Kalami Cebu! - A Gastronomic Guide to Cebu

CEBU, Philippines— In 2015, Daniel Cabrera was known all over the world as the little boy studying on the pavement under a faint light coming from a McDonald’s restaurant.

For me, Korean BBQ Places are among the "healthiest" All-You-Can restaurants out there.   All-You-Can-Eat Restaurants makes you binge; but, with Korean Barbecues, you also get to eat a good amount of vegetables. I recently dined at the newly-opened Barangay Seoul and as expected, had a grand time eating their unlimited samgyeopsal and other Korean specialties.  I even got to do a Samyang Special Noodle Challenge.

The Philippines has a lot of amazing street food that tourists must try.  These street foods are not heavily marketed but locals love it.  One great example is the beef pares in the streets of Metro Manila.  Every time I go to Manila, I make sure that I will have a beef pares for breakfast and you should too. 

Who does not love burgers?  One night, I suddenly had a burger craving and I end up traveling to Mambaling to eat at the newly-opened Stoked Burgers.  I tried out their Squat Burger and it gave me one of my best burger experiences in recent months.

When I was a kid, I was always required to sleep in the afternoon.  The reward  is a delicious merienda.  One of my favorite merienda item is the Champorado.  I recently discovered a good place to this chocolatey rice porridge. I am quite surprised that Maitre Chocolatier at Ayala Terraces Cebu serves this Pinoy snack at a sweet price.

When it comes to food, the number 1 item that Cebuanos would be proud of is our inasal or lechon .  For years, it has been our trademark and even the late Anthony Bourdain exclaimed that here in Cebu, he found t he best pig ever.   In the past, we normally eat Lechon Cebu at hole-in-wall eating places.  Now, we see the rise of many restaurants that offer Lechon as its main specialty and one of the best of this kind of establishments is the House of Lechon.  I recently visited their newest branch at Don Jose Avila St., Capitol Site and here is a short review.

There was a time that steakhouses in Cebu where an endangered species after one of its most established one (David's Steakhouse) closed down.  I saw the "steak revival" in the past couple of years as more and more establishments opened specializing in steak.   The Choobi Choobi group recently joined the fray by opening the newest steakhouse in Cebu, Angus Dan's.