When in Cebu, do not do as the Cebuanos do. Or did.
Many years back, Cebuanos rarely ate out for lunch. Office people would go home, eat their lunch and then go back to the office. This was when Cebu was more personal and convenient. Nowadays, with Cebu traffic being worse than that of Manila, and perhaps because of the many lami dining options available, restaurants, malls and even carinderias are fuller than usual.
However, try to get invited to a true-blue Cebuano home to get a really good taste of Cebuano home-cooked fare! Many old families have managed to make their family recipes commercially available and these can be readily bought or ordered but of course, everything seems better when it is served on their comedor.
One thing I miss is the chorizo made by Teresa Ugarte, the masa podrida from I do not know where and the lechon from Berta. I do not know if one can still buy them and where.
Cebu has always been a favorite culinary destination. High on the list is their legendary lechon ... and many Cebuanos have cashed in on the popularity of the Lechon Cebu. They have CNT and the Cang lechon but the really good lechons I have tried come from Barili and Dumanjug, not Talisay. Hey, this is a matter of personal preference, okay? Nothing personal.
Whenever I am in Cebu, I almost always get invited to Cafe Laguna. Cafe Laguna is good but their food choices are available in Manila. On the other hand, going to, say, Sunburst Chicken, is indeed most welcome. The chicken-skin chicharon and esol look unassuming but it is definitely unforgettable.
The buffet craze is also abuzz in Cebu, with the Cafe Marco Polo and Grand Majestic as popular gluttony destinations. In Mandaue, Tong's is a popular destination what with their version of a hole-in-the-wall buffet.
And then you also have Harbor City and Ding Qua Qua with their dimsum-on-a-cart, Abuhan with their pochero and sizzling pochero and Casa Verde for their ribs.
Of course, you have the old Cebuano dining insitutions like Beehive (fine Spanish restaurant cum mah-jong parlor), the Casino Español (for members and their invited friends only) and the "other" Majestic (above Belvic Cinema) that one should really try out.
For the more adventurous, you may want to sample "sidewalk" fare like balbakwa, paklay and sunlutan kinilaw. The sidewalk beside the Redemptorist Church offers a different assortment of Cebuano delicacies altogether, like bibingka, budbud, quesejo and majareal.
Whether it is the barbeque Larsian style, the bam-i ordered from the Chinese Temple or the popular sutokil in Mactan, Cebu is indeed a gastronomic wonderland!
Bahala na ang cholesterol oy! Mo ka-on gyud ko!
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