Posted by Webmaster on February 12, 2006

Is Dagupan City the holder of the world's longest barbecue grill record?

If the mere recorded and submitted data to Guinness World of Records were considered, the answer would be in the affirmative but apparently this claim has yet to be validated and confirmed by Guinness.

This was revealed by City Mayor Benjamin Lim to the local media shortly before he formally welcomed delegates to the Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA), as he wanted to correct misimpressions that the city is already official record holder.

The delegates to PRISAA participated in a mini-version of the now famous "Kalutan ed Dagupan".

Last year's effort was a two-kilometer grill staged during the 2005 Bangus Festival and bested the world record of 1.6 kilometer staged by Turkey during its own Anchovy Festival.

It will be recalled that Turkey's record topped the city's 1.3 kilometer world barbecue record registered by Dagupan in the 2003 Bangus Festival in its first attempt, and this prompted the city government to stage another attempt last year.

Last year's effort saw some 24,000 bangus grilled the same time and this gathered an overflow crowd of 500,000.

Lim revealed that Dagupan was considering two options before, one was to stage longer "Kalutan ed Dagupan" for another record and the other was simply to be content with the knowledge that the city was listed as the record holder in 2003 albeit short-lived.

But he surmised that "in the end, the will to stay on top like that of a boxing champ should prevail in our hearts. We have to win back our world championship crown," said Lim.

However, he has not given any indication so far that this will be this year's Bangus Festival appointed Councilor Nicanor Aquino as chair of this year's "Bangus Festival".

Aquino, a neophyte councilor and one of Lim's most trusted allies in the legislative body, was chair of the 2004 Dagupan City Fiesta.

"Our (barbecue) record was the first (among many others) to appear in the homepage of the website," Lim told newsmen.

This, he said, "is proof that the people of Dagupan were once the official record holder of the world's longest barbecue".

Source: Sunday Punch