Carcar Chicharon: Best Before Departure
On the way back from Simala, my driver asked if he could make a stop. We were in Carcar, and he wanted to buy chicharon. It wasn’t often, he said, that you got all the way out here.
I said of course, and bought a bag of my own.
Chicharon is fried pork skin, and Carcar, in the south of Cebu, is known for it. Some people, he told me, travel an hour just to buy it. The national cultural agency’s register of cultural property has an entry for the city of Carcar that reads, simply, Chicharon. It is filed under Intangible.
The chicharon itself is extremely tangible.
The original…
We stopped at a stall called FLOR & TAZAR. THE ORIGINAL…, said the sign, and then, after a pause, the name.
On its left, another stall offered CRISPY CHICHARON.
The chicharon was heaped in two big glass cases, one pile darker than the other. There were two flavours, salted and spicy. I bought only the salted. I already suspected I would not get through both.
The skin is boiled, then fried. At one factory in Carcar, the first fry leaves the rinds gummy and rubbery, and a second, in hot oil, turns them into big pieces of chicharon in less than fifteen seconds.
Going home
My bag was not going to travel. I was flying home to Japan the next day.
Japan’s animal quarantine covers pork products in any form, skin included, and it makes no difference whether it has been cooked, vacuum-packed or bought in a small amount for yourself. Without an inspection certificate, it cannot come in. My bag did not come with one.
I was not the first visitor that year with this problem. A month before I came, Carcar hosted a regional sports meet. According to one vendor, the athletes from Bohol and Negros Oriental could not take chicharon home, because their provinces were not letting in pork products from Cebu. They bought ampaw, puffed rice, to take home instead.
While they were in Carcar, the vendor said, they bought and ate a lot of chicharon.
My driver’s chicharon was going home with him.
That evening
That evening, in my hotel room, I opened the bag. By any reasonable measure it is a wicked thing to eat, and it was lighter than I had expected. It went well with beer.
I had taken the athletes’ way out. They had had several days. I had one evening, and I finished the bag.
Chicharon can puff up in less than fifteen seconds. My stomach took a good deal longer to settle.
Location
Restaurant
FLOR & TAZAR Special Chicharon and Delicacies
On the national highway through Carcar City, in the south of Cebu
Natalio B. Bacalso South National Highway, Carcar City, Cebu, Philippines
Practical Information
- Food
- Chicharon — fried pork skin (salted; spicy also available when I visited in May 2023)
- Taking it to Japan
- Chicharon is a pork product. Japan’s animal quarantine does not allow pork products in without an inspection certificate, even cooked, vacuum-packed or in small amounts. Plan to eat it before you fly.
Information last checked: October 23, 2026 (Stall location and Japan’s animal-quarantine guidance checked. Opening hours and current prices are not confirmed.)
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