The most common fish used for buwad is budburon. This retails for around 10 pesos per pack of five, which comes to around 4 US cents per fish. Now that's cheap! The more expensive varieties, often bought as souvenirs for friends and family back home, are stuff like dilis (a teensy weensy variety), tabaga, boneless tusino or tusino tapa (tapa being anything spiced, sweetened, and flattened), pusit (squid).
Buwad are usually prepared by quickly frying them in oil, but a microwave can be used (though most people who own microwaves don't eat buwad). The entire fish can be consumed, including the tail, the spine, and the head. The head, when soaked in native vinegar, has an indescribable aroma, rich and powerful.
Another product commonly found at Tabuan is ginamos. This is fish which is salted but not dried; a tiny variety of fish, most often bulinaw, is salted in a sauce. Though dried fish is pretty bad, ginamos really stinks to high heaven. While in other countries - such as Vietnam - ginamos would merely be the precurser of fish sauce, here in Cebu it used as it is, straight from the jar, to flavor food. Incredibly, Cebuanos will eat sweet potatos with ginamos. Call me an uncouth foreigner, but I still prefer margarine!