Riches of Cebu: Pochero Cebuano at Torta Cebuana

CHEF’S TAKE

Pochero Cebuano

I’ve cooked a lot of Filipino soups before, but Cebuano pochero really surprised me. It’s completely different from the tomato-based pochero you often see in Luzon. In Cebu, there’s no tomato at all.

What connects the two versions isn’t the broth—it’s the banana. Saging na saba shows up whether you’re in Luzon or Cebu. Once I noticed that, it shifted how I thought about the dish. That’s the common thread. Everything else changes, but the banana stays.

For me, Cebuano pochero feels like another form of nilaga. It’s a reminder that even across distant islands, we’re working with the same core ideas, interpreted in different ways. That says a lot about how connected Filipino food culture is, even in its differences.

- Chef Coco

Torta Cebuana

This dish has a family story behind it. My mom, Mama Vi, has a cousin from Daanbantayan, Cebu, up on the northern tip of the island. When she came to visit us in Chicago, she shared her recipe for Torta Cebuana—but she didn’t give the exact measurements. My mom took that as a challenge. She kept experimenting and adjusting until she came up with her own version. That’s the one I grew up with, and it’s the recipe we get to share here today.

- Walbert (Istorya Founder)

ON THE MAP: REGIONAL CUISINE OF CEBU

For several years, my profile photo was of me biting into a wedge of spongy, sugar-dusted cake, fresh from the oven at Jessie’s Torta. Seeing how traditional foods are made and then enjoying them shortly after has become one of my great pleasures in life.

I learned about tuba-leavened torta from a cookbook called Hikay: The Culinary Heritage of Cebu by Louella Alix. On the podcast, I asked Ms. Louella what “hikay” meant:

“When people say they want to prepare a meal, there was this one word that I heard from almost all the mothers and cooks I’ve encountered. They’d say, “Mag-hikay ko, ug pamahaw.” In Cebuano, that means “I’m going to prepare breakfast.” So the word really is a verb which means “to prepare food.” So “mag-hikay” means “to prepare food” - but then what kind of food? Then you’d say “pamahaw” for breakfast, “pani-udto” for lunch, or “pani-hapon” for dinner.

So the word itself is a verb - but then, it also becomes a noun when it’s used to describe a feast. For an ordinary lunch, for example - you can’t call it a “hikay”, you’d just call it “pani-udto”. But if you spread out several dishes and it looks like a feast or a banquet, then it can be called a “hikay.” The intricacies of the Cebuano language!”

At Galeón: Part One, pochero and torta anchor our culinary journey, our version of pag-hikay, through Cebu’s fascinating foodways.

- Nastasha