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An Article from eSprint about Cebuano Cuisine:
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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