El Cerdo, Changkat Bukit Bintang

El Cerdo had been listed in my food listing for long, after seeing the suckling piglet from internet. Finally, me and my mate made our moved to this restaurant on one weekdays. It was a public holiday and hopefully there wasn't too much crowd during lunch time.

We parked our car in Time Square, walked pass Sg Wang back road to BB Plaza. Cross the road to KFC, walked pass Jalan Alor and Radius International Hotel, then, it is there, just beside Radius International Hotel. Guess what? We were right! There were only 3 groups of people there at nearly 1230pm. Need no any waiting, we were seated in the cozy restaurant and handed with 2 sets of menu.

interior of El Cerdo

My mate flipped through the menu, analyzing what specialty shall he order. After he knew that I had studied the menu from internet, he decided just making his decision on - drinks. Other than that, I will be in charged of placing the order. 

order no.1

I placed my order for Jamon Serrano from Spain as our appetizer. It suppose to be some kind of dried ham served with rock melon. However, the waiter suggested that we can go a little wild to replace the rock melon with white asparagus air flown from Peru. Both of us having challenges to understand the waiter strong accent of English, the most we can catch was asparagus? OK! We will go for it even with extra 10bucks of charges.

 order no.2

The main course for sure will be Cochinillo Al Estilo Segoviano! Whatever Spanish words, in English, it means roasted suckling pig, which we had craving for long. It is quite impossible for both of us to finish one whole piglet, thus, we make a choice for half a piglet. Desserts? If there is still spare place after the piglet, then we will decide again.

Love at the First Try & Cooler Sunset Dream

breads & butter

Our drinks and breads were served. Breads were still warm and soft. I can't "spread" my butter on bread, so, I ate it with bread covered the butter. The cold tea were both worth trying, especially Love at the First Try. It was so refreshing.

dried ham with white asparagus

Not waited for too long, our appetizer was served. I seriously never see asparagus grown white in this size! Those general asparagus available in market are all in green and the size ... most probably just half of this. Hams were sliced thin, very. We were wondering how should we eat this? Roll the asparagus with ham plus source provided with salad?

It turned to be something like this as an end product before put in mouth. Well, quite a BIG challenge to put in mouth too. It was a very unique? adventurous? taste. The ham taste a little salty, asparagus was the main that bring out the juiciness of this bite. 

half a piglet

Finally, long waited piglet was on table. I can smell the great aroma from my seat when this was served. While I was wondering if both of us can finish this, my mate was drooling at the piglet and wondering what are we still waiting for. Yeah, we still waiting for a ceremony of eating piglet. Waiter finally approached to our desk and asked who will be the lucky one. I pointed at my mate since it was his birthday, let the birthday boy have fun then. He completed the plate cutting pig ceremony and breaks the plate in the prepared wooden tub. A tradition that symbolizes good luck. According to him, the plate cut through the crunchy skin and hit the wooden bottom, smooth cut. Dinner time should be quite noisy with all the "bom bom bom" cutting sound and "klang" smashing plate sound.

salad, potato and source

Our piglet was brought back to kitchen for proper chopping. It returned with a plate of salad, a smashed potato and a warm source. I ... was still wondering if we able to finish all these.

belly

We started to attack our piglet. The skin was crunchy and crispy, added with the source, it was a heavenly taste when you put it in your mouth. The warm source cause the skin to be slightly softer yet remain the crispiness. The meat was just roasted to a very fine level, remain the juiciness and tenderness.

aged agate

I had actually placed a hot tea half way eating the piglet. I wasn't sure what Aged Agate referring to until the waiter told me it is chinese tea. Chinese tea? It most probably will be Pu Er then. I was right, it was Pu Er, and I really need it to clear my "sin". Some hot tea to clear the oily taste for continue eating.

I guess my concern will remain as concerned, we eventually cleared off the plate. I admitted I ate only 5 pieces maybe, other than that, its all his. Judging from the piglet, he may just eat for maybe double of mine portions? Anyway, mission accomplished! We are very satisfy with all the serving and this restaurant has been marked as "We will be back" for other porky dishes. Signature pork knuckle next?

tiramisu

Since we did not get our dessert at El Cerdo, I bought a tiramisu from Hokkaido in Dataran Sunway. It was the last tiramisu available and not too sure why it was designed in 2 hearts. Hokkaido recently become my favorite bakery shop. The shop is neat and clean, pastries are generally above average. This is the first experience with cake, very great in taste as well. It is not a traditional tiramisu, but we both do enjoy the texture and taste a lot. 

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