Filipino Food Tour in Cebu City, Philippines: Ultimate Guide 🇵🇭

If the Philippines doesn't already capture your heart with its friendly people or its pristine beaches, the food is sure to do it. This beautiful country is made up of over 7,000 islands and Cebu is known for being one of the greatest islands to visit for noteworthy Filipino food. Using ingredients from both the land and the sea, Cebu's cuisine offers a unique mix of Spanish, Chinese, and indigenous flavors with its crowning specialty being the mouth-watering Today we're on the island of Cebu and we are on the search for some delicious Filipino food. And because this is our first time in the Philippines, we're going to be able to give some pretty genuine first impressions on not only the food but the country altogether. So without further ado, let's go eat. We have made it to our first stop of the day. It's called Gary's Grill. And as you can see, I have stepped up my game with these food tours. I've printed out my food list and I can write down the prices, all that fun stuff. And that's just what comes with doing these food tours in every single country that we go to. But let's get this started. We actually decided to get a drink. This is an iced tea that our server highly, highly recommended. We were looking at all of the different options and we were like, what do the Filipinos like to drink? And he said this iced tea. So let's give it a try. I did not know that iced tea was a specialty here in the Philippines, but you never know. Oh, that's a very good iced tea. It tastes very fruity actually. Trying to pinpoint what fruit it could be. It's a tropical fruit for sure. I have to say maybe pineapple. Very first thing that has arrived to the table is lumpia. And these are Filipino spring rolls that are deep fried to perfection. They're filled with vegetables, meats, and sometimes seafood. But I believe these ones only have the veggies and the meat. All right. There's a little sauce. I don't know what kind of sauce that is. I'm going to dip it in. Absolutely delicious. The sauce is a little bit sweet and a little bit savory. I think it just complements the, the spring roll so well. These are such a good appetizer. I could probably eat a whole plate of them. I probably will eat this whole plate. They're small, right? Yeah, they are small. Yeah. They're, they're bite-sized. A little bit smaller than a regular I feel like this could be a dangerous midnight snack. Oh, beautiful. Next up on the table is naeng. And this is a dish that's made of dry taro leaves, coconut milk, and also chilies. And apparently it's a little bit spicy. The consistency kind of reminds me of congee so far, but I don't know. I've got to give it a little taste. There are a lot of flavors going on in there, but it really does remind me of if you had like a dumpling and then you dipped it in a coconut sauce. I love the coconut. It makes it so tropical. And I think the taro leaves on the outside kind of give it an herbal taste as well. It's actually not that spicy at all, but maybe they made us a less spicy version because they saw that we're American. The most famous food that Cebu is probably known for is lechon. And here we have lechon kawali. And it kind of reminds me of the chicharron that we had in Peru, but also in Colombia. Taking a look at the meat, it's this really beautiful cut of pork, and you can see the layers of the skin, the fat all the way down. And my mouth is watering just looking at it. Oh my gosh. Oh, the skin came off. So tender. Take a look at those layers. All right, I got two different sauces. There's one that's like a pink sauce with some red onions, and then there's this brown mystery sauce. I'll start with the pink one. Maybe I'll do both. That crunch is so good. That is some really, really delicious meat. From the very moment that you bite into it, just a ton of juice just spills out, covers your entire mouth. And then you've got that crunchy skin that just tops it off like a little cherry on the top of a sundae. Absolutely delicious. Where does one begin? I'm going to use this. I don't think you're supposed to eat this. It's like a serving fork. It's just so juicy. So good. Oh, you could just put that right on a sandwich too, and it'd be amazing. This big bowl of yellow goodness is kare kare. Apparently, it normally comes with oxtail, but we just got the beef version because that's what they offered at this restaurant. But it's said to be very similar to the Thai Massaman curry. And I just love the color. It's so vibrant and beautiful. And on the side, it came with some shrimp paste. I'm not sure how it involves the shrimp paste, but maybe you put it on the meat. I don't know. And then I also decided to get some sinigang, which is garlic rice to go with it. And it's always served looking like this. It's kind of like they pressed it into a bowl and then they flipped it over, plopped it on a plate. And I just love the presentation. It's like a little mountain or a little hilltop. So I've been told by locals that you should order the naechan and then you dip it into the kare kare. And apparently it's really good. So that's what I'm going to do as my first bite. And then I'll get a bit of the meat that came with the dish. Whoa. Whoa. That just took it to the next level. The sauce is actually very peanutty. It actually reminds me of the Thai chicken saute when you mix the meat and you dip it into the sauce. Oh, I love that combination. It's so, so nutty. I just broke a piece of the meat off that came in the dish and it's so tender. Didn't even have to cut it off or anything. Man, I know Chad's going to love this because he's such a big fan of peanut butter. And this is like any peanut lover's heaven of a dish. He's behind the camera drooling as I delight in this kare kare. So far we've had four Filipino dishes and I must say I'm very, very impressed. The range of flavors is extraordinary. I'm just so excited to eat. Yeah, all the range of flavors. You're right. It's not like they are overlapping. They're all just very different. Yeah. Extremely tropical. Let me try this peanut flavored sauce. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Get some meat or something. Oh, I was just going to try the sauce. Okay. You can try the sauce. I mean, I can. Here, there's some, there's a good piece of meat down there. Yeah. You like it? I do like it. Wow. I bet it tastes even better with oxtail. I don't even think I've ever had oxtail before, but I've heard it's like an amazing dish. This is an absolutely wild dessert. So we ordered a halo halo, and it's a refreshing and sweet dessert that is extremely colorful. Like we've got some red, yellow, green, purple, orange, all the colors of full rainbow right here in my hand. And essentially it's shaved ice that's topped with, it looks like ice cream and it looks like there's just like a ton of jellies, um, all sorts of things on the bottom. I'm not even sure, maybe even some fruit. And there's some like leche flan on the top. This is the craziest dessert I've ever seen in my life. I feel so intimidated by this dessert for some reason. It's as big as your head. Yeah. It's, look at the size of it. And like, I'm never intimidated by food, but this is just, whoa. This is like, I need to take a step back and look at it from a distance. They're like some oats on the top. They're like dripping off. I feel like it's just everything in their pantry thrown into this one cup. I forgot to mention, uh, halo halo in Filipino literally means mix mix. I don't know if that means we should be mixing this all together, but I don't think we can. It's so full in the glass. All right. Taro ice cream. Very good. My question is how do you get to the jellies on the bottom? You get there when you get there, I think. You get there when you get there? It's all about the journey. For some reason, the flavor is actually really reminding me of Froot Loops. Right? Like straight up Froot Loops. It does taste like Froot Loops. There's also this like purple paste that's smeared along the edge. And I want to say that might be ube paste. Your guess is better than mine. It's just like a treasure chest. You don't know what you're going to find in there. That banana tastes like candy banana. Not a real banana. Oh, there's another one for you. No, not for you. One banana slice is enough for Chad. I'm a little bit nervous to eat the banana slice. Go ahead. Down the hatch. I don't know why, but it kind of has the consistency of a potato. Another banana slice? For you. Look at all the mystery artifacts. Slurp it down. Slurp it down. Where are we going next? I don't know. Where are we going next? After a short walk, we've made it to Plaza Indepencia, which is the home of Fort San Pedro, which is the fortress that's behind us that I believe has been around since the 1700s. I think the journey getting here was really exciting because there's so much going on like in every single direction. There are cars, there are mopeds. To cross the street, you just have to go for it. There's no designated time for you to walk. You just got to go through the traffic and hope for the best. Yes. I will say something that I've noticed about the locals is they really like to say hello to you. Yeah. Everyone. Everyone said hello to us. Everyone's saying, hello, hello. So friendly. So let's talk first impressions. Clara already shared a few of her thoughts. I wanted to share mine. So in the Philippines, what has been super jarring for me is like the Spanish influence, just because I've never seen it in a Asian country and seeing it here, I just am kind of confused because I'm like, where am I? You know, we're not in South America. We're not in a Spanish conquered place, but wait, we are because we're in the Philippines. So that's been just kind of a cool aspect to the entire city overall. Yeah. It's cool to see the influence of Christianity on the city as well. Like when you're in a taxi, you see little crosses hanging in their, um, the rear view mirror. Yeah. Yeah. Off the rear view mirror. Yeah. And also the music that they listen to, like it's, it's very soulful American music. Right. And I know that they love to sing here. They love karaoke. And apparently there is just a talent for singing in this country. I would love to hear some live music, but we'll see if we get the chance to hear some time during our stay here. We have walked over to the coast and we are seeing the most beautiful sunset. And there's so many people out and about today. Maybe it's because everyone is possibly celebrating the lunar new year a little bit early, but there are just so many kids swimming in the ocean and everyone's just having a good time. Yeah. We've been watching this group of jumping off of like the railing of this platform. There was this one kid that was standing up from the top. He was about to do a backflip into the water. And he's on the railing. Yeah. On the railing. And he was like, he crossed, I guess, did the, what is that? I don't know what it is. Yeah. What is, what is that? Like the Catholic cross or something? Yeah. And then he did his backflip and he nailed it. 10 out of 10. We have made it to KKD Steak and BBQ, and I'm so stoked for the range of food we're about to try, but we decided to start off with some beers. We have here the red horse, which is a local beer. And I'm going to read you the description because I, I think it describes it pretty well. Experience that distinctive full flavor taste and extra satisfying strength of a world-class extra strong beer. So that's the first thing we got. And then the second one is a San Miguel light, which I believe is another local beer. I also want to note, you might be able to hear them in the background, but there are live singers and they sound amazing. Like I can't express how wonderful this whole experience is. We have a view of the ocean through the window and also the live music ice cold beers. We're in for a fantastic night. All right. Which one do you want to try? Very nice. This one's good. Yeah. I always like stronger beers anyways. Wow. Beautiful. Oh my gosh. It's a cold drink. We have a lot of things on the table tonight, but the very first thing I want to talk about is music. This here is kind of like the Filipino fajitas. You've got all these different pig parts chopped up real small. So you've got ears, you've got jowls, liver, all of it, all of it is in here. And then you also have some onions, some chili peppers and a raw egg on the top. And of course with the sizzling skillet, it's kind of cooking that egg. It really reminds me of like a breakfast hash for some reason. That's what I was thinking too. It looks like it. Yeah. Yeah. The flavor, it's almost like bacon, you know, like the taste of it. And then the egg. Ooh, yummy, yummy. And then also because it has all different parts of the pig, I just think it tastes very chewy, very bouncy, but I'm a fan. Yeah. It's very good. Next up we have adobo. This is often called the national dish of the Philippines. And basically it's either pork or chicken. That's a little bit savory and slightly tangy and it's marinated and simmered in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and spices. So we decided to get chicken. All the bones are in there. I'm going to take a little piece. Let's see. It came with some white onions chopped up. So I'm just going to put a couple on there. I really do like the flavor of that chicken. It's a little bit tangy, but mostly savory. Like you can really taste the soy sauce. It really comes through. But that vinegar is also quite potent as well. As you can see, it just falls off the bone. And the outside is so crispy. So I decided to also order the which is Cebu's version of adobo. And basically it's almost always made with pork rather than chicken. It's made with banana blossoms and also fermented black bean paste, which gives it a sweeter taste. And the name actually reminded me very much of the Taiwanese dish, which literally looks exactly like this. I wonder if it's like the same thing because it's also kind of sweet in taste and also has big hunks of pork just like this. So maybe I need to try it to find out. Pressing the fork into the pork, the fork into the pork. It's already just so squishy and so soft. I know it's gonna be very, very tender. Alright, got a lot of that sauce all up in there. It does taste exactly like Hongba. I don't know if it's like tied in that way, but it is so delicious. I like this more than actually the regular adobo. I love the sweet added to this dish. I could also just pour the sauce over rice. It would be so good. This one for sure. Fried chicken's good, but like that's special. Lastly, in this very large bucket, we have sinigang, which is a sour tamarind based soup. We decided to get it with pork and there are all sorts of vegetables in there. I'm not sure what these veggies are, but they do look very delicious. And it said that this is like the perfect hangover dish. The soup already looks really, really good. Like I feel like if I had a cold or if I was sick, I would probably want to order this. That's sour. That is definitely very, very sour, but I kind of like it. The sour flavor is really, really strong there. But like as it goes, as it goes down your throat, down the hatchet, it kind of just glides through and it really, I don't know, it kind of wakes you up in a way because of the sour taste. The pork is extremely layered. It kind of looks like the jeon that we were having earlier, but boiled like rather than fried. It fell right apart. That's the good stuff right there. That is so, so tender and the fat just makes it so much more delicious. Ever since I saw this cauldron come out, I've been very excited to try it. It's not sour in the way that they just added a bunch of lemon to it. It's like deeper than that, I feel like. Another first impression on the Philippines, they are a country that just knows how to have fun and knows how to enjoy like everyday life. Like we're just walking through a square right now and it's full of lights. We're full. There's music playing in all directions and people are just like dancing and singing and it's a Wednesday. Like it's not like it's the weekend or anything. They're just, they know how to live. Thank you so much for joining us on our Filipino food tour here on the island of Cebu. We actually have so many more adventures to do while we're on this island, so if you want to see where we go next, hit subscribe as we travel to 50 countries around the world. With all that said, we'll catch you in the next one. Bye!