I had never heard of the peculiarly Cebuano phenomenon called tuslob buwâ until I asked Jenny if she had anything particular in mind for dinner. “I hear it’s all the rage here,” she’d said. “You cook the dish yourself at the table. If you’re up for it, we’ll see what the fuss is about.”
Frankly, I hadn’t come to Cebu to cook, but what the heck; I’ll try anything once. That’s my new mantra, by the way, ever since I realized that I needed to broaden my culinary horizons, not merely for the sake of this blog, but also because there is only so much to be said about adobo and tinunuan. In short, something new, hopefully exciting.
As names go, tuslob buwâ doesn’t exactly tickle the imagination (mine, at least), unlike, say, bird’s nest soup, frog-eye salad, or tikud sa amo. Literally translated, it means to dip (something) into something frothy or bubbly. A quick Google search pointed us to Azul, along Gorordo Avenue. Coming from downtown, it’s right before the Asilo de la Milagrosa Church, across Federova’s Bridal Shop and Yoga Thai Massage and Spa. Their signage is easy to miss, so look for the Yamaha store instead.
An order of tuslob buwâ costs ₱120 and consists of a dozen bite-size pusô (hanging rice), a cup of pork broth mixed with flour, and four miniature condiment cups containing, to wit, diced onion, shrimp paste, ground pork liver, and mashed pork brain. There is a set of cooking instructions posted on the wall next to the bar, but the best way to learn is to look at what the other customers are doing, or ask one of the staff to do it for you (if he/she nonchalantly refers you to aforementioned poster, insist as sweetly as you can; we didn’t). In any case, here’s what you should expect: sarsa.
Yes, my friends, you are (over)paying for the privilege of cooking your own gravy — that’s what tuslob buwâ boils down to, pun fully intended. It was far from bad, but if you’re expecting more, like we were, you’ll be severely disappointed. We ended up tallying just how much the damn thing actually cost and agreed upon a ballpark figure of ₱60. Now there’s a good racket. “What do you say we open one back home and make a killing?” I wondered aloud. “Is it even ethical to charge for gravy?”
Looking at the other tables, apparently so. It wasn’t that dark (except for decent photos), so I could see that everyone else ordered nothing but the tuslob buwâ. Only in the Philippines is cold rice dipped in gravy considered a full meal. Is it filling? To some, maybe. Our party vehemently disagreed. We also had ngohiong, chicken skin, and sizzling chicken heart, the last one not particularly good (or sizzling), but given the alternative, they made for a halfway decent (if unhealthy) meal.
“You’ve been fleeced,” Jenny’s Cebu-based daughter said when she heard about our experience. “At the Pasil market, you only pay for the pusô; the gravy is free.” We had paid almost ₱600 for the whole meal. We should’ve brought a bottle of Mang Tomas and saved ourselves the extra effort and expense.
Anyway, if you’re wondering why the photos here were obviously taken in daylight when we went there for dinner: we went back, ostensibly to take better documentation. This time we insisted the server show us the “right” way to prepare tuslob buwâ (it was early in the morning and we were the only customers). First she sautéed the onion in a little oil, then added the fat, shrimp paste, liver, and brain. After seasoning with a liberal dose of soy sauce and a pinch of chili flakes, she stirred in the broth-flour combination, then lowered the heat to medium, stirring constantly until the mixture had thickened. Then she turned the heat to low and told us to dig/dip in.
We were prepared to leave it at that, but who were we kidding? It smelled good. Like, what gravy doesn’t? I polished off three pusô while Jenny had five. Besides, we hadn’t had breakfast yet, so why not? Chased down with terrifically cold Mountain Dew, it was enjoyable enough on its own. Maybe we just needed to approach the dish from that perspective to appreciate it. But still, if it’s culinary adventure you want, believe me, you can pass up this one and not have missed a thing.
So what else have your Facebook friends been raving about these days?
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