Hayop na Degustation at Pepita's

Alain in the foreground in blue with a bunch of happy gourmands

Since Alain was in town, Gai herded the troop to indulged in a lechon degustation at Pepetia's Kitchen.

Note that this is my second lechon degustation in a week's time. The first was last Saturday at Aleth's with Greek Chef Anthony (with Kat and Jemgie). Yes, I know gluttony is a sin but it's hard to resist an invite to a lechon degustation.

Anyway, Hayop na Degustation is Dedet's new 12-course -  10 new dishes and two lechon de leches. We were the second batch to try her creative and yummy concoctions.

The meal started with a welcome drink called Pepita's Magic Potion which is cotton candy served in a cocktail glass with a shot of lambanog infused with dayop juice.

Bettina enjoying her Magic Potion

The second dish was pork rind tendon chips with her special sinigang na gabi dip.

Tendon chips with dip

The third was my favorite which Dedet dubbed as  "hiplog," short for hipon (shrimp) and itlog (egg). The egg is actually salted red egg sauce.

Hiplog

The fourth was another favorite, a bone marrow with oxtail marmalade and a special salt which is mixed with chicharon.

Bone marrow 

The fifth course was called salad surprise. She served micro greens with flowers and on the side, homemade cashew butter, yogurt cheese and a watermelon salt. The salt was the surprise because it pops in your mouth. She used pop rock candy which  I used to love when I was a kid.

Salad Surprise

The sixth was called Sipit sarap  a crab's claw cooked in deadly taba ng talanga, the orange-colored crab roe.

Sipit sarap

The seventh she called Lucky You, the noodles with garlic and basil oil. (No photo taken). Dedet said that this dish has no 'Hu Wow'  moment but it will prepare the guests to the next dish which is another favorite. The eight dish was called Lambada, spicy lamb  cooked in tomato sauce.

Lambada

The night was her Cheers Palate cleanser tamarind sorbet.

cheers palate cleanser

And finally, what I was waiting for - her Lechon de leches! She has several stuffings to choose from - the Pinoy has four stuffing choics - sisig rice, salted red eggs with garlic and anchovy, binagoongan rice, laing rice and bicol express rice   For the french, it's stuffed with truffle rice.  We chose the Lechon na Maalat (salty Lechon) which is stuffed with rice, salted egg, garlic and anchovies.

Lechon na Maalat

And for the second lechon, we ordered the Mailena de Leche, stuffed with spanish chorizo and taba ng talangka rice.

Mailena de Leche

Her cholesterol sweeper is oatmeal in white chocolate.

cholesterol sweeper

And the last item was the pinoy dessert, cassava brulee.

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  Pinoy dessert