Local Dishes

1. Puso

   Puso (rice cooked in a woven coconut-leaf pouch)

   Usage

   The staple at Cebu barbecue stalls — ordered by the piece, peeled out of the leaf and eaten by hand. The same spelling also means "banana heart" and "artesian well"

2. Litson

   Whole roast pig

   Usage

   Cebu's signature dish. Signs and menus usually print "Lechon". The Cebu version is seasoned with herbs stuffed in the cavity and served without sauce

3. Humba

   Humba (braised pork belly)

   Usage

   The Visayan braised-pork dish. Sweeter than adobo, usually with black beans and sugar

4. Adobo

   Adobo (meat stewed in vinegar and soy)

   Usage

   It means "marinated pork or chicken". Every eatery has it — say baboy (pork) or manok (chicken) when ordering

5. Kinilaw

   Kinilaw (fish cured in vinegar)

   Usage

   Raw fish cured in vinegar and spices, from the verb kilaw (to eat raw). It is not cooked with heat — skip it where hygiene looks doubtful

6. Sugba

   Grilled / broiled

   Usage

   The verb "to grill", used as a menu heading. At Mactan's market stalls the three ways to have your fish cooked — sugba, tuwa, kilaw — are known together as SuTuKil

7. Tinuwa

   Clear fish stew

   Usage

   From tuwa (to stew) — a clear fish soup with ginger and lemongrass. This is the "TU" of SuTuKil

8. Linarang

   Linarang (fish stew / fish soup)

   Usage

   The root larang is a way of cooking fish stewed with aromatics. In Cebu it is a regional dish made with oily fish

9. Law-uy

   Plain vegetable soup

   Usage

   It means "vegetable dish without meat or fish". A Cebuano-side name, listed on menus alongside its synonym utan — the word to look for if you are avoiding meat

10. Bam-i

    Bam-i (mixed wheat and rice noodles)

    Usage

    The Cebu noodle dish that mixes yellow wheat noodles with white rice noodles. Not the same as a plate simply labelled pansit

11. Ngohiong

    Ngohiong (fried spring roll)

    Usage

    A Chinese-Filipino street food of Cebu City — five-spice filling rolled, deep-fried and dipped in a vinegar sauce

12. Ginabot

    Deep-fried pork innards

    Usage

    The word itself means "viscera". In Cebu it reaches you deep-fried at pungko-pungko stalls, where you sit on a low stool and eat with your hands

13. Sitsaron

    Fried pork rind

    Usage

    Souvenir shops print "chicharon". The Carcar version is a standard Cebu pasalubong

14. Dinuguan

    Pork blood stew

    Usage

    From dugo (blood). It is exactly what its black colour suggests — easy to spot in the pot if you would rather avoid it

15. Putsero

    Meat and vegetable stew

    Usage

    Menus also print "pochero". A brothy dish of beef with greens and saba banana

16. Bulalo

    Beef marrow bone soup

    Usage

    Clear soup from beef shank on the bone. A same-spelled word with different final stress means "dumb" as an adjective — do not aim it at a person

17. Danggit

    Danggit (dried rabbitfish)

    Usage

    A Cebu breakfast staple and a classic souvenir — the small fish is split, dried, fried, and eaten with rice and vinegar

18. Ginamos

    Fermented fish paste

    Usage

    The root gamos means "to ferment". Not a dish but a table condiment — a little goes on grilled fish or vegetables. Very salty

19. Balot

    Balot (fertilised duck egg)

    Usage

    Vendors usually write "balut". Hawkers call it out at night. If pressed to try it, say "Dili na, salamat" (no thank you)

20. Budbod

    Sticky rice cake wrapped in banana leaf

    Usage

    Eaten for breakfast or a snack, classically with sikwati (native hot chocolate), often with mango on the side

21. Binignit

    Binignit (yam and sticky rice in coconut milk)

    Usage

    A warm sweet soup. In the Visayas it is traditionally made during Holy Week, especially on Good Friday

22. Kalamay

    Kalamay (sticky sweet packed in a coconut shell)

    Usage

    Sold packed in a coconut shell. The Bohol version is the well-known souvenir

23. Bibingka

    Bibingka (baked rice cake)

    Usage

    Also spelled bingka. Baked outside churches in the run-up to Christmas, around the dawn masses (Simbang Gabi)

24. Otap

    Otap (oval puff pastry)

    Usage

    A thin sugar-dusted pastry. A standard Cebu souvenir, sold by the box

25. Masareal

    Masareal (peanut confection)

    Usage

    A "peanut confection similar to marzipan". A Mandaue speciality, sold as paper-wrapped bars

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