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Chin Chao was one of the very reasons Lutong Cavite blog came to life. I vividly remember how native Chabacano speakers or who grew up in a Chabacano speaking home would rush early morning to the palengke every Good Friday, excited to get their hands on that prized lenten drink. Their joy was contagious dahil unahan ang pagbili kaya dapat maaga ka - yet, strangely, there was barely any information or even photos of it online as well as the other beloved Chabacano dishes.
It actually took me a few years to finally feature chin chao. Back then, I didn’t really enjoy going to the market - if it weren’t for Sir Ige, who helped me see the beauty in it, I probably never would’ve appreciated it the way I do now. Chin Chao is elusive - miss it on Good Friday, and you’ll have to wait another year. And yes, I did miss it few years, which made finally featuring it all the more special when the time came. Now this year suddenly it was Filipinized in spelling being pushed by an individual page that isn’t even rooted in the community to tsin-tsáo. Why Filipinize something that is inherently Chabacano? Our Chabacano alphabet uses C and Ch - that's why Chin Chao is spelled that way. But now, here comes 2025 - suddenly it’s tsin-tsáo, forced into a Filipinized spelling just to match a page’s theme? LOL, just like that, puwede na palitan ang spelling? As if heritage is a trend you can tweak at whim?
And again the case of the so-called “lost Chabacano heritage recipe”
that supposedly uses 115 sili and dates back 70 years based solely on the account of someone who lived here, but isn’t even a native. No community validation. No credible documentation. Just a dramatic revival story.
But let’s be real - in a very small city like ours, where everyone knows
everyone and tsismis spreads faster than fire, and food is life (tragon y tragona
niso!) and the phrase “nuong araw” refers to a time when there were far fewer people so how could a dish that was allegedly served during fiesta and major social gatherings just vanish into thin air without anyone remembering it? How?
Our elders used kawa for large batches - if that dish
truly existed, someone, anyone, would remember it. Children in the past here are "ayudante" of the elderly in the cooking. And since when did
Chabacanos even have a preference for super spicy and with coconut milk wherein
pork is mixed with seafoods?
It’s giving Imus and the flag moment all over again.
Remember when they claimed the flag waving as theirs and it took the efforts
of Sir Willy and the group to reclaim what’s rightfully ours? What if no one
fought back then? The history would’ve been lost. And even now, let’s be
honest, it still doesn’t fully feel like it's ours… because Imus celebrates it
louder, even if the legacy is of our city.
Cavite City is incredibly rich in heritage. The deeper you dig, the
more treasures you uncover. We have the potential to be among the top 5 cities
in the country in terms of cultural assets. We even have our own Spanish creole language that is recognize around the world. But the problem is, we’re not fully
embracing it.
Too often, we limit the idea of cultural assets to just old structures and monuments, while other places have already documented even the smallest details of their culture. And because we haven’t, others swoop in, rewrite the narrative, and claim the credit that should have been ours. If we don’t protect our heritage, someone else will and they won’t always get it right.
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