Carcar Chicharron

Carcar sits on the southern highway an hour and a half out of Cebu City, and every bus heading to Oslob, Moalboal or Dumaguete passes through it, which is why the town's public market has become a fixed stop. The specialty is chicharron: pork skin, boiled, dried and deep-fried until it puffs into brittle, blistered sheets, sold hot by the bag from a row of stalls at the market, eaten with a dip of vinegar with garlic and chilli. Carcar's version is prized for the puff - the airy, glassy texture that comes from getting the drying stage right - and the town trades on it. The same market sells lechon, which Cebu regards as the best in the country, and ampao, a puffed rice cake. Carcar itself is a heritage town with a rotunda, an old church and a stock of ancestral houses that most passengers see only through a bus window.

What you actually see

• The chicharron stalls - bags of puffed rind sold hot.
• The vinegar dip - garlic and chilli in cane vinegar.
• The lechon counters - roast pork sold alongside.
• The heritage town - the rotunda, church and old houses.

When to go

Year-round; mornings and early afternoon, when the frying is fresh. It goes soft if it sits, so buy from stalls with turnover.

Honest expectations

It is pure pork fat and skin - a snack, not a meal, and rich. Bags go soft within a day. The market is busy and the bus stop area is chaotic.

Nearby

Argao and Boljoon's churches are further south; Cebu City is an hour and a half north.