BBQ in the Philippines is almost as common as the sun. You’ll often hear the word lechon when referring to BBQ in the Philippines. If you walk down a street in the Philippines, often you will see many people selling BBQ on the street. And they BBQ everything, from fully roasted pigs to chickens to chick parts such as chicken heads, intestine and feet.
BBQ In The Philippines is Lechon
This word confused me a bit. I would see street vendors with “Lechon” signs on their booths but I didn’t see what I thought lechon should be. When Filipino use the word lechon alone they mean a fully roasted pig. You’ve seen these on TV shows about Hawaii. A pig roasting on an open fire on the beach. It is usually on a pole of some kind at a party on the beach. Lechon is often served at family gatherings. It is almost like a turkey on Thanksgiving in the USA.
According to Wikipedia, lechon is a pork dish and with the strong Spanish influence in the Philippines that is likely where the word comes from. It has evolved into its own Filipino meaning though. The word lechon by itself does mean a fully BBQ’d “pig on a stick.” However, “lechon manok” is BBQ’d chicken. There are many vendors in Bogo City selling lechon manok. I usually don’t get it. I joked with Jessie after we got some the first time. It was very good but I said “Even the chickens are pygmies.” It seemed to humor her. They are usually very small. It is good, just get two.
BBQ In The Philippines is Part of Filipino Culture
BBQ in the Philippine is quite inexpensive. An entire pig roasted for the family cost around P3500 but that price will vary depending on the location and how large the pig is. Jessie tells me the smaller ones are actually better. I’m not lechon crazy like so many are. It isn’t bad but for me it just isn’t that great either. Call me easy to please but I still prefer Pizza Hut or baby back ribs from the Golden Courie. Both of which can be found at SM Mall in Cebu City.
However, I do love to go to the BBQ by the Bay as I call it in here in Bogo City. Jessie and I can go there for about P350 a visit. I’ll have pork chops and I use to get a beer along with that. I usually skip the beer now just to keep my sugar intake as low as possible. The beer is often not that cold too and I really prefer beer to be very cold. For me, beer taste bitter unless it is properly chilled, a little frost covering the bottle is perfect.
Jessie and I went to the BBQ by the Bay a few days ago. BBQ in the Philippines is usually cooked and
served with a stick running through it. This stick comes in handy while eating the BBQ and it has other uses too. Jessie and other Filipino will usually have a small bowl of spices and peppers served along with their BBQ. They take the stick with the meat still attached and mash their spices up before dipping their food in it. That is what Jessie is doing when I took this picture.
When there is a breeze, going to the BBQ by the Bay in Bogo City is very nice. It is near one of Bogo’s three wharfs. I enjoy sitting on the wharf at night and often think of that old 60′s song “Sitting on The Dock of The Bay” while I’m there. Not long ago, I was there around 10pm. The moon came up late that night and cast a beautiful orange streak across the bay. There was a nice breeze, only Jessie and I were there. It is a serene and romantic setting. I also like to relax there at the end of the day.
There will be vendors there, some selling BBQ, others selling ice cream and still others selling whatever they can think of to sell. The first picture I ever posted on this website is from the Bay of Bogo.
If you run across a vendor selling BBQ in the Philippines, don’t be afraid to give it a try. Chances are you’ll enjoy it. Much of the culture of the Philippines revolves around BBQ in the Philippines.
Tagged with: Bogo City • Cebu City • Filipino Culture • In the Philippines • Lechon
Filed under: Living In The Philippines
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Sorry, I have to totally disagree. Lechon and BBQ are two completely different things.
Literal translations:
Lechon – to roast
Sugba (bbq) – to grill. BBQ also has a lot to do with the flavor profile of the food.
Jessie, she told me that she uses the term lechon to mean BBQ. So I’ll go with the Filipinos definition. yeah it is roasted but it also BBQ.
I have to agree with Rusty, having lived in Cebu for over a year and having travelled to the Philippines for nearly 10 years, I have found the term to be interchangeable. While the literal definition may mean otherwise language is how the locals use it.
No matter what it is called – it is delicious, especially the roast pigs, which in my opinion is the best I have ever tasted anywhere in the world.
Must be a regional thing, because the words “BBQ” and “Lechon” are never used interchangeably here.
Nice article Rusty. I have heard Jho making the same references to lechon manok for barbeque chicken on a stick. I didn’t really appreciate the bbq chicken until the 3rd trip. It’s nice to experince different foods and I was more interested in the fresh seafood and fruits on the first 2 trips. Jho handed me a BBQ chicken on a stick one evening and it was amazingly good. At the time, the best chicken I ever had. Jho and Gona (another friend here in the USA from Leyte) will do barbeque chicken that makes your mouth water.
Gina … I owe you a million apologies for spelling your name wrong. Palihog pasaylo ka sa ako.
We have a BBQ place near our house, both chicken and pork. The Asawa sent me to get a lechon manok, which i did. When i presented it to the wife she says “it is still whole” I went back and asked the guy to cut it up. He took a huge clever and did a number on it, bones and all. And tastes great!!
I have several near my home in Bogo City. Bogo tends to bunch vendors of the same type together. It is good but I don’t get it too often because I could eat two of them by myself. lol It s very sticky.
I think they put a sweet glaze of some kind on it. Bob might know, I seem to recall that he likes to BBQ, I suspect he’s roasted and or BBQ’d a few of them?
I usually just head down to the BBQ by the bay and get pork chops.
I am a barbecue freak. The best barbecue I have ever had is in the Philippines for both pork and chicken.
I am not sure what the name of the thin sliced pork on a stick is called but I would also die for it. Sensational.
I had a small little restaurant in Sindangan and we sold that there. It was hugely popular.
My idea of lechon is the whole pig roasted. Lechon manok is barbecue chicken, but I guess when you say lechon manok it just means barbecue chicken. When you say lechon it just means roasted whole pigs.
Either way, barbecue (most of it) is really really good in the Philippines.
Hi all,
yeah I also see the confusion, BUT it is actually not too confusing when you get all the alleged facts lined up.
Bob is right, Sugba is grilled Anything. BUT when grilled in that manner it sits ON the grilling surface.
LECHON is normally used to refer to ANYTHING that is spun, twirled or held OVER the fire in what most westerners know as Rotisserie. Hence Lechon Manok, is cooked OVER the fire off the grill. Sinugba Manok is placed IN the fire or on a grill above the fire.
Clear as mud now? Still as with anything in the PI, it is what it is called in THAT area at that time. ALL can agree it is MASARAP indeed.
Exactly!
Per wiki: “Lechón is a pork dish in several regions of the world, most specifically Spain and its former colonial possessions throughout the world. The word lechón originated from the Spanish term leche (milk); thus lechón refers to a suckling pig that is roasted. Lechón is a popular food in the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, other Spanish-speaking nations in Latin America, and Spain. The dish features a whole roasted pig cooked over charcoal. Nowadays in most of Latin America, the original use of a suckling pig has given way to a medium-sized adult pig.
In most regions, lechón is prepared throughout the year for any special occasion, during festivals, and the holidays. After seasoning, the pig is cooked by skewering the entire animal, entrails removed, on a large stick and cooking it in a pit filled with charcoal. The pig is placed over the charcoal, and the stick or rod it is attached to is turned in a rotisserie action. The pig is roasted on all sides for several hours until done. The process of cooking and basting usually results in making the pork skin crisp and is a distinctive feature of the dish.”
Charcoal and BBQ sauce are common on lechon manok. Sounds like BBQ to me. Off the girl, on the grill, its BBQ to me. Who said BBQ has to be cooked on a grill? BBQ can’t be roasted over an open fire? hahah we are arguing about what is BBQ now.
if it has BBQ sauce on it, it’s BBQ for this Southern man.
You know though, there is a bit of a difference in roasted pig. Like the wiki article said, the skin is quite hard and the inside is a gooey texture. Like melted fat. I often call it a heart attack on a stick.
It is considerably different than BBQ pork chops. Far less BBQ taste, not a lot of taste to me. Now the lechon manok I’ve eaten is quite like eating BBQ coated in sugary glaze. 
Dang it, now I want some lechon manok.
Hmm… my last comment did not post! Not sure why.
I’ll look for it in spam…. thanks for letting me know.
It was because it was one word. WP often does that. It was in spam along with the 2003 other messages spam messages that came in today! I emptied them yesterday. I can no longer go through messages marked as spam. There are just too many of them.
Thanks, Rusty! I see that it is there now.
Allowing for regional differences AND the hundreds of languages in the Philippines and it is a wonder that most folks can figure out whats what sometimes.
I submit that this is one reason why we all love the Philippines while at the same time it is a prime reason so many others cant stand the PI because of the odd, sometimes illogical (to them) differences.
Looking at it from Rusty’s perspective as a transplanted Southerner (as am I)I would have to agree…anything cooked in, on or with fire is BBQ. However Bob raised a linguistic/cultural point and I agree on that one also.
Now, try this one out:
I went to a Locally owned place in Bulacan last trip and sat down, read the menu and ordered a hamburger. I was promptly and politely served a HAMburger. IE: Chopped Ham on a bun served in the same style as our American burgers. Puzzled I asked if they had “regular” burgers and they said without skipping a beat, yes Sir!, we also have Beefburgers!, but they are not on the menu sorry. (???). I ate my HAMburger and ya know what, it was excellent for chopped ham with Ladies Choice (Mayo).
I know I have run into other items that were not quite what we westerners think of when we order by name only, but that one is the funniest one yet.
Want to consider another article on food I am sure you could get LOTS of examples along the lines of my post.
Another item you may want to explore is the “Double Interrogative” issue when asking questions of everyday Filipinos. Now THAT is funny sometimes in the same vein.
It is an educational experience. On my first trip, Jho and I went to breakfast at the Sabin Resort. I ordered sausage thinking that I would get longgansia. I was surprised when Vienna Sausage came out with the breakfast. At the time, it was the best Vienna Sausage that I ever had. The waiter who served us, who’s name is Willie Regalia, and I became good friends.
Haha, I’ve not had that happen. I did eat crocodile sausage once and would love to go back to Palawan just to get some more. I haven’t found any local Vienna sausage that i like. I’m kind of picky about it. The only one I liked in the USA was Bryan. One might fight it in Duty Free from time to time but they are not consistent on what they have. I have not even visited there store in a long time. Jessie use to go more but they got picky about how often I had to come so I said bye bye. haha I will have to take a look next time I’m in Cebu City which will be either late this month or early next month.
Jessie tells me I won’t like most of the sausage in the Philippines so I just take her word for it. I’m a very picky eater. I hate it, I really do. I wish I liked the same kinds of food others do. Life would be so much simpler.
Haha, I love the hamburger.
I don’t disagree with Bob. I don’t think I wrote the story very well and it has been bugging me. But I wrote the story based on what a FILIPINO told me. She said we use lechon to mean BBQ but the word used alone of course means roasted pig. That doesn’t taste like BBQ at all and I don’t think of the whole pig roasted as BBQ. Its is too different. On the other hand, I suspect that lechon is technically a term to mean a TYPE of BBQ. I don’t know. I do plan to look at that article again and try to clarify it a bit. If you have lechon manok, you’ll think it is bbq. If you have lechon then you probably will not even though it has been basted in BBQ sauce and cooked over charcoal over an open fire. I need to go back and look at what I said, I know what I mean to say was the word lechon when applied to something else meant bbq. That is what it means to my 100% Filipino partner and I don’t see how I can get more cultural than that.
It is different though as it is roasted, but so is slow cooked bbq usually. 
I have not heard of the Golden Courie. Is it a standard restaurant that is in a SM Mall? Here in Calbayog we will be getting a Robinson Mall and either a SM Mall or a HyperMart, I’m not sure yet. My wife Lita loves baby back ribs so I hope that one or a similar one will be at the mall we get. It’s not suppose to be finished for another year though. Oct 2012 is the estimated completion date, so that probably means more like the summer of 2013 in Philippines time.
I don’t know if it is standard John. SM is looking at putting a mall in Bogo City now too. They have not made the land purchase as of a story i read a month or maybe two months ago. I don’t know if it will have Gold Courie in it. That’s the only place I have ever noticed it. I don’t know if they are a chain or one shot just in Cebu City. It is on the third bottom level down near the end of one of the legs. I was there on Tuesday. Good stuff.
Well if I ever see one in a mall, I’ll give it a try.
I hope that your time off was pleasant, but it’s good to have you back.
There will be an article published at midnight (Philippines Time) that has a picture of the sign and a lamp inside Golden Courie. Nothing major and the sign is a bit blurry but they are there if you care to take a look.