Sinulog & Cebu City's Street Food

There is nothing like celebrating a native festival with the native food of a certain place. The unity between a festivity and its food is that it creates the culture of a certain place. More importantly, the people who celebrate the said festivity also gives more importance to the festivity itself and the culture in where it belongs. The people, the festivity, the celebration, and the food are the key factors in determining a culture of a group of people. In the Cebu province (located in the Visayan region of the Philippine archipelago), there is really one grand festival that stands out among the other festivals in the different parts of the Philippines, and along with this festival comes the best kind of food eaten during this time of festivity by the people celebrating the said event.

The Sinulog festival is one of the grand festivals celebrated in the Philippine archipelago annually, in the Cebu province specifically. It is one of the highlighted celebrations of the Cebu province awaited by many of the Filipinos and from citizens all around the world. It is celebrated every third Sunday of the month of January in honor of the former patron saint of the Cebu province, who is Sr. Sto. Niño (also known as the child form of Jesus, since in the Catholic faith, Jesus is not a saint, but God). Usually, the festival lasts for 9 days, ending in the ninth day which is celebrated by the Sinulog Grand parade or better known as the Sinulog Grand Mardigras.  This festival is also one of the reasons why foreigners keep on coming back to the Philippines every year. People not just from the Philippines, but also from other parts of the world come to visit this grand festival.

Sinulog came from the Cebuano adverb sulog which meant “moving in a manner similar to a water current movement”. So, the pronunciation of the Sinulog is “SI-nu-log” and not “si-NU-log” which is usually being used by the Cebuanos. The Sinulog is fundamentally a a dance ritual which reminds the Cebuanos of their pagan past and their recognition of Christianity.

The festival features some of the country’s colorful displays of celebration and pageantry. Participants, not just from the Cebu province, but also from all round the Philippine archipelago, dance to the rhythm of the drums and native gongs, along with their detailed and brightly-colored costumes.  Recently, this said event has been commercialized as part of the tourist attractions of the Philippines and instead of seeing traditional dancing from the locals, the event is also held to showcase highlighting groups from different part of the country.

A day before the parade, a Fluvial procession (a water parade), is held at dawn from Mandaue City to Cebu City, with the Sto. Niño carried on a pump boat decorated with various kinds of colorful flowers and candles. The procession’s last stop is the Basilica del Santo Niño, where a re-enactment of the event on the Christianizing of the Cebu province follows. In the afternoon, a procession on land takes place along the major streets of the city and lasts for countless hours due to the large crowd participating in the procession.

On the feast day itself, a Pontifical Mass is held at Basilica, given by the Cardinal with the help of other bishops of Cebu. This mass is where majority of the city’s population and devotees attend before heading out into the streets to witness the Grand Mardigras.

Like many other festivals, the Sinulog festival would not be complete without the FOOD. One of the reasons why people all around the world keep on coming back to this festival is the food sold in the city of Cebu during the time of festivity - specifically the street food.

During festivities, especially during the Sinulog festival, street food is the most popular kind of food usually eaten by the people. All throughout the nine days of festivity, the Sinulog festival is never at its best if not for the street food paired with it. The most popular street food duo usually eaten during the festival is the puso or the "hanging rice" paired with barbecue, and the declaration of Cebu City as the Barbecue Capital of the world adds to the excitement of this festivity celebrated with barbecue.

Puso (hanging rice) ♥ barbecue   

There was even this one time that there were barbecue grills placed side by side on order to form a long line of barbecue grill. To further enumerate the event,  last January 11, 2004, Sunday, a so-called Sugbayanihan was held during the celebration of the Sinulog (a combination of the words sugbahan - barbecuing, bayanihan – helping each other). More than a thousand barbecue vendors and members of Cebu City’s depressed community to put up a barbecue grill that was 1,300 meters long which extended from uptown of Osmeña Boulevard to Sancianco Street in downtown Cebu City. The said grill was set-up and welded a day before the big celebration for the Sinulog. The following day, which was Sunday, the traffic was rerouted at 1pm and by 5pm, the intersections were closed and the welding for the long barbecue grill was completed.  During this spectacular event, the method of cooking the barbecue meat is still in the same traditional manner, which also literally “smoked up” the entire celebration and added an extra fun factor for the entire event. This barbecue craze was created, not just to meet the street food demands of the people during the festival, but also to take the festival to a whole new level. The Sugbayanihan was also created for the attempt of hosting another Guinness World Record entitlement. Although the attempt had failed, the Sugbayanihan paved the way for the Sinulog celebration to be different yet still keep the Sinulog spirit burning.

Besides the unbeatable street barbecue of Cebu City, there are other street foods that are also popular during the festivity. Brandon Melgar, a student from Cebu Normal University, and a Cebuano citizen for almost 16 years of his life said that, “Enjoy jud ko pirmi basta Sinulog na kay kaon na pud! Lahi ra man jud ang atmosphere if street food ang kaonon sa Sinulog kay imu jung ma-feel ang kalingaw sa street ba.” He also said that amongst all the kinds of street food sold during the Sinulog, he always loved to eat the kwek-kwek (boiled quail eggs coated with a thick orange-colored flour coating which adds the crisp to the food) during the Sinulog.  

Kwek-kwek

There are other kinds of street food sold during the festival, aside from barbecue and kwek-kwek – Cebu’s tempura (a solid squid-flavored fried bread/dough), fish balls and squid balls among others.

Squid balls

Fish Balls

Cebu's tempura

Street food is popular during this festival because from sunrise till sunset of the ninth day of celebration, the streets are flooded with a “street dance” performed by the different delegates of the festival, and during this time, street food is the most accessible food source while the festivity is going on. Also, during the street dance, most of the sidewalk street vendors sell street food which also explains why eating street food during festivities in Cebu, like the Sinulog, is becoming a dominant trend nowadays.

The Sinulog festival and Cebu City’s street food always go together, along with the bog flock of the Cebu crowd because celebrating a Cebuano festival is not just celebrating the festival, but also celebrating the living Filipino spirit as well.

Bibliography: 


http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_festivals/sinulog_festival.html

http://www.wayblima.com/cebu-food-bbq.html

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2479&dat=20040110&id=_KZjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aSUMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1223,36088360

http://foodcebu.blogspot.com/

http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?q=cebu+barbecue&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=624&tbm=isch&tbnid=-eM-tq6mHSt12M:&imgrefurl=http://www.myfreshcrumbs.com/2011/02/cebu-series-famous-aas-bbq.html&docid=jhuWl-MsWvygXM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-AO687JMlvcv3ppGUECZQgasIVKFn-4EMXvfK2OEF1IJdFaF3dZnw8QPzZNAmlHdI4_Bz3BijFWld-Ch_6JxuWLo6rhEfadaduuash0790aTBzI5BdQfq6xnu6QN9SY0iCE1h0hJJBvE/s1600/092%252BCebu%252BAA%25252527s%252BBBQ%252B011%252Bpork%252Bbbq.jpg&w=1600&h=1193&ei=HaCbToCmHY6ziQesr7GsAg&zoom=1

http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?q=hanging+rice&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=ShqCSLQOtzbKaM:&imgrefurl=http://aldelei89.blogspot.com/2011/07/daily-pic-073011.html&docid=KTJAT20jHE4ZEM&imgurl=http://www.passionsandpicks.com/wp-content/uploads/hanging-rice-450x337.jpg&w=450&h=337&ei=FZ2bTpn1POaXiAfCn8GsAg&zoom=1

http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?q=cebu+tempura&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=624&tbm=isch&tbnid=PVR0Y6vaYnCBnM:&imgrefurl=http://www.homelykid.com/archives/804&docid=e1DiRtMx322USM&imgurl=http://www.homelykid.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/tempura.jpeg&w=256&h=192&ei=xKCbTon2Ks2ZiQfdheSrAg&zoom=1