Daily Tribune‘This victory is not just for Samar, but for every local cook, weaver, farmer and family whose stories and flavors are woven into these pages. This is a tribute to our roots and our shared passion to preserve and promote Samar’s culinary soul.’
The Secret Kitchens of Samar book.
Photograph courtesy of DOT
TACLOBAN CITY — What’s in Samar’s dining table?
Depending on the occasion and which place in the province, Samar offers a wide variety of food — many of them family heirlooms passed from one generation to the next.
In the town of Jiabong, the green mussels capital of Eastern Visayas, tahong dishes include relleno, barbecue, lumpia, oven-baked with cheese and garlic, or grilled, which is a bunch thrown to open fire until the shells open up to indicate that it is already cooked. In recent years, the town also developed tahong chips.
Anywhere in the province, a fiesta table is not complete without delectable tamalos (braised pork belly wrapped in rice dough), humba, bola catalana (a local variation of meatloaf) and callos.
A drink over a gallon of bahalina would be paired with a kinilaw of anything — meat, fish, shells, sea snail and even banana blossom.
The rich culinary heritage of Samar is captured in a five-volume book Secret Kitchens of Samar which won two top honors at the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2025, held during the Cascais World Food Summit in Portugal.
Secret Kitchens of Samar author and television host Clang Garcia received the award together with Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan at the Estoril Congress Center held last 18 to 21 June.
The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, touted to be the Oscars for culinary, is held every year to honor the best food and wine books, printed or digital, as well as food television.
Culinary map
Garcia said the Secret Kitchens of Samar is a product of immersive research across the province, capturing the untold stories of Waray home cooks, local artisans and generational recipes that are often passed down by memory and tradition. Each volume serves as both a cookbook and cultural anthology — preserving Samar’s culinary soul for future generations.
The Secret Kitchens of Samar was funded by the Tourism Promotions Board Philippines, with technical support from the Department of Tourism regional office, as part of the Spark Samar program, the tourism initiative of the provincial government of Samar.
In a statement, Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan said the Secret Kitchens of Samar serves as a cultural and gastronomic chronicle that documents the traditions, recipes and community life across Samar’s diverse towns, placing the province — and the Philippines — on the global culinary map.
Governor Ann Tan expressed deep gratitude for the international recognition and dedicated the awards to the “kitchen heroes and their families, the Samarnon community and all stakeholders” who brought the project to life.
“This victory is not just for Samar, but for every local cook, weaver, farmer and family whose stories and flavors are woven into these pages. This is a tribute to our roots and our shared passion to preserve and promote Samar’s culinary soul,” Tan said.
Secret Kitchens of Samar serves as a cultural and gastronomic chronicle that documents the traditions, recipes and community life across Samar’s diverse towns, placing the province — and the Philippines — on the global culinary map.
