Here in Cebu you can find some excellent street dining. Sometimes it might even come to you.
A common breakfast snack is taho wich is tofu Cebuano style. Here its eaten warm mixed with syrup and gulaman (coconut jelly). Taho is sold by street sellers who will advertise by yelling loudly before setting down their buckets and scoop up the tofu and mix it with the syrup in a plastic cup. Its quite cheap at 5 pesos. Taho sellers start walking at 4 AM covering huge distances as a part of their daily routine.
Cebu is the peanut capital of the world. You can find peanuts everywhere. It is available in a hundreds of different styles. A common style to enjoy peanuts is fried in the street.
Maybe you have heard of tempura. The Cebuano tempura is different from the original Japanese one. Tempura is basically flavored fish pastry, which is deep fried and dipped into a hot sauce. It is delicious and costs only 5 pesos.
Another fried snack is the squat bananas known as kardaba. Kardaba is served on a stick. This snack is known as banana cue and is very popular here. A banana cue costs 5 pesos.
Fruit salad is another delicious snack. Cebuano fruit salad consists of chunks of fruit and jelly mixed in a milky liquid served with ice in a disposable plastic cup. It usually costs only 5 pesos.
There are three kinds of Ice cream vendors here in Cebu. Those who walk around with a styrofoam box selling buko bars, essentially popsicles containing coconut. Another is the trisikad peddler with a large stainless steel drum and a dome shaped cover. This is real home made ice cream served in scoops in cones. These are around 5 to 10 pesos. And lastly there are the Nestle and Selecta vendors, who is wearing uniforms. They sell products consumers are familiar with thanks to TV advertising. A little more expensive from 20 pesos.
An entire meal can be had at the Pongko-pongo stalls that are set up on the sidewalk. The sud-an on offer are usually fried fish, fried drumsticks, fried eggs and fried sausages. These are served with puso rice or hanging rice. Drinks are bottled softdrinks such as Coke or Sprite. A meal is around 30 pesos.
Balut is probably the king of all street snacks. The balut vendors are often approaching by shouting: baloooooooot! What is balut then? They look like boiled eggs but inside are unborn chicks. The degree of their development inside is indicated by a number written on the egg. The numbers could be 14, 16, 18 or 21. It indicate the number of days that the egg has been under incubation. A number higher than 20 means your snack will be crunchy. Balut are taken with salt and kept hot by rags and towels. Balut vendors can be found after dark mostly on Friday and Saturday nights. The price is 10 peso.
Tags: Food and Entertainment