It's your first bite. Really? Yeah. Is this the first one that's done today? Yeah. How long does it usually take? Three to four hours. OK. Here comes the juice. I love the sound of the crispiness. It's my first time ever having lechon. She's in for a treat. Oh, my gosh. Great skin. This is amazing. It's so salty and crispy and fatty underneath. And that crunch. This is so good. First bite. Oh, my goodness. I cannot remember when something tasted that good. That is absolutely fantastic. The best thing I've eaten is I can remember. It's so crunchy. I can't stop. Oh, worth waking up for, for sure. Early, early lechon breakfast. Oh, yeah. Do most people eat lechon for breakfast? Or is it later in the day? Yeah, later in the day. Later in the day. Yeah. It's pretty warm in here. Hot conditions for the workers. I'm hardly moving and I'm already sweating. So tell me, how did you get into this business? It's my parents. Oh, your parents? Yeah. Yeah, my parents. How many years has it been in your family? 35 years. 35? 35. 25? Yeah. Wow. You're a master now. A little. Does anybody ever buy like a whole pig? Yeah, we buy a whole pig. How much is a whole pig? 7,000, 8,000. Oh, 7,000. We are leaving the smoking pit and heading upstairs now to try this officially, I think. It's so hard to leave down here, though. I love the noises, the sizzling of the pig, the smells. OK, we get to officially try it now. Roasted chicken, too, huh? Nice. OK. This is called hanging rice, or fuso. So basically, it's rice cooked in coconut leaves. And it's going to be like the perfect pairing for like the roast chicken or the lechon. Or the barbecue. I'm assuming the rice is like a good pairing to like cut the fat of the roasted meats. That's so pretty, the way they wrap it, too. I know. Wow, everybody is so sweet, just explaining what everything is. And yeah, it's just really nice to be here. So how long have you been doing this? It's almost 10 years. 10 years? Yeah. Have a taste. OK. You make me. Oh, one fork. Thank you, thank you. So dip the fuso, and then there's the sauce. And then dip it here. Dip it in the juice. Wow. I'll mess it again. Oh my god. That is so salty and tender. And just, this pork is perfection. I've never had pork that tasted this good before. The rice, it does like, it cuts the saltiness, oiliness of the pork perfectly. And like dipping it in like the salty juices, it's very good. I'm obsessed with this. Breakfast is served. Wow. Hey, with the fuso. Thank you, my man. So she just gave us pickled papaya, which she said is an appetizer. I love that. It's like, pickly and sweet at the same time. Sweet and sour is the way she described it, which is perfect. Yeah, it's good. And they just dropped off. Wow, that is insane. Oh, we got so much skin too, which I'm so excited for. You're taking care of me. We feel like we're family here, though. Yeah. We're like, we're family. He said because we're very far from our home. That's so sweet. I just feel like we're at a family cookout right now. Should we try the soup? Sure. Thank you. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Peace. We're going to try the soup now. Balboa. So basically, it's like the hoofs, but stewed in a stew with like green onions and seasonings. Is it good? The hoof? It's fantastic. Scares me a little bit, but the broth looks amazing. It's so good. Oh, it's amazing. Oh my gosh. That tastes like the most flavorful beef broth, like seasoned with like garlic and green onion. And that is delicious. I'd be happy with just the soup. Oh my god. This was a pleasant surprise. Yeah. Are you supposed to eat the fat off the bone, or is it just for seasoning? It's my first time. Tobi and I always say that when we don't know what to do or we've never been somewhere before. We ask the other person, and he's like, this is my first time here. I don't know what's about to happen. Look at that skin. This meat is so tender, you guys. My favorite combo, I think, is the pusto with the skin. I love rice, and I love this crispy skin. That crunch. When's the last time we had something this delicious? I don't know. It's so delicious. I just noticed everyone else here is wearing gloves. We're messy, but we like it. The seasonings in there are so amazing. A bag? Aw, thank you. Mountain Dew, how'd you know? I haven't had a Mountain Dew in like 10 years, so thank you. Sounds amazing. Thank you. I used to love Mountain Dew. Too late for me. It's OK. I like them massive. It's all good. Thank you, though. Thank you. Mountain Dew. Can't wait to wake up this morning. I don't know if we can. We can't. It's too much food. No. Who brought us? Entire roast chicken. Whole roasted chicken. I'm not sure how we're going to eat this. Help. So juicy, too. Hot. Oh, yeah. That was a bite. Everything is so amazing. Tell me your favorites. I love everything. I love the different combinations of everything. Obviously, the lechon is my favorite. The soup, surprisingly, I love it. No kidding. I was very skeptical, but I love it. OK, this is like, it is 5.30, and this place is packed. Would you wake up at 5.30 to come get food? I mean, we would, but this is worth waking up for. It's that good. It's just filled with locals, too. You guys wake up at 5 AM to come eat here? Yeah. That's so great. Just met some of the locals having breakfast at the next table. They said they come here often. They like to come early, because it just gets so crowded here around 8 AM. It's not worth being here so busy. They love waking up at 5 to come eat breakfast here. I just think that is such a, like, I test it with how delicious the food is, and that, like, it's such a, like, community spot here, you know? And the place is packed. Nice to meet you. Bye. Nice to meet you. OK. Thank you. It's finally getting daylight. You can see Blue Hour just started. The sun is, like, rising up over there. I don't think I've ever been this stuff this early. I usually wait. I'm usually a late breakfast person, too. Today, we parked early. Yeah, but we have enough food here to keep us, like, lunch, snacks, and dinner all day. I brought the food for tomorrow, too. Perfect, you guys. So nice to meet you, man. Eric and what's your name? Arleto. What is it? Arleto. That's hard. Difficult for me. Awesome, man. Awesome. What's your name? Ah, Romeo. Romeo. Nice to meet you. Tommy, nice to meet you, Romeo. So it's only 6.30 now, and the restaurant is packed here. Every table is filled. So crazy on a Sunday morning how a place that serves lechon can be this busy. This is sea urchin inside a bottle. Yeah. That's interesting. Grated papaya, also. The achara. We call it achara. This is young jackfruit. Young jackfruit. Oh, yeah. With coconut. This is sea cucumber. So which one's your favorite? Both. We call it sunlutan. The inner part of a cucumber. Never tried that before. You want to try? Yeah, I will try. I'll stick around long enough today to bring you more food. Yep. We're going to wait until lunchtime here so we can keep eating. Okay, we have marine spaghetti here. Very good. It's like in a vinegar. It's super easy. It looks a little scary. It's actually really yummy. And this is the insides of a sea cucumber, which we've never had before. It's like a really good ceviche. So lemony, a little sour, and crunchy. The onions in there is really good. Look how great this is. I didn't even know something like this existed. Marine spaghetti. Am I going to like this? Salty vinegary with a spaghetti texture. Do you believe if... Okay, you can smell it. That came from this. Yeah. Show me, show me, show me. Yeah. So that kind of releases it from their body. Yeah, and that's what... Yeah. I thought that was good. You guys tricked me. Sea slug, yeah. She tricked me too. She tricked us. Okay. I told her. You revealed where it came from. Later on. I literally thought this was like grass or seaweed. No, this is expelled from an animal. It's a sea creature that lets go of this stuff and that's where this comes from. What was the name of the sea creature? Sea hare. What's that makes more sense? You have to find out throughout your country if you do some places. That's so funny. I literally, I thought it was like seaweed. No. You guys are tricking me. Later. You guys are all amazing. Thank you so much. So nice to meet everybody. Thank you for hosting us. Thank you very much. The sweetest. Thank you, thank you. I highly appreciate it. For climbing. Thank you, thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you. It's so a pleasure meeting you, my man. Thank you. Thank you again. You treat us like family. We really appreciate it. Yeah. So kind of you to host us. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. Keep working hard. Hopefully you sell out so you can get off early. Thank you. All right. So I want to give a huge shout out to everybody. Gogo Lechon from the owner, the staff, all the family. We love you guys. They treated us like family here. Wouldn't let us pay for anything. I hope you guys enjoyed the video. Thank you guys for watching. See you guys in the next one.