If you don´t eat meat or don´t indulge in swine, then you don´t really need to read this. Anyway, the chicharrones were just recently fried in their own fat. My dad and I ate a plate of them hot and with tortillas and chile. Ena Frank, my cousin, served up a large plate of them and we all commented on how it was too much, and yet I dug into that plate with my dad and if she´d have brought more, I would have eaten them too. They were slightly chewy, just made, but she put some in a bag to take home and they´ve become crispy. They will not go to waste.
Actually, isn´t that really the concept of the pig? Nothing goes to waste with it. You eat everything but the squeal and I think that if there were a way to fry the squeal in it´s own squeaky grease we´d eat that too.
Anyway, I visted Ena Frank last year with my cousin Franco´s family and my Tia Ena and Tio Chico. At the time, they were building the house and so you could see the layout of it with the concrete walls and nothing else. Now, it´s a proper house with rooms and tile floors and stairs leading down to the lower level with an outdoor kitchen (perfect for laying out a just killed piggy about to be turned into nacatamales and chicharrones). Her husband Alexis, cut a mahogany tree down for the doors. They wanted to also make the ceilings mahogany but there´s a limit as to how many precious-wood trees you can cut down. The place is right off the highway, kind of lonesome with few neighbors, though all of Alexis´ family lives nearby.
Ena Frank has a business of piñateria. Basically she imports party favors and sells them in a little store in the town. She goes to Panama to buy piñatas, party favors, table cloths, napkins, centerpieces, etc. Alexis is a rancher, thus the proliferation of chickens and lovely pigs.
Later that evening, we partook of some of the chicharrones with my Tia Mireya and Tio Felipe. People cannot resist these tasty morsels of pig fat. Mmmmm.
