Humba is direct heritage from the Hokkien immigrants of southern China: the name comes from the Chinese hong-bak and keeps the logic of braising pork in dark soy sauce with sugar until the fat turns confit-soft. In the Philippines the dish went tropical with pineapple and saba banana, which sweeten the sauce and balance the salt of the soy, and it is completed with hard-boiled egg. In Cebu it is a mandatory feast dish —Nochebuena, town fiestas, baptisms— while in Bacolod it is eaten with no occasion at all.
Ingredients
800 g pork belly, thick chunks
120 ml dark soy sauce
60 ml coconut vinegar
1 cup pineapple chunks with juice
2 saba bananas (or sweet plantain), in chunks
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
6 garlic cloves, 1 onion and 2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons brown sugar and black pepper
550–700 kcal per typical serving.
per serving of belly with egg and banana, no rice (estimated from the typical recipe)
