I mentioned in our family group chat that Matt’s birthday was coming up and that his usual request in lieu of a gift was tons of sisig. No problem- you could buy pig heads online now for like $6. However, I wasn’t happy with the one I made last year; it just didn’t taste right (Matt was fine with it though).

Don’t get me wrong- I’m a sisig connoisseur. I’ve had every kind of sisig you can imagine (even a horrible one with heaps of ginger in it). My favorite one still remains this version that is basically boiled to almost the consistency of jelly and then cooked on a hot plate with a sauce made entirely of pig’s brain and mayo (the joys of fat).

And I could make it with my eyes closed too, but then perhaps, something gets lost when you’re making it en masse. Anyhow, will see how it goes this time.

All the sisig talk made me suddenly crave for sisig and I just remembered that 1) I had a pack of pork mince in the freezer and 2) I watched this video on a Filipina foodie’s TikTok account where she made ‘cheat sisig’ using- you guessed it- pork mince.

I didn’t have instant sisig mix which is good by the way, so I just used a mixture of lemon juice, cane vinegar, mayo and Kikkoman.

You need to put the mince under a really hot grill first to get the water out of it. Drain it and get your skillet or hot plate hot. Fry garlic and scallions, add butter and then mince. Don’t move it around too much so that it gets a good sear. Add the sour juices, mayo and soy sauce. Egg on top is optional.

Mince wouldn’t really have a lot of visible fat so it could taste a bit dry, but with hot rice, it’s good enough to be the real thing. Almost- but it doesn't matter because I’m making the real thing next week.