Balbacua

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A Filipino stew of beef slow-cooked until tender, especially in the cuisine of Visayas and Mindanao. Philippines, uncountable

Etymology

Borrowed from Cebuano balbakuwa, from Spanish barbacoa (“slow-cooked meat on an open fire”) (whence also barbecue), from Taíno barbakoa (“framework of sticks”), the raised wooden structure the natives used to either sleep on or cure meat. The dish was likely named due to the similarity in the length of time in cooking and the tenderness of the meat. Compare Cebuano balbakuwa and Tagalog balbakwa.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.