The Difference Between Cocina and Coce in Chabacano

If you speak Chabacano and do not know what coce means, you will probably recognize it if it is spelled as cusi. Although most Chabacano speakers spell this word as cusi, we will spell it as coce in this article since this word came from the Spanish cocer.

Based on my experience, the difference between these two words are how they are used. They both mean 'to cook' but cocina is normally used for cooking rice while coce is used for dishes like adobo. This is a bit similar to Tagalog wherein the word luto is generally only used for cooking dishes like adobo but not when cooking steamed rice. They use the word saing for cooking rice.

As far as I can remember, cocina was used to refer to cooking rice and the word rice may not even be mentioned as it is already understood. This term may also be used for cooking in general. You could say ta cocina pa yo and it would mean that you are still cooking (rice may or may not be included).

But maybe all this occurs just in my family? What about you? How do you differentiate between these two words?

Note that cocina in this article refers to the verb and not the noun.