The story
Sisig is old in Pampanga: a 1732 Kapampangan dictionary by the friar Diego Bergaño defines it as a sour salad of green papaya or guava. The sizzling pork version is much newer. In 1974 Lucia Cunanan, known as Aling Lucing, began serving grilled, chopped pig's ears and cheeks with vinegar, calamansi, onion and chicken liver on hot plates at her eatery by the old railway crossing in Angeles City. The story goes that pig heads were cheap or even free there because the kitchens of nearby Clark Air Base, a US installation, did not use them. Her sisig made Angeles the Sisig Capital of the Philippines.
Rival claims
A sour sisig salad is recorded in Pampanga from the 1700s; the sizzling pig's-head version was created by Lucia 'Aling Lucing' Cunanan in Angeles City in 1974.
Also known as sizzling sisig, sisig babi, pork sisig, Kapampangan sisig.
On the Meridish menu
Sisig was the main course on menu No. 16 on October 16, 2026. Its clue in the game, which hints at the place without naming it:
Chopped pig's cheeks and ears with liver, sizzling on a hot plate with calamansi and chilli. A cook here turned cheap cuts from a nearby US air base into a classic in 1974.
In Meridish, every dish is pinned to the town or city most widely credited with creating it. A guess within 25 km scores all 100 points. How scoring works.
Sources
Food history is often disputed. Think we've pinned it in the wrong place? Tell us at hello@meridish.com, ideally with a source.
