20110914

lorwill!

lorwill


"if you see a faded sign at the side of the road...."

and it's in dededo? then it's probably not the love shack. if someone tells you it is, i'd stay well clear. however, if you see a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road, around a shack with smoke coming out of it, it might be a fire (call 9-11 already) or it might be lorwill bbq stand. 

i haven't been there in the past six months because every time i've driven by, there hasn't been any sort of parking available; unless things have radically changed in those months, i'm pretty sure the place has remained mostly the same: nothing to look at on the outside,  popular for filipino-style barbecue sticks, lots of brown food--medium chunks of various meats in various gravies--in the catering trays.

lorwill brown food

lorwill bbq stick

the most popular items on the menu are the barbecue sticks, which come in pork or chicken, and are marinated, filipino style, in a thin, sweet-salty-soy marinade. lorwill is mostly consistent with their sticks--a generous amount of lean but tender meat, well-seasoned, not too sweet, not too salty, not too knorr/maggi season-y/worcester-y, with possibly just a hint of citrus (:cough: lemon-lime soda :cough:). they do a good job--the meat is very well cooked, slightly charred on the outside, but still moist on the inside, with the marinade penetrating the meat, but not overpowering it. they sell them by the stick (the last time i checked, $1.75/chicken, $1.50/pork), or get a plate with two sticks along with either a scoop of white rice, pancit fried noodles, or filipino-style spaghetti. i think there must be some sort of antibacterial/antifungal/antibiotic property in filipino barbecue marinades*, because i tend to buy the cooked sticks in bulk (yeah, that's me cleaning out the supply), and they last forrrrrrever in the fridge, with little deterioration in reheating. well, maybe not forever. but still. 


lorwill grub
even though times are tough, the selection from the turo-turo line is seems to get bigger every time i go. generally everything i've gotten from there has been well-cooked, with good quality ingredients, and generous portions. turo-turo literally means "point-point", which is pretty much what you do: point at a dish (or two or three), and you'll get a heap of it served with either two scoops of steamed white rice or a mess of pancit fried noodles. i don't know if there's rhyme or reason behind what comes out every day--i'm guessing what's popular is what they cook, hence, as i mentioned before, lots of meaty and brown. however, there's some good stuff in there--adobo with lots of garlic and gravy, oxtail, bistec with lots of tender onions, a chunky, tomatoey beef stew called caldereta. however, i tend to look for anything with seafood, and if you are lucky you can pick from grilled or fried bangus (milkfish) or tilapia, or fat steaks of bangus in a sour sinigang soup, or maybe some of my favourites: a chinese stir-fry inspired dish of veggies, squid and mussels in a spicy sauce, tilapia halves cooked with lots of vinegar, garlic and onions--called paksiw, similar to escabeche in flavour, squid stewed in its own ink, or mongo (green mung beans) cooked down into a stew with dried shrimp, pork, and bitter melon (all pictured above).

lorwill lechon kawali

lorwill sisig


even though i think lorwill does a surprisingly good job with their veggies (a chop suey of sorts is usually available, as is the pinoy version using native vegetables called pinakbet) some of my favourite things on the menu are dishes i rarely get because they are just so, so, sooooo freaking good whilst being so freaking bad for you: lechon kawali and sisig. these are people who know their way around a pig. lechon kawali is the pig of the people, something that appeals to almost everyone: tender pork belly with bits of skin and just enough fat to be sinful included with each chunk, deep-fried so there is shards of skin and a crackly crust that gives way to sweet, moist meat buried within, and served with a homemade lechon sauce that is sweet, slightly tangy and rich with liver, but you'd be hard pressed to ID it as such if i didn't just tell you (eh. no biggie. you need the iron.). sisig might be more of a challenge, if you haven't tried it, but dang, people! try it! sisig is a dish that, depending on how you look at these things, incorporates pig parts that you would rather not think about, or, is an ideal representation of the "nose-to-tail" eating philosophy. the lorwill version uses ears and snouts, which are meticulously cleaned and chopped enough to be indiscernibly anything squeamish (you will not be sniffing at a sniffer, or so you think), and then cooked--several times over, actually--laboriously with vinegar or lemon, ginger, garlic, onions and chili peppers until it all amalgamates into a melting, soft and fatty, cartilage-squeaky, pungent, vibrant, son-of-a-gun sexy pork dish. nibble on some ears, why dontcha.
 
i like the food here. i don't particularly hang around once i order, but the fact that it is pretty much just a corrugated tin and wood shack with a couple of funky ordering windows obvs doesn't put me off. you are definitely going to hate the parking as much as i do, and please be careful when parking there because there are some very stupid drivers doing some very stupid things at very stupid times right around there. they are open early enough for breakfast (try the tortang talong) and open quite late at night, so you have plenty of time to mosey on over.



lorwill bbq stand
28 (really??) n. marine corps drive, in front of guam home center, next to dededo retail store (whoo, guam! we don't mess around with the names of our businesses, do we?)
dededo.





*i don't really believe this. i think my fridge is just really freezer cold.

14 comments:

Beautiful food:)

this post makes me want to visit guam even more. sigh.

acornbud, it is! it doesn't look like much when it's all piled up in the service line, but it cleans up nicely :)

deborah, haven't you been traveling? you should be traveling. now is the time to go abroad!

Santos,

The lechon looks especially good. I think these tiny shack-like buildings have cornered the market on tasty food that may/may not be cheap.

hi reid! they are definitely harbingers of good food. i think on island they are mostly a good bargain, still. heaping portions at a fair price. the food trucks here tend to be pricey, though.

Hey Santos - Man those photos are beautiful.........it makes me want to lick my screen. Better not though, unlike the BBQ my screen has a layer of dust that is probably not antibacterial! ;o)

hey kirk! it's funny because when people here see the photos, they're like "wait, everything looks so *brown* when i go there" :) but i guess the brown gravy/soup acts as a protective barrier, lol. good stuff hiding in those murky depths!

I think I could be persuaded to fly to Guam just to eat here, santos!

come on over!

no, i haven't been travelling abroad at all in the past year or two - eeeek! i'm open to suggestions! ;)

last i recall is that you had a LOT of ideas--you just have to commit to one of them :) paris for christmas?

Is Lorwill BBq stand near the pier where the cruise ships dock? If not please tell me which one of the blogged eateries will be easily accessible to a one day tourist?

Thank you

I am 42 years old, and live on Guam as a child. My dad was stationed there twice, and I absolutely loved the food there! Reading your blog makes me want to go back so badly. Lumpia, pancit, pickled papaya (I want to find a good recipe for this!), venison kelaguin (sp?), fish kelaguin... I loved it all. And those pork sticks look heavenly! I really miss all of these foods so very much. Thanks for bringing back great memories!

Haifa Adai Claire ! Please come back and visit. A lot has changed but the food is still great.