Culinary Slangs

CEBU, Philippines - Filipinos are no stranger to local slangs and phrases, with a myriad of “borrowed words” and terms used in different facets of everyday life.

Used in homes, places of business and in schoolyard playgrounds, the arena of local cuisine is not without its share of urban dictionary terms, words which mean one thing in one place while meaning something else in another.

Here are some of the more popular “colloquialisms” known in and out of the Visayas region, words which are tied with a given locale’s culinary terms and tenses.

Patis

As a condiment, patis is categorized as a type of sauce derived from fish, extracted through the fermentation of fish with salt.

Also used in the creation of certain recipes and dishes, Tagalogs refer to patis simply as patis, but in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental, as well as in Cebu, patis means something else – soy sauce.

While not every Dumagueteño (particularly the younger generation of Dumagueteños) refers to soy sauce as patis, the use of patis as soy sauce is still quite prevalent in the City of Gentle People, but not prevalent enough to always lead to instances of miscommunication.

To a certain extent, it’s often argued that you can tell a true-blue Dumagueteño from a Tagalog in how he or she uses the word patis when talking about condiments.

Remember me

Cebuanos are quite familiar with lantsiao, also popularly referred to as Soup #5.

Made with carrots, onions, bull’s testicles and penis, the soup is quite notorious in certain cliques, just as it is argued to have aphrodisiac properties.

While the average Cebuano is aware that lantsiao is another term for Soup #5, Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental has another name for the soup, one which has, to a certain extent, supplanted its lantsiao/Soup #5 moniker – Remember Me.

The origin of the Remember Me name for lantsiao/Soup #5 in the City of Golden Friendship is widely attributed to an eatery which had made Soup #5 its specialty.

Not surprisingly, the name of that eatery is Remember Me.

Fishy Names

From barilis to tambakol, tangi to tanguigue, the Philippines’ local name variants of fish is as diverse as the number of fish families found within the nation’s bounds.

There’s the sea bass, whose local regional names include bulgan, apahap, katuyot, matang-pusa and mangagat.

The skipjack tuna also has its share of local region-specific names used in the Visayas and Mindanao, either locally referred to as tambakol, tulingan, barilis or talingay.

Malasugi is generally used in defining either the black or white marlin, while the red snapper is known as maya-maya, matangal, alsis or bambangon in different regions.

While the range of local names for fish species in the country is quite varied, using the term “varied” would be a huge understatement as “immensely diverse and varied” stands to be more apt.

Fishes of the Philippines by Genevieve Broad easily illustrates this point, with the book detailing the local names of more than 90 fish families found in the country. (FREEMAN)