DIFFERENT FOODS

IN THE
PHILIPPINES
 LUMPIA

Lumpia – spring roll. This can be fried or served fresh. The wrapper used is a
thin pancake wrapper. The filling is meat and vegetables. It can also be just
vegetables. If the filling is all meat such as pork or beef, it is called Lumpiang
Shanghai. There is also a lumpia dessert where banana and brown sugar are
used. If this is the case, this dish is called Turon.
 Kare-Kare

Kare-Kare – oxtail and vegetables cooked in a peanut sauce. It

is typically served with bagoong (fish paste).
 Bibingka

Bibingka – rice dessert. Butter, cheese, and shredded

coconut are put on it.
 Dinuguan

Dinuguan – blood of pig, entrails of pig, and meat of

pig. The ingredients are chili, pepper, garlic, and onion.
 Fresh Lumpia

The fresh version of lumpia is a bit like a spring roll crossed

with a burrito. It’s big and fat and filled with meat, lettuce, carrots,
peanuts, I think there was even some coconut in there. On the side
there’s a sweet sauce, or you can opt for vinegar. It’s pretty
awesome. Don’t forget to try the deep fried version – even more
awesome.
 BEEF MECHADO

. I can’t decide if I like this. It’s prepared by taking a decent cut of beef,
stuffing it with pork fat and then slow cooking it in a tomato sauce. Some
potatoes and carrots are chucked in too. Sounds awesome right? I think
it was a little too tomatoey for my liking, but it’ll grow on me.
 Kilawin Na Tanigue

                                                                                                                          
                                                     
Kilawin is a dish where raw fish is marinaded in vinegar and lemon/lime
juice. The high level of acidity cooks the fish and it’s flavoured with a bunch of
other stuff like chili, capsicum, spring onion and tomato. You’re probably
thinking it sounds very similar to ceviche or the Fijian kokoda, but the taste is
rather different. I found ceviche to be very fishy, kokoda to be very spicy and
kinilaw to be very sour. All catered for local tastebuds I guess.
 PANCIT BIHON GUISADO

Bihon Guisado is a perfect example of great tasting, unpretentious Filipino

food – some scallions, cabbage, celery, carrots, chicken and vermicelli
tossed in soy sauce and topped with calamansi juice. Fast, cheap and
awesome. Love it.
 CRISPY PATA

       
One thing you’ll notice when eating around The Philippines is that they’re
completely obsessed with their pork, which is probably why they cook it so
well. Enter the crispy pata – a pork leg/knuckle deep fried to perfection and
then sided with chili, calamansi and a variety of dipping sauces. I ate it a
couple of times, one homemade one and one from a restaurant. Needless
to say the homemade one was mouth watering but the restaurant cooked
one wasn’t too bad either. If you’re a pork man it might just change your life.
 SINIGANG
                                          
     

         It’s a tamarind based soup with a whole bunch of other

goodies in it, most commonly tomatoes, green beans, spinach,
green mango and various other possibilities. I tried quite a
few variations (pork and shrimp are the most popular)
 ADOBO

                                                                                                       
Another Filipino classic, I saw this dish on pretty much every Filipino menu
I set eyes on. It’s a basic meat dish which is simmered in a marinade of oil,
soy sauce, vinegar and garlic, and sometimes later pan fried to give it a
crispy surface. Like most dishes here they might often add a variation of
other veges (onions, potatoes, capsicum).
 GINATAANG PAPAYA

 Tried this bad boy at a jolly jeep and was so pleasantly surprised.
Green papaya shaved into thin slices and cooked in coconut milk and
pork bits. 
 BALUT

In the Philippines, the ideal balut is 17 days old, at which point it is said to be
‘balut sa puti’ (“wrapped in white”). The chick inside is not old enough to show its
beak, feathers or claws, and the bones are undeveloped.”
 TABLEA TSOKOLATE

                                                                                                           
As the story goes, the Spanish colonists began this tradition of
growing cocoa in The Philippines as the tropical weather was
perfect for it. This tradition has continued until today with
growers harvesting, drying, roasting and then grinding  fresh
cocoa beans into tablea or ‘tablets’. This is used in various Filipino
delicacies, including tablea tsokolate – a local style hot
chocolate.
 TURON

                                                        
Take a few slices of banana, wrap it in a spring roll
wrapper coated in brown sugar and then deep fry it.
Sound delicious? That’s a turon! And yes, it tastes as
good as it sounds.
 ILOCOS EMPANADA

                                                                                                                
          
This is a snack native to the Ilocos region, hence the name,
but I seemed to keep running into it in the various Manila
markets. The reason it kept catching my eye was the orange
dough; it’s almost a neon orange before it’s cooked. However
that’s not the only difference to standard empanadas. Inside
it’s packed with sausage meat, green papaya and a whole egg,
and you’ll notice from the photos that the shell is unusually
thin. Once it’s deep fried and ready to eat you need to do
what you do with everything else in The Philippines – splash it
with vinegar!
 LONGANIZA

Longanisa is a type of sausage that they often eat for

breakfast here. Every region of The Philippines has
their own specialty, so depending on which one you
choose you might get sweet, sour, garlicky, fish,
chicken, beef etc. Although almost every time I ate it in
Manila it was sweet and garlicky.
 ISAW

  Another popular street food in The Philippines, this is a grilled

skewer of chicken or pig intestines. Splash some vinegar over it
and away you go. I’m a fan of the flavour but the texture, not so
much (it’s a bit powdery). It’s so popular here that you have to try
it at least once.
 BANGUS

  Bangus (milkfish) is the country’s national fish and quite

often they fry it up for breakfast with a side of garlic rice
and egg. Before trying it I wasn’t sold on the idea of fried
fish for breakfast (I’m more of a fresh fruits kinda guy),
but after the first time it quickly became my breakfast of
choice. With the trademark drizzle of vinegar it’s quite the
kickstart to your day.
 SINIGANG(SOUR MEAT STEW)

Sinigang is a meat based sour stew or soup with lots of vegetables.

The most popular souring agent is tamarind (sampalok). Pork
(baboy) is the most common meat used but chicken, beef and fish
are also popular.
Alternative souring agents include guava, tomatoes or kalamansi
(Filipino lime). We enjoyed this soup so much that our Filipina
friend BC Lee was kind enough to give us her recipe for sinigang.
 KINILAW (RAW FISH SALAD)

Kinilaw is similar to the famous Peruvian dish called ceviche. It is a

raw fish salad served in an acidic juice, usually kalamansi (Filipino
lime) and vinegar, which “cooks” the meat. Kinilaw comes from the
word, “kilaw” which means, ‘eaten fresh’.
Other ingredients usually include garlic, ginger, onion, pepper and
chilli.
 TAPSILOG: A CURED BEEF BASED BREAKFAST

Taspsilog is a famous Filipino breakfast, which refers to

the contents comprising the meal. In this case, cured
beef (tapa), fried rice (sinangag) and a fried egg (itlog).
Variants include ‘adosilog’ (adobo with fried rice and
fried egg), litsilog (lechon with fried rice and egg) and
‘Stefansilog’ (a Stefan with fried rice and egg…ok this
one is us being silly!)
 HALO HALO: A CHEEKY DESERT

This is THE famous Filipino desert. Halo Halo (meaning ‘mixed

together’ in Filipino) is served in a tall glass containing ice shavings,
evaporated milk and various small chunks of yummy goodies all
mixed in together.
Yummy goodies include boiled kidney beans, chickpeas
(“garbanzo”), sugar palm fruit (“kaong”), jackfruit, tapioca, sweet
potato, sweet beans, coconut gel, ice cream, guava paste, purple yam
and many more!
 BUKO: THE FILIPINO COCONUT

Buko is the word for coconut in the Filipino language (called Tagalog). No day in
the Philippines was complete for us without the famous buko…first the juice then
eating the yummy fleshy fruit inside.
We quickly became the Bucoholics of Boracay…

Stefan and Sebastien becoming the bukoholics of Boracay

The Philippines is the second largest producer of the world’s coconuts (after
Indonesia) and the coconut tree called the ‘Tree of Life’.
The Filipinos make good use of the tree, other than the many uses of the fruit
itself, you can also use it as wood fire, the leaves for thatching, the coconut husk
to make ropes and many more.
 SISIG

In the culinary capital of Pampanga, they turn the pork's cheeks, head and liver into a
sizzling dish called Sisig.

The crunchy and chewy texture of this appetizer is a perfect match for a cold beer.
Serve with hot sauce and Knorr seasoning to suit the preference of you and your buddies.
 ARROZ CALDO

                                                                                                           
While chicken soup soothes sick Westerners, Filipinos turn to arroz
caldo, a thick chicken rice porridge.
Cooked with ginger and sometimes garnished with a hard-boiled egg,
toasted garlic and green onions, this Filipino food is sold in street-side
stalls.
 LAING

This dish of taro leaves cooked in rich coconut milk is an everyday staple in
Bicol.
Morsels of meat and chili are added to give punch to the Laing.
It's eaten with steamed rice.
The authentic versions from kitchens in Naga and Albay are most delicious.
 INIHAW NA LIEMPO

                   
A Filipino-style barbecue using a popular pork part: liempo (pork belly).
Arguably, the best is Cebuano style -- a slab of liempo stuffed with herbs and spices
and roasted.
The result is juicy flavorsome meat inside and crackling skin outside.
 PUTO BUMBONG

                                                                              
These may look like miniature chimneys along the roadside stalls, but that's what
gives the chewy purple snacks their name.
Traditionally, purple mountain rice was used to make these, steamed in
bamboo tubes, then served with butter, panocha (brown concentrated
sugar) and grated coconut.
The Via Mare chain has been consistently producing chewy snack for
years.
 BAGOONG

 Bagoong: fermented paste made from small fish or tiny shrimps

 BICOL EXPRESS

Bicol Express (iconic dish of the Bicolano people)

Bicol Express: pieces of pork stewed in gata (coconut milk) with sili
 
 SINIGANG

                                                                      
  Sinigang: sour stew, with the souring ingredient usually being
tamarind
 
                                                           
 Kinunot

 
Kinunot is a spicy appetizer which ingredients include shark meat or sting
ray meat. Yes, shark meat and sting ray meat. Who would have thought
that these scary fish creatures can be so tasty? Bicolanos found a way to
turn them into a very delicious food. The shark or the sting ray is cooked
with coconut cream and malunggay or moringa leaves. It is a common
joke in Bicol that when travelling by sea, you should
bring malunggay because the sharks are afraid of it. Kinunot is now
commonly prepared using sting ray because catching sharks nowadays is
being prohibited.
  Ginataang Santol (Santol Cooked in Coconut Milk)

Almost all kinds of fruit, vegetable, or meat is possible to cook with coconut
milk or locally known as “gata”. Bicolanos tend to use coconut milk to any dish
because of the abundance of coconut in the region. One of the
famous ginataan (a dish with coconut milk) from Bicol is the ginataang
santol. The meat of the santol fruit is cooked in coconut milk. No one imagined
that the extremely sour fruit would be a very delicious viand. Other
famous ginataan recipes from Bicol are the ginataang puso ng
saging (banana blossom cooked in coconut milk) and the sigarilyas sa
gata (Winged Beans cooked in coconut milk).