Bacolod Food Tour — Chicken Inasal, Piaya & Napoleones

Bacolod has one of the strongest culinary identities of any city in the Philippines — a fact it wears with considerable pride. This is the city that invented chicken inasal, the Negros-style marinated grilled chicken that has become one of the most popular dishes in the country and spawned a national fast-food chain. But the original, cooked over coconut charcoal at the Manokan Country stalls on Bacolod's reclamation area, is in an entirely different category from anything served in Manila.

The food tour starts at the legendary Manokan Country — a cluster of open-air inasal restaurants that have been operating in the same location since the 1970s, competing intensely and maintaining standards. The guide introduces you to the marinade (lemongrass, annatto, calamansi, and a family secret at each stall) and the correct way to eat inasal: dipped in the rendered chicken oil and soy-calamansi sauce, with a mountain of garlic rice and a cold bottle of local softdrink.

From there the tour moves to the sweet specialties that make Bacolod unique. Piaya is a flat, unleavened pastry filled with muscovado sugar (the dark, unrefined cane sugar that Negros produces in vast quantities) — flaky, slightly caramelised, and addictive. Napoleones are the city's most beloved dessert: tiny custard tarts in puff pastry with icing sugar, sold by the box at heritage bakeries that have been making them for generations. The food tour ends at a craft beer bar near the heritage district where the guide explains the connection between the sugar industry, Negros Occidental's wealth, and the food culture that grew from it. Book via Klook for a small-group tour with all tastings included.