Twice-Fried · Crispy Pork Belly
Bagnet
Photo: CNEcija12345 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
In Ilocos it's usually dipped in KBL — a relish of kamatis, bagoong and lasona (tomato, fermented fish sauce and shallots) — which cuts through the fat of the crackling.
Pork belly is boiled low and slow with garlic and peppercorns, then left to dry out overnight before a final deep-fry blisters the skin into a shattering, chicharon-like crust. Ilocos market stalls and roadside eateries chop it into chunks over rice or into pinakbet.
Why it's made this way: Boiling and twice-frying let Ilocano households preserve pork for days without spoiling before refrigeration was available, a preservation trick that stuck around because the crispy result tasted too good to abandon.
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