After our Cebu City Tour, our driver took us to a local place for lunch.
Not for the faint of heart, Larsian BBQ is an outdoor eatery in Cebu specializing in grilled food items. One can choose from the many vendors that hawk a variety of meat and seafood to be freshly grilled for you on the spot. Upon arrival, the Mo was very thrilled, “this is the place I saw on YouTube!” he said excitedly. Myself on the other hand, not so much.
I’m all for street food, but it was too early
on our trip to risk getting sick. I didn't
know how long the raw meat and seafood has been sitting out for. The temperature reached about 88 degrees that
day and I felt uneasy about the situation.
Not for the faint of heart, Larsian BBQ is an outdoor eatery in Cebu specializing in grilled food items. One can choose from the many vendors that hawk a variety of meat and seafood to be freshly grilled for you on the spot. Upon arrival, the Mo was very thrilled, “this is the place I saw on YouTube!” he said excitedly. Myself on the other hand, not so much.
I worked up the courage and decided to give it a try. We didn’t go overboard with the
offerings. I think our vendor was a bit disappointed. Between the two of us, we got a squid, a
whole fish, 2 chicken thighs, and “longaniza” a sweet Philippines sausage that
reminded me of Chinese sausage. They
also had lots of innards but the Mo and I weren't up for that.
Our vendor showed us to his tables in the community seating
area and quickly brought us a basket of individual rice triangle wrapped in
banana leaves along with Thai chili peppers and plates.
Within 15 minutes our seafood feast was delivered to our
table. Everything looked and smelled tantalizing. My apprehension went away and I dug in. The meats and fish had a great charred taste
that could only be achieved on the grill.
The traditional way of eating the meal is with your hands. Plastic bags were placed on the tables to be used as gloves. I thought that was a great idea. One can enjoy their meal and nibble on bones without getting their fingers messy. There was also different sauces on the table. I am not sure with the white clear one was, I assumed it would be lime juice and the other was a soy sauce based dip.
When it was time to pay the bill, the vendor came to count
our banana leaves from the baskets to calculate the amount of rice triangles we
consumed. Good thing he did that, we
didn't keep track. Our bill was less
than $12.00 for our meats, rice, bottled water and beers. As you can see, the Mo got a magnum
beer.
I’m not sure we will have the opportunity to visit again,
but it was definitely a great experience.