Kitchen Confidential: How Manyaman Foods mastered the chicharon

It took over 100 tries before Manyaman Foods owner Marian Talavera felt she perfected the crunch of a chicharon.

“Nag-start lang kami sa pack ng balat kinukuha namin sa Chinese store. Pinag-aralan namin nung pandemic—maraming beses mga 100 times,” said Talavera.

(We started with buying packs of pork rinds from the Chinese store. We studied (how to make chicharon) during the pandemic—we tried about 100 times.)

“Me process kasi. Dapat dry for four to five days. Pag nawala na yung oil, ipi-prito,” said Talavera.

(There’s a process. It needs to dry for four to five days. When the oil is gone, that’s when we fry them.)

The deep-fried pork rind is a favourite Filipino pulutan (snack) that goes well with vinegar dip and diced chili peppers, or enjoyed on top of ginisang monggo, or pansit.

Manyaman Foods started selling chicharon through Facebook, but word-of-mouth of their special product spread so fast that restaurants started calling them for the deep-fried delicacy.

“Yun ang mabenta. Kasi iba yung texture niya, hindi siya matigas.” (That’s our bestseller. The texture is different, and it doesn’t have hard parts.)

Asked whether they work full-time at the store, Talavera revealed that she works weekdays as a property manager, while her husband works as a full-time mechanic.

“Pagka-weekend dito na sa store. Malakas ang catering.” (Weekends we are at the store. The catering orders are strong.)

Once the brick-and-mortar store located at 1725 Kingston Rd. in Pickering opened in November 2021, the owners added many dishes to their menu.

Made-to-order dishes such as lechon kawali, pork barbecue, pansit, lumpia, leche flan, sisig, halo-halo, Bicol express and their bestseller kare-kare rounded up their offerings.

“Nag-decide kami ng cook-to-order. Prefer nila ang sahog. Meron kasing me allergies sa shrimp,” Talavera said.

(We decided to do cook-to-order dishes as customers prefer to pick ingredients. Some have allergies to shrimp.)

They also sell frozen homemade tocino and longganisa, vinegar dip for their chicharon, crab paste and atsara (pickled vegetables).

The chicharon packs sell for $7 each. Their customers come from Scarborough, Ajax and Durham.

Manyaman means masarap (delicious) in Kapampangan—one of the Philippines’ many dialects.

It’s no wonder people keep coming back for more.