Ancient Technique · Vinegar-Cured Raw Fish
Kinilaw
Photo: Lokalpedia / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Excavations at a 10th-to-13th-century site in Butuan, Mindanao, turned up fish bones with cut marks alongside halved tabon-tabon fruit, still used in kinilaw today — evidence that the technique predates Spanish colonization.
Cubed raw fish is 'cooked' using vinegar rather than citrus, mixed with onion, ginger, chili, and black pepper until the acid firms up the flesh. Mindanao's coastal markets and street-side seafood stalls serve it as a sharp, tangy starter, often alongside grilled dishes.
Why it's made this way: Unlike Latin American ceviche, which relies purely on citrus, kinilaw's vinegar-forward method reflects ingredients native to tropical Asia, and Mindanao's coastal cities are considered direct inheritors of the technique's centuries-old Visayan-Mindanao roots.
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