Food & Grocery Lechon

I still can't get my Google Translate to work, must need an update somehow, no matter how many times I click I can't find the "Negros Oriental Visayan to English" translator. Guess I will have to stick to the translation my wife, her (oops, our hahaha) family, their neighbors, our neighbors, every other local I have met, and 'all the girls Dave has loved before' use on a daily basis. Including her FB post this Thursday when she used our new rotisserie for the first time and posted pictures of finished whole chicken along with "#LetchonManok"

 

I have a feeling you're "Pullin' the p*ss" here (I can be slow on the uptake at times lol) so just in case you're "Fair Dinkum" here's two links;

English to Cebuano:
Google Translate

Cebuano to English:
Google Translate

 

Don't knock it until you try it mate!

Try stuffing a Chicken with Bacon, roast it until golden brown, break open the Chicken, remove the Bacon, throw it into a frying pan and fry it until crispy then make a Chicken Gravy from it, even God would give you two thumbs up!

 

The local flavor 'Negros Oriental Visayan' of Cebuano is not the one Google uses. My point was, while helpful, it is not 100% accurate for this area (or the other couple dozen versions of the language).

 

And yet some words that stay silent in the corner stay as they are for centuries.
Spanish & Cebuano for hinge=bisagra

lechón can't keep its mouth shut that's why it's corrupted

 

That was kind of my point, it is the same but different. Ignoring US vs UK vs Australian English and staying US things can and do get confusing. What is Tea? It can be hot, iced, or iced with 1/2 pound of sugar. What is Coke? It can be CocaCola or any carbonated non-alcoholic drink. Closer to the topic, what is BBQ? Anything cooked on a grill, ribs, pulled pork... English is English but I doubt you have ever asked someone to bring some fags and knock you up in the morning although you probably have said different words with the exact same meaning.

 

Yes, but there is more

The idiosyncrasies of language mean that when filipinos who know each other talk about lechon, they MAY be referring to a particular size and style of cooked pig.

Explanation: If two foreigners know each other well, then one may say to the other "lets go get some brews". Now there is brewed coffee, brewed tea, brewed beer and other brewed beverages but if you know the person involved and you know his slang then you know what kind of "brews" your friend is talking about.

My story: My first gf once told me: "There is a fiesta this weekend and I volunteered you and I to supply the lechon." I know her and I know what she meant so I just went with the flow as she and I and a couple of her cousins jumped in my pick-up to go up into the mountains to a pig farmer she had made previous arrangements with.

The pig was huge and grumpy. Our group had brought their own set of weigh scales and the pig weighed 54kg. OH no. The seller brought out his set of weigh scales and the pig weighed 57 kg. So one of the lads goes running to the nearest neighbor to get a third set of scales which turned up with a weight of 55 kg. Everyone agreed on the 55 kg weight.

Then it turned ugly. They had tied the feet of the pig so it could not fight or run off and a few of the lads held it down while a couple more forced a wooden pole into the mouth and down the throat of this live, squealing pig, until it came out the rear end. At some point in the procedure, Grandmother came out and slit the pigs throat and collected all the blood with a hungry look on her face. I guess it was part of the deal that the seller keeps the blood.

Then we all loaded into my pickup and went back to one of the relatives houses where a huge fire pit had been prepared. I cannot remember all the intricate details like the gutting and the other prep work but I remember 2 of the lads rigging up a home made, manual spit and the two of them slowly turned that pig over the roasting fire for many hours. A lot of time and work went into that lechon baboy. But it was a hit at the fiesta.

Edit: Some would say that this is rotisserie style but I like one guy's explanation on Yahoo. He said: A rotisserie is an automated spit. Same thing (basically). However, Spit would be the more general term. You can cook food on a spit over a fire that is not a rotisserie but you cannot cook in a rotisserie without using a spit.

 

'Just asked the Wife what is "Rotisserie" in Bisayan and she told me it is "Toyuk"... But searching Google nothing shows for that word...

*EDIT:
Toyuk apparently is Rotisserie Chicken, here a Rotisserie is called (wait for it) A Rotisserie! Now WHO would have thunked that! lol