Cebuano Food

The way Cebuanos cooked and ate in the sixteenth century was not entirely without “foreign influence.” Even in those days, Cebu was a port flourishing with trade with her neighbors, her culture and cuisine were Indo-Malay and her plates were from China and Thailand. When the Spaniards came, they introduced potatoes, avocado and corn from Mexico, enriching the variety of food available to the Cebuanos. Cattle from China, Mexico, and Spain came towards the end of the fifteenth century. Even goats were not common in Cebu, nor were carabaos, though they were found elsewhere in the Philippines. Since the Spaniards exacted tribute in the form of rice, the Cebuanos learned to eat corn. Even today, Cebuanos are generally known to be a corn-fed people, though this is no longer true of city dwellers. Still, old habits die hard and one occasionally gets to meet Cebuanos hankering for corn gifts to satisfy a craving.

From the Spaniards, Cebuanos learned to use olive oil and chorizo bilbao, to consume diary products, to sauté food, to make callos, lengua, and rellenong manok (the Spaniards probably had to make do with chickens as turkeys were not available), and to mix vegetable and meat with rice. The old native way required the simple boiling of rice or corn and when either was stale, it was fried or made into tinughong (cooked with water and sugar, preferably the variety called muscovado, and eaten as a snack food).

The Chinese, though they traded with Cebu since ancient times, came to settle in large numbers in Cebu only towards the latter half of the nineteenth century. With this wave of immigration came Chinese noodles and lugaw, soy sauce, bean curd, the particular flavors or sesame oil and dried mushrooms, and new ways of cooking like steaming and stir-frying.

Then the Americans came with their own ethnocentric notions of what constituted good food and hygienic eating. They made Cebuanos wash their hands and boil most of their food, and started in earnest to influence the way Cebuanos eat. Up to now, this cultural “invasion” continues with fastfood outlets, soft drinks and their ubiquitous ads found even in the hinterlands, no matter how sparse the population.

The Japanese did not affect much the way Cebuanos eat, probably because they did not stay too long as an occupying army and remained a hostile force. Now in time of peace, their food is available in specialty restaurants. Like other Filipinos who can afford these, Cebuanos have also learned to eat sushi and sashimi, teppanyaki and teriyaki.

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