Mother pig - Gia Lai Melon Striped Pig

Striped Dua pig is a small pig breed that originated as a wild boar but was domesticated by indigenous people and raised in the family garden. The reason it is called the melon striped pig is because when it was young, the pigs were all brown in color with long stripes along the back, similar to the stripes of ripe melons. But pigs only have long stripes when they are babies, when they grow up they will change color to black or yellow-gray. The yellow stripes also fade away. The tufts of striped pig hair are a bit like wild boar hair, growing in clusters of 3, called 3-pronged hairs. Although raised in the garden, but with the lifestyle of the Bahnar and Jrai ethnic groups, they still rely on nature, so this striped pig is often raised freely like a wild boar. Usually, they run in groups to the forest and streams to walk, looking for food from forest roots, grass leaves, worms, crickets, frogs, insects... At certain times of the day, the whole herd of pigs returns under the stilt house looking for rice. scattered rice, discarded bones, raw bran, wine residue from rice, noodles, corn mixed in rice husks and devoured. For that reason, the meat of this breed is quite firm, low in fat, fragrant, sweet like wild boar, different from the usual pigs we use.

Hungry for ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands, the striped pig is both wild and close like a wild animal. According to the tradition of the Central Highlands, any festival of the village, big or small, has the presence of this melon-striped pig breed. Depending on the size of the festival, people in the village or neighboring villages often bring a number of striped pigs to contribute to the festival. There are groups, people contribute hundreds of pigs and most of those pigs are small for 1 to 2 years (using a fist to measure across the neck to know how big the pig is), can be carried or carried on the road. can be long.

However, when they returned to Pleiku city, those tiny striped pigs of the jungle became a specialty suckling pig. A melon striped pig can be arranged in 1 tray, enough for 5 to 7 people to eat. On a small woven basket made from bamboo, bamboo shoots will be arranged, boiled pork belly, grilled meat with string, grilled pork belly, pork heart... along with the spices of the mountains. When enjoying, this dish has a crispy, fragrant taste, not too fleshy and pale like industrial pork, not too dry like wild boar, not too greasy like smoldering or Mong Cai.