Popular Liempo Recipes You Can Do Right Now

September is here and that rings in the holiday season for Filipinos. This means that butchers and small businesses are becoming busier as they try to keep up with the demand for pork. One of the popular pork meat cuts that Filipinos will be looking for to prepare holiday dishes is called liempo. This term simply refers to pork belly -- the fattiest and most flavorful part -- which can be cut in a number of ways: whole, bone-in, lechon kawali cut (cubes), country style (thin slabs for barbecue), and bacon slice. 

What makes pork belly a crowd-pleaser? Its alternating layers of fat and meat renders oil that can make broth ambrosial and flavor-rich. Liempo can also be fried to turn into crispy and deliciously crunchy guilty pleasure for any occasion. When put on the grill, liempo with rub or basted with your favorite marinade can be the most succulent and juiciest barbecue you’ll ever have. In other words, there’s no shortage of ways you can mix it up and produce dishes using this particular cut. In fact, a lot of pork dishes in the Philippines can be substituted with liempo.