Maritime Southeast Asia · Volume 50, The Vinegar Line, the Sizzling Plate and the Whole Roast Pig
Humba
Cebuano Cebu and the Central Visayas
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 1 hour
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Tausi, fermented black beans carried in by Hokkien traders, is the one ingredient that actually defines humba: strip it out and what remains is essentially a sweetened adobo. This chapter's research found no structural difference between Cebuano and Ilonggo versions of the dish; it reads in the sources as Visayas-wide rather than a case study in island-to-island contrast.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. 25 minutes to 1 hour, plus searing.
Ingredients
- 450 g pork belly
- 470 ml water
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 77g (⅓ cup) vinegar
- 8 cloves garlic
- 2 bay leaf
- 8 black peppercorns
- 67 g muscovado sugar
- 75 g tausi (fermented black beans)
- ½ cup, dried, optional banana blossom, optional
- ½ piece star anise, optional
Method
- Sear the pork belly, then braise it with the water, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaf, black peppercorns, muscovado sugar and tausi, the ingredient that actually defines the dish, until the belly is fully tender, braising times ranging from around 25 minutes for a quick version up to a full hour for the pork to reach real softness.
- Banana blossom and star anise are common but not universal additions.
- Without the tausi, the result is essentially a sweetened adobo, not humba.
What a modern chef changes
The tausi bloomed first, and the braising liquid reduced into a lacquer
Rung 5
Method
- Cook the pork belly sous vide at 75°C for 14 hours for fully rendered fat and tender meat that still holds its shape when sliced.
- Build the braising liquid separately, blooming the tausi in a little oil before it joins the soy, vinegar, garlic and muscovado, the same early-incorporation logic as Rung 5, then reduce it hard into a dark, glossy lacquer rather than a thinner sauce.
- Glaze the sliced pork with the lacquer and finish briefly under a hot broiler or with a torch for a caramelised surface.
- Quick-pickle banana blossom in a light vinegar brine for a bright, acidic garnish that cuts the dish's sweetness, a texture and freshness contrast the long-braised traditional version does not offer on its own.