Cebuano Culture and Street Foods

Sugar-coated barbecued bananas on a stick, caramel coated potato wedges and deep-fried caramelized bananas, how can one not be tempted to try. These are some of snacks you can find on the streets of Cebu City. And they are very tasty too, especially the potato wedges. Not too sweet but crispy and crunchy even after some time. Delicious as a snack while walking the streets.

Barbecue is almost a way of life in Cebu City. Almost everywhere you can find roadside stalls and restaurants serving sugba and puso, sticks of chicken thigh, meaty sausages, innards and wings barbecued on an open grill and rice wrapped in woven palm leaf. We ate at Ned Nanay's Grill at the Capitol Site. The meat was well cooked and tasty. And I saw the biggest glass Coca-Cola bottle ever.

Walking around the Capitol Site, I came across this couple baking and selling Bibingka. They had a make-shift charcoal oven installed on a tricycle, the rice flour/coconut milk mixture was scooped into a banana leaf mould and then baked. The result is a  rice cake that is fragrant and delicious. Very nice when eaten hot.

I cannot resist flowers, and in the vicinity of the Basilica of Santo Nino and the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral there is a small market that sells beautiful fresh flowers and other stuffs. There are stalls selling rosaries and other religious figurines, stalls serving food, stalls selling snacks and fruit stalls.

And it was here that I finally found DURIANS. I have been searching for durians in the Philippines but this it he first time I have seen any on sale. So naturally I could not resist the temptation to try one.

Looking at the guy who was trying to open the durian, I felt sorry for him. He did not have any idea of how to properly open a durian. He simply cut it open, slicing the seeds in half, making it awkward to eat. So I had to show him the proper technique, just like those experts in Geylang. However, I was quite disappointed with the quality of the durians that had come from Davaos. No aroma, not sweet and flesh rather watery. Definitely not the kind of fruit I like.

After Sunday Mass, as we were leaving the Cathedral, I came across this stall selling waffles. Simply had to have some. They were good, hot and crispy, and not too sweet.

This is the balanghoy, which is some sort of tapioca flour bread. Bought it from a woman selling them on the motorized banca on the trip to the Camotes Islands. I did not like the balanghoy. It was dry and hard and quite tasteless. Perhaps better to eat it with a curry or something with gravy.

Tempura, not the Japanese fried prawns, but the Cebu street sidewalk favourite. These are really seafood flavoured fried dough. We had the long squid-flavoured flour dough and the cylindrical shrimp flavoured spring rolls.

First time I have ever seen a round papaya. I found it at a roadside fruit stall. It tastes just like any other papaya, except that the shape is round. Quite an interesting find.

I have no idea what they call this mini-pancake. It is sweet and has the texture of a soft hotcake. Just found it interesting so I bought some and tried.

And this I know from the sign which says "moon cake". Of course it taste nothing like the Chinese moon cakes we have at mid-Autumn. Instead it is more like the Japanese Dorayaki, but instead of red bean fillings, they have cheese and chocolate.

I also found it very interesting that there are people who still carved out inking stamps, and on wood. It was a joy to watch them work. They are really skilled and the designs carved were quite impressive. I was so tempted, but alast, did not have enough time. Perhaps on my next visit.