When it comes to chicken inasal, nobody can boast being the Manokan Country more than Bacolod City. To celebrate Bacoleños love for inasal, the first Bacolod Chicken Inasal Festival is slated on May 15-20 at the Manokan Country and the SM City North Wing vacant lot.
Chicken inasal is a form of barbecued chicken specific to Bacolod. Manokan Country located near SM City is an area in the city filled with inasal stalls with rustic ambiance that has become a tourist attraction.
The people responsible for creating the Manokan Country and those who helped catapult inasal into national prominence shall be given recognition during the opening ceremonies on May 15. They include former Bacolod Mayor Jose Montalvo and Mayor Evelio R. Leonardia, who was then the tourism officer of Negros Occidental. Other awardees are actor Joel Torre and film director Peque Gallaga for their contribution in introducing inasal to Manila; Jun Tanalgo, who owns 23 branches of Bacolod Chicken Inasal in Makati and Manila; Edgar Sia, the owner of Mang Inasal, among others.
The city will attempt to have the Inasal Festival break into the Guinness Book of World Records by staging the longest grilled chicken barbecue in the world. It was reported that City Councilor Alex Paglumotan said this year’s Inasal Festival targets up to six kilometers of chicken barbecue line to establish the record that would involve 18,000 chickens, each quartered and skewered for a total of 72,000 sticks of chicken barbecue. He estimated that the whole event would also require up to 20,000 sacks of charcoal for the grill and 18,000 to 20,000 volunteers to grill the chicken.
That’s a lot of chicken inasal to consume. But with the threat of a swine flu pandemic, who needs pork?
The Bacolod Chicken Inasal Festival is going to be an annual event since the City wil register it with the Department of Tourism as one of the festivals in the country.