The Cebuano Pasalubong 

The Filipinos Pasalubong means something which a traveler brings from a place on the way home as a gift to the welcomers. It could either be a long-standing memento, a consumable gustatory delight, or a keepsake for eternity. Pasalubong comes from the word salubong, which means to meet. While the practice toes beyond cultural boundaries, the Filipino has found the word for it, which transcends arrival, gift, and affection — pasalubong.

If you happen to drop by Cebu, there are a hundred and one ideas for a pasalubong, things you could partake from this place, proofs that at least for one happy chance, you’ve been to the queen island of the sought, Cebu.

Every place has something it is famous for. Cebu, for instance has been known for its guitar products, mango preserves, and baked products.

TOSTADOS, AS the name implies, are toasted strips of bread. However, prior to toasting, each slice is coated with a mixture of sugar and margarine. It is perfect with coffee, or as siding for spaghetti, or ice cream.

SALVARO is a wafer-thin, crisp-brown biscuit, shaped into an elongated oval, and approximately ten cms in length and four cms wide. It uses entirely indigenous ingredients such as coconut, shortening, sugar and flour.

OTAP is an oval-shaped, crispy treat, which has become a trademark of Cebu. It is approximately 9 ms in length, 4.5 cm wide and about half a cm thick. It is made of eggs, flour, shortening, sugar and margarine. Otap has a unique flaky texture, a distinctive sweetness, and an accent of burnt flavor to it, that places this product as among the very best provincial specialties in the country’s baking industry.

SUNFLOWER is a biscuit shaped after the flower with a diameter of 7.5 cm. It has a subtly distinct flavor and aroma evoked by the liquorice-flavored anise seeds that are strewn all over the biscuit’s surface.

HOJALDRES. One of the newest in the delicious product lines of Pinky’s Galletas, Hojaldres embodies the best characteristics of both a biscuit and cookie. Somewhat similar to”otap” in texture, but it is slightly more substantial. The hojaldres is approximately6 cms in diameter and about one cm thick. Its rich flavor and aroma and its crispiness and texture make hojaldres a much sought after treat from Pinky’s Galletas.

GALLETAS is the Spanish term for biscuit. This thin crispy treat comes in neatly wrapped packets of threes. Each biscuit is approximately 5.5 cms in diameter. Made of basic local ingredients in just the right quantities, galletas are subtle and simple, reserve in evoking a strong flavor, yet a delicious snack item that Filipinos love so much. 

Every place has something it is famous for Cebu, for instance, has been known for its guitar products, mango preserves, and baked products.

LINUNGAHAN. This miniature pie-shaped biscuit, approximately 5.5 cms in diameter, is basic enough in taste and texture to be a main snack item or dessert siding. The crunchy exterior “crust” surrounds a delightfully sweet brown filling with the added surprise of tiny sesame seeds. Its ingredients include flour, shortening, margarine, sugar, and salt.

ROSQUILLOS, on the other hand, has been a household name for many generations in Cebu for its denizens and visitors. Rosquillos is a circular cookie about half an inch with a hole at the center. It is a sweet delight made up of eggs, flour, shortening, sugar and margarine.

CHICHARON. Chicharon is a crispy deep-fried pork skin, flavored salty and hot. One may choose from two classifications: in the “special” pack, the chicharon has a little strip of pork fat that comes with the skin; the regular pack is purely skin. The chicharon has undergone a highly tedious process of cooking. It is deep fried, sometimes sun-dried or oil-drained, cooled, and reheated. The process is repeated from three to four times.

MANGO PRODUCTS. The mango produce of Guadalupe has been famous to many denizens and guests of Cebu. Dried mangoes are packed mango strips, which makes a good snack item or a dessert siding. Mango Puree is a mango extract, which makes a good thirst quencher.

GUITAR. Perhaps, there’s no other more successful pioneering guitar-manufacturer in the country than Lilang’s guitar. Its name has been synonymous to the acoustic instrument. Its outlet is located in Lapulapu city where the Mactan-Cebu International Airport is situated, Precision, style, and creativity constitutes the high-end musical quality of Lilang’s guitars. 

Most of the local delicacies are available in supermarkets in Cebu and in some in-house stalls in many hotels and resorts. Souvenir goods, on the other hand, occupy a special nook in every department store in the city.

-  Castro Pereyra