Budbud Kabog Festival @Catmon, Cebu
Suman, budbud, sticky rice sticks
Budbud Kabug: Sweet Bisayan delicacy made from
glutinous millet, rolled and steamed in banana leaves.
Im from the Visayas so we call it budbud but others call it suman. Either way, its sticky rice rolled in a banana leaf. Its tasty with a hint of some ingredient. hmmm???
This is what I had for breakfast one morning, budbud! Not only that, it was the striped kind with chocolate! Oh my! Be still my heart. Thinking about it now makes me want some more.
Dip the budbud in some sugar and wash it down with some chocolate, the real chocolate made from tablea. Pair that up with some sweet juicy mangoes and youre in heaven!
This reminded me of being a kid and going to church with my lola, my great-grandmother actually. On our way home, we would stop and buy some budbud from the food vendors at the church. Then we would take it home and eat it all up for breakfast.
NOT many Cebuanos know that budbud kabog originated in Catmon, northern Cebu, and
Budbod kabog that makers of budbud kabog in other places are relatives of Catmon natives.
Commonly referred to as kabog in the municipality is a small-seeded cereal plant known as millet in other countries.
Millet grew wild and in abundance Catmons mountains, mostly in Barangay Agsuwao. Residents later cultivated the plant when they realized that its grains could be utilized for food.
Folklore has it that a farmer once discovered millet grass scattered on a cave floor in Barangay Agsuwao. The cave bats (kabog in the native tongue) had the millet as food. Thinking that the grass seeds could not be poison, he cooked them but found his ingenious recipe to be coarse and bland in taste. He then experimented by pounding the millet seeds before cooking, and added sugar, making it delightful to the tongue.
Years after, people started cooking the seeds with sugar and coconut milk, and wrapping it in banana leaves– which is now budbud kabog.
Residents say that the delicacy was first sold at a toll booth in Naghalin Bridge in Catmon, with cockfight aficionados as buyers.
Today, Catmonanons celebrate the Budbud Kabog Festival during the town fiesta every February 10.