I was in Cebu City during the last weekend of May to take part in the annual Gabi- sa Kabilin. Meaning “Night of Heritage”, it is patterned after Lange Nacht der Museen or Long Night of the Museums in Berlin, Germany. Now on its 6th year, this cultural event spearheaded by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Incorporated (RAFI) brings together museums and cultural institutions in various places towns and cities in Cebu, to open to the public until midnight.
But as the event took place at night, we spent the day indulging in a lot of Cebuano cuisine and delicacies. Together with Eugene Jamerlan and Luth Camiña, lunch was at NL Café, a big carinderia at the North Reclamation area a block away from SM City Cebu.
It was a literally homey restaurant as one is welcomed to somewhat like a living room of a simple house. One will then be faced with some tough choices which ones to try. Good thing we were a group of five so we tried as many as we could.
I particularly loved the “Balbacua” - a beef trotter’s stew (topmost Slowly cooked for hours, one can savor a melt in the mouth gelatinous skin and tendons in a thick full bodied soup. It’s very like our own “pata” – with its sticky and mildly sour broth.
There’s “Humba”, a slow-cooked braised pork dish similar to adobo but with a somewhat sweeter flavor. Our order had jelly-soft skin and tender meat swimming in its own fat. It is cooked with tausi, star anise and brown sugar on top of the usual adobo ingredients.
Tortang talong might just be standard item in most carinderias but this one had lots of ground pork that got my attention in the. first place.
Completing our meat dishes was a dish called “Lansiao”, a curious dish that turned out to be a bull testicle soup!
For seafood, we had “Linabog nga Pagi” – stingray cooked in coconut cream. A typical stringray dish simmered in coconut milk with hints of tanginess.
And finally, we had “Nilarang nga Bakasi”, baby eels cooked with garlic, onions, ginger and sili with “iba” providing a mild sourness to the soup. Another curious dish that turned out to be one with a a good broth which was "sabaw pa lang, ulam na".
