Salakot Sizzle and Grill Restaurant

I was going to remove this article, but I decided not to because maybe a miracle will still happen, but I was informed today (Dec. 14, 2012) that Salakot has gone out of business, I am very sorry to announce. This is a true shame, but maybe you can still enjoy the article, even if you can’t enjoy the food.

We have become repeat customers of Salakot (what I call "Sack-a-lot", just to get a rise out of my Filipino wife) because, apparently, the owner, E.J. either mesmerized us the first time we went there, or he’s one of those Mangkukulans (a Philippines version of your standard witch) and cast a repeat-customer curse on us. Or maybe, just maybe, we keep going back because the food is excellent.

I took my white trash family there to gauge their response to ethnic food to which they had little or no exposure. ("White trash" by LA standards means middleclass suburbanites with zero metrosexual tendencies who disdain political correctness and make fun of those who practice it at every opportunity; we are increasingly rare in Southern California.)  

My Family

My wife and I—and E.J.—all survived the night, which is a good sign, as my family doesn’t go anywhere without brass knuckles, leather saps and an array of throwing knives (after all, handguns are just so passé in Los Angeles), and they are not easy to please.

We started with the pork sinigang, which was nearly as good as my wife’s, which is high praise indeed. Naturally, we had the standard mound of delicious garlic fried rice and—as always—I ordered the liempo (marinated and grilled pork belly) because I just don’t think I can go on living without a regular infusion of Salakot’s brand of pork fat. My wife ordered the bulalo, after some nagging from me, because as a fan of all things fatty I adore beef bone marrow. I was alarmed to discover that the entrée included only one marrowbone, so while I did have a taste of it, I could not have the satisfaction of biting into a nice big squishy piece of marrow. The meat in the dish was overcooked to my tastes (I have discovered that most Filipinos prefer their beef just this side of burnt, as where I like it still wriggling), but the seasoning was fantastic.

 I cannot go into Salakot without ordering their sisig, a variation on the classic Filipino dish. Thank God it is a variation, because the thought of eating authentic sisig frankly makes me nauseous, as the main ingredient is a barbecued pig’s head. No, they don’t serve the head; after the head is cooked, they remove the cheeks, the ears, the snout, scoop out the brain, mix it all with other diced internal organs and serve it in a steaming heap with diced onions and bell peppers. That’s what they do in the Philippines. Salakot uses marinated and grilled pork belly meat instead (a different recipe than that of liempo), making the dish not only palatable, but delicious.

The last entrée we ordered was the boneless bangus (which made me giggle a little, as I thought it was pronounced "bang-us"; once my wife corrected me, pronouncing it "ba-ngoos," the name lost all its humor; if she wanted to avoid my smartass remarks and giggles, she should have just referred to it as milkfish, which is what it was). We got it fried, and it was absolutely delectable. The nice thing was that I could wolf it down in my customary manner, as it had no bones.

After a feast this size, along with beverages, I expected a hefty bill, but it came to only about $100. For the size and quality of the feast we enjoyed, we all found this eminently reasonable, and all six of us walked away verging on stuffed.