Cuisine of the Philippines
Encyclopedia
Philippine cuisine consists of the food, preparation methods and eating customs found in the Philippines
. The style of cooking and the food associated with it have evolved over several centuries from its Austronesian origins to a mixed cuisine with many Hispanic, Chinese, American, and other Asian influences adapted to indigenous ingredients and the local palate.
Dishes range from the very simple, like a meal of fried salted fish and rice, to the elaborate paella
s and cocidos created for fiestas. Popular dishes include: lechón
(whole roasted pig), longganisa (Philippine sausage), tapa
(cured beef), torta
(omelette), adobo
(chicken and/or pork braised in garlic, vinegar, oil and soy sauce
, or cooked until dry), kaldereta
(meat in tomato sauce stew), mechado
(larded beef in soy and tomato sauce), puchero
(beef in bananas and tomato sauce), afritada (chicken and/or pork simmered in a tomato sauce with vegetables), kare-kare
(oxtail
and vegetables cooked in peanut sauce
), crispy pata
(deep-fried pig's leg), hamonado (pork sweetened in pineapple sauce), sinigang
(meat or seafood in sour broth), pancit
(noodles), and lumpia
(fresh or fried spring rolls).
During the pre-Hispanic era in the Philippines, the preferred Austronesian methods for food preparation were boiling, steaming and roasting. The ingredients for common dishes were obtained from locally raised livestock. These ranged from kalabaw (water buffalo
es), baka (cows), manok (chickens) and baboy (pigs) to various kinds of fish and seafood. In some locales, additions to the daily diet included, monitor lizard
s, snakes, and locusts. In 3200 BCE, Austronesians from the southern China Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and Taiwan settled in the region that is now called the Philippines. They brought with them knowledge of rice cultivation and other farming practices which increased the number and variety of edible dish ingredients available for cooking.
Trade with Hokkien China
in the Philippines prospered prior the arrival of the European nations, going back as early as the Song dynasty
(960–1279 BC) with porcelain, ceramics, and silk being traded for spices and trapang
in Luzon
. This early cultural contact with China introduced a number of staple food
into Philippine cuisine, most notably toyo
(soy sauce
; ), tokwa; (tofu
; ), tawge (bean sprout; ), and patis (fish sauce
), as well as the method of stir frying
and making savory soup bases. Many of these food items and dishes retained their original Hokkien names, such as pancit
, and lumpia
. The Chinese food introduced during this period were food of the workers and traders, which became a staple of the noodle shops (panciterias), and can be seen in dishes like arroz caldo (congee), sinangag (fried rice
), chopsuey
.
Spanish settlers brought with them produce from the Americas like chili pepper
s, tomato
es, corn, potatoes, and the method of sautéing
with garlic and onions. Although chili peppers are nowhere as widely used in Filipino cooking compared to much of Southeast Asia, chili leaves are frequently used as a cooking green, again distinct from the cooking of neighbors. Spanish (and Mexican) dishes were eventually incorporated into Philippine cuisine with the more complex dishes usually being prepared for special occasions. Some dishes such as arroz a la valenciana
remain largely the same in the Philippine context. Some have been adapted or have come to take on a slightly or significantly different meaning. Arroz a la cubana
served in the Philippines usually includes ground beef picadillo. Philippine longganisa despite its name is more akin to chorizo
than Spanish longaniza
(in Visayan regions, it is still known as chorizo). Morcon is likely to refer to a beef roulade dish not the bulbous specialty Spanish sausage
.
Today, Philippine cuisine continues to evolve as new techniques, styles of cooking, and ingredients find their way into the country. Traditional dishes both simple and elaborate, indigenous and foreign-influenced, are seen as are more current popular international viands and fast food
fare.
Filipino cuisine is distinguished by its bold combination of sweet (tamis), sour (asim), and salty (alat) flavors. While other Asian cuisines may be known for a more subtle delivery and presentation, Filipino cuisine is often delivered all at once in a single presentation.
Counterpoint is a feature in Philippine cuisine which normally comes in a pairing of something sweet with something salty, and results in surprisingly pleasing combinations. Examples include: champorado
(a sweet cocoa rice porridge), being paired with tuyo (salted, sun-dried fish); dinuguan
(a savory stew made of pig's blood and innards), paired with puto
(sweet, steamed rice cakes); unripe fruits such as mangoes (which are only slightly sweet but very sour), are eaten dipped in salt or bagoong; the use of cheese
(which is salty) in sweetcakes (such as bibingka
and puto), as well as an ice cream
flavoring.
Vinegar is a common ingredient. Adobo
is popular not solely for its simplicity and ease of preparation, but also for its ability to be stored for days without spoiling, and even improve in flavor with a day or two of storage. Tinapa
is a smoke-cured fish while tuyo, daing, and dangit are corned, sun-dried fish popular because they can last for weeks without spoiling, even without refrigeration.
Cooking and eating in the Philippines has traditionally been an informal and communal affair centered around the family kitchen. Filipinos traditionally eat three main meals a day: agahan or almusal (breakfast), tanghalían (lunch), and hapunan (dinner) plus an afternoon snack called meriénda
(also called minandál or minindál). Snacking is normal. Dinner, while still the main meal, is smaller than other countries. Usually, either breakfast or lunch is the largest meal. Food tends to be served all at once and not in courses. Unlike many of their Asian counterparts Filipinos do not eat with chopsticks. Due to Western influence, food is often eaten using flatware—forks, knives, spoons—but the primary pairing of utensils used at a Filipino dining table is that of spoon and fork not knife and fork. The traditional way of eating is with the hands, especially dry dishes such as inihaw or prito. The diner will take a bite of the main dish, then eat rice pressed together with his fingers. This practice, known as kamayan, is rarely seen in urbanized areas. However, Filipinos tend to feel the spirit of kamayan when eating amidst nature during out of town trips, beach vacations, and town fiestas.
As with most Asian countries, the staple food in the Philippines is rice
. It is most often steamed and served during meals. Leftover rice is often fried with garlic to make sinangag, which is usually served at breakfast together with a fried egg and cured meat
or sausages. Rice is often enjoyed with the sauce or broth from the main dishes. In some regions, rice is mixed with salt, condensed milk, cocoa, or coffee. Rice flour is used in making sweets, cakes and other pastries. While rice is the main staple food, bread is also a common staple.
A variety of fruit
s and vegetable
s are often used in cooking. Banana
s (the saba
variety in particular), Calamondin
(kalamansi), guava
s (bayabas), mango
es, papaya
s, and pineapple
s lend a distinctly tropical flair in many dishes, but mainstay green leafy vegetables like water spinach (kangkong), Chinese cabbage (petsay), Napa cabbage (petsay wombok), cabbage (repolyo) and other vegetables like eggplants (talong) and yard-long beans (sitaw) are just as commonly used. Coconut
s are ubiquitous. Coconut meat is often used in desserts, coconut milk
(kakang gata) in sauces, and coconut oil
for frying. Abundant harvests of root crops like potatoes, carrots, taro
(gabi), cassava
(kamoteng kahoy), purple yam (ube), and sweet potato
(kamote) make them readily available. The combination of tomatoes (kamatis), garlic (bawang), and onions (sibuyas) is found in many dishes.
Meat staples include chicken
, pork
, beef
, and fish
. Seafood
is popular as a result of the bodies of water surrounding the archipelago. Popular catches include tilapia
, catfish
(hito), milkfish
(bangus), grouper
(lapu-lapu), shrimp
(hipon), prawns (sugpo), mackerel
(galunggong, hasa-hasa), swordfish, oysters (talaba), mussels (tahong), clams
(halaan and tulya), large and small crabs (alimango and alimasag respectively), game fish
, sablefish, tuna, cod, blue marlin
, and squid
/cuttlefish
(both called pusit). Also popular are seaweeds, abalone
, and eel
.
The most common way of having fish is to have it salted, pan-fried or deep-fried, and then eaten as a simple meal with rice and vegetables. It may also be cooked in a sour broth of tomatoes or tamarind
as in pangat, prepared with vegetables and a souring agent to make sinigang
, simmered in vinegar and peppers to make paksiw, or roasted over hot charcoal or wood (inihaw). Other preparations include escabeche
(sweet and sour) or relleno (deboned and stuffed). Fish can be preserved by being smoked (tinapa
) or sun-dried (tuyo or daing).
Food is often served with various dipping sauces. Fried food is often dipped in vinegar
, soy sauce
, juice squeezed from kalamansi
(Philippine lime, calamondin, or calamansi), or a combination of two or all. Patis (fish sauce
) may be mixed with kalamansi as dipping sauce for most seafood. Fish sauce
, fish paste
(bagoong
), shrimp paste
(bagoong alamang) and crushed ginger
root (luya) are condiments that are often added to dishes during the cooking process or when served.
A traditional Filipino breakfast might include pandesal
(small bread rolls), kesong puti
(white cheese), champorado
(chocolate rice porridge), sinangag (garlic fried rice
), and meat—such as tapa
, longganisa, tocino
, karne norte
(corned beef), or fish such as daing na bangus (salted and dried milkfish
)—or itlog na pula (salted duck eggs). Coffee is also commonly served particularly kapeng barako, a variety of coffee produced in the mountains of Batangas noted for having a strong flavor.
Certain portmanteaus in Filipino have come into use to describe popular combinations of items in a Filipino breakfast. An example of such a combination order is kankamtuy: an order of kanin (rice), kamatis (tomatoes) and tuyo (dried fish). Another is tapsi: an order of tapa and sinangág. Other examples include variations using a silog suffix, usually some kind of meat served with sinangág and itlog (egg). The three most commonly seen silogs are tapsilog (having tapa as the meat portion), tocilog (having tocino as the meat portion), and longsilog (having longganisa as the meat portion). Other silogs include hotsilog (with a hot dog
), bangsilog (with bangus (milkfish)
), dangsilog (with danggit (rabbitfish)
), spamsilog (with spam
), adosilog (with adobo), chosilog (with chorizo
), chiksilog (with chicken), cornsilog (with corned beef
), and litsilog (with lechon/litson
). Pankaplog is a slang term referring to a breakfast consisting of pandesal
, kape (coffee), and itlog (egg). An establishment that specializes in such meals is called a tapsihan or "tapsilugan".
Merienda is taken from the Spanish, and is a light meal or snack especially in the afternoon, similar to the concept of afternoon tea
. If the meal is taken close to dinner, it is called merienda cena, and may be served instead of dinner.
Filipinos have a number of options to take with their traditional kape (coffee
): breads and pastries like pandesal
, ensaymada
(buttery sweet rolls covered with cheese), hopia
(pastries similar to mooncake
s filled with sweet bean paste) and empanada (savory pastries stuffed with meat). There's also the option of cakes made with sticky rice (kakanin) like kutsinta, sapin-sapin, palitaw
, biko, suman, bibingka
, and pitsi-pitsi.
Savory dishes often eaten during merienda include pancit
canton (stir-fried noodles), palabok (rice noodles with a shrimp-based sauce), tokwa't baboy
(fried tofu with boiled pork ears in a garlic-flavored soy sauce and vinegar sauce), and dinuguan
(a spicy stew made with pork blood) which is often served with puto (steamed rice flour cakes).
Dim sum
and dumplings, brought over by the Fujian
ese people, have been given a Filipino touch and are often eaten for merienda. Street food, most of which are skewered on bamboo sticks, such as squid balls, fish balls and others, are common choices too.
Pulutan (from the Filipino word pulutin which literally means "something that is picked up") is a term roughly analogous to the English term "finger food". Originally, it was a snack accompanied with liquor or beer but has found its way into Philippine cuisine as appetizers or, in some cases, main dishes, as in the case of sisig
.
Deep fried pulutan include chicharrón (also spelled tsitsaron), pork rinds that have been salted, dried, then fried; chicharong bituka, pig intestines that have been deep fried to a crisp; chicharong bulaklak, similar to chicharong bituka it is made from mesenteries of pig intestines and has a bulaklak or flower appearance; and chicharong manok, chicken skin that has been deep fried
until crisp.
Some grilled food include barbecue isaw, chicken or pig intestines marinated and skewered; barbecue tenga, pig ears that have been marinated and skewered; pork barbecue which is skewered pork marinated in a usually sweet blend; betamax, salted solidified pork or chicken blood which is skewered; adidas which is grilled
or sautée
d chicken feet. And there is sisig
a popular pulutan made from the pig's cheek skin, ears and liver that is initially boiled, then grilled over charcoal and afterwards minced and cooked with chopped onions, chillies, and spices.
Smaller snacks such as mani (peanuts
) are often sold boiled in the shell, salted, spiced or flavored with garlic by street vendors in the Philippines. Another snack is kropeck, which is fish crackers.
Fried tokwa't baboy is tofu
fried with boiled pork then dipped in a garlic-flavored soy sauce
or vinegar dip that is also served as a side dish to pancit luglog
or pancit palabok
.
In a typical Filipino bakery, pandesal, monay and ensaymada are often sold. Pandesal comes from the Spanish pan de sal (literally, bread of salt), and is a ubiquitous breakfast fare, normally eaten with (and sometimes even dipped in) coffee. It typically takes the form of a bread roll, and is usually baked covered in bread crumbs. Contrary to what its name implies, pandesal is not particularly salty as very little salt is used in baking it. Monay is a firmer slightly denser heavier bread. Ensaymada, from the Spanish ensaimada, is a pastry made using butter and often topped with sugar and shredded cheese that is especially popular during Christmas. It is sometimes made with fillings such as ube (purple yam) and macapuno (a variety of coconut the meat of which is often cut into strings, sweetened, preserved, and served in desserts). Also commonly sold in Filipino bakeries is pan de coco, a sweet bread roll filled with shredded coconut mixed with molasses. Putok, which literally means "explode", refers to a small, hard bread roll whose cratered surface is glazed with sugar. Kababayan is a small, sweet gong-shaped muffin that has a moist consistency. Spanish bread refers to a rolled pastry which looks like a croissant prior to being given a crescent shape, and has a filling consisting of sugar and butter.
There are also rolls like pianono, which is a chiffon roll flavored with different fillings. Brazo de mercedes, a rolled cake or jelly roll, is made from a sheet of meringue
rolled around a custard filling. Similar to the previous dessert, it takes on a layered presentation instead of being rolled and typically features caramelized sugar and nuts for sans rival. Silvañas are large, oval-shaped, cookie-sized desserts, with a thin meringue on either side of a buttercream filling and dusted with crumbed cookies. Not overly sweet, they are rich, crisp, chewy, and buttery all at the same time. Barquillos use sweet thin crunchy wafers rolled into tubes that can be sold hollow or filled with polvoron (sweetened and toasted flour mixed with ground nuts). Meringue
s are also present in the Philippines, due to the Spanish influence, but they are called merengue – with all the vowels pronounced. Leche flan is a type of caramel custard made with eggs and milk similar to the French creme caramel. Leche flan (the local term for the originally Spanish flan de leche, literally "milk flan"), which is a heavier version of the Spanish flan made with condensed milk and more egg yolks. Leche flan is usually steamed over an open flame or stove top, although rarely it can also be seen baked. Leche flan is a staple in celebratory feasts.
A heavier version of leche flan, tocino del cielo, is similar, but has significantly more egg yolks and sugar.
The egg pie with a very rich egg custard filling is a mainstay in local bakeries. It is typically baked so that the exposed custard on top is browned. Buko pie is made with a filling made from young coconut meat and dairy. Mini pastries like turrones de casuy are made up of cashew marzipan
wrapped with a wafer made to resemble a candy wrapper but take on a miniature look of a pie in a size of about a quarter
. There is also napoleones – again with all the vowels pronounced – a mille-feuille
pastry stuffed with a sweet milk-based filling.
There are hard pastries like biskotso
a crunchy, sweet, twice-baked bread. Another baked goody is sinipit which is a sweet pastry covered in a crunchy sugar glaze, made to resemble a length of rope. Similar to sinipit is a snack eaten on roadsides colloquially called shingaling. It is hollow but crunchy with a salty flavor.
For a softer treat there is mamon a chiffon-type cake sprinkled with sugar, its name derived from a slang Spanish term for breast. There's also crema de fruta, which is an elaborate sponge cake topped in succeeding layers of cream, custard, candied fruit, and gelatine. Similar to a sponge cake is mamoncillo which generally refers to slices taken from a large mamon cake, but it is unrelated to the fruit
of the same name. Sandwich pastries like inipit are made with two thin layers of chiffon sandwiching a filling of custard that is topped with butter and sugar. Another mamon variant is mamon tostada, basically mamoncillo toasted to a crunchy texture.
Stuffed pastries of both Western and Eastern influence are common. One can find empanada
s, turnover-type pastry filled with a savory-sweet meat filling. Typically made with ground meat and raisins, it can be deep fried or baked. Siopao
is the local version of Chinese baozi
. Buchi is another snack probably of Chinese origin. Bite-sized, buchi is made of deep-fried dough balls (often from rice flour) filled with a sweet mung bean paste, and coated on the outside with sesame seeds, some variants have ube as the filling. There are also many varieties of the mooncake-like hopia
, which come in different shapes (from a flat, circular stuffed form, to cubes), and have different textures (predominantly using flaky pastry, but sometimes like the ones in mooncakes) and fillings.
For festive occasions, Filipino women band together and prepare more sophisticated dishes. Tables are often laden with expensive and labor-intensive treats requiring hours of preparation. In Filipino celebrations, lechón
(also litson) serves as the centerpiece of the dinner table. It is usually a whole roasted suckling pig, but piglets (lechonillo, or lechon de leche) or cattle calves (lechong baka) can also be prepared in place to the popular adult pig. It is typically served with lechon sauce. Other dishes include hamonado (honey-cured beef, pork or chicken), relleno (stuffed chicken or milkfish), mechado
, afritada, caldereta, puchero, paella
, menudo, morcon, embutido (referring to a meatloaf dish, not a sausage as understood elsewhere), suman (a savory rice and coconut milk concoction steamed in leaves such as banana), and pancit
canton. The table may also be have various sweets and pastries such as leche flan, ube, sapin-sapin, sorbetes (ice creams), totong (a rice, coconut milk and mongo bean pudding), ginataan (a coconut milk pudding with various root vegetables and tapioca pearls), and gulaman
(an agar
jello-like ingredient or dessert
).
Christmas Eve, known as Noche Buena
, is the most important feast. During this evening, the star of the table is the Christmas ham
and Edam cheese (queso de bola). Supermarkets are laden with these treats during the Christmas season and are popular giveaways by Filipino companies in addition to red wine, brandy, groceries, or pastries. Available mostly during the Christmas season and sold in front of churches along with bibingka
, puto bumbong is a purple yam-flavored puto.
More common at celebrations than in everyday home meals, lumpiang sariwa, sometimes referred to as fresh lumpia, is a fresh spring roll that consists of a soft crepe wrapped around a filling that can include strips of kamote (sweet potato), singkamas (jicama
), bean sprouts, green beans, cabbage, carrots and meat (often pork). It can be served warm or cold and typically with a sweet peanut and garlic sauce. Ukoy is shredded papaya combined with small shrimp (and occasionally bean sprouts) and fried to make shrimp patties. It is often eaten with vinegar seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper. Both lumpiang sariwa and ukoy are often accompanied together in Filipino parties. Lumpiang sariwa has Chinese
origins, having been derived from popiah
.
The Philippine islands are home to various ethnic groups resulting in varied regional cuisines.
, boast of a diet heavy in boiled or steamed vegetables and freshwater fish, but they are particularly fond of dishes flavored with bagoong
, fermented fish that is often used instead of salt. Ilocanos often season boiled vegetables with bagoong monamon
(fermented anchovy paste) to produce pinakbet
. Local specialties include the soft white larvae of ants and "jumping salad" of tiny live shrimp.
The Igorot
s prefer roasted meats, particularly carabao
meat, goat meat, and venison
.
Due to its mild, sub-tropical climate, Baguio, along with the outlying mountainous regions, is renowned for its produce. Temperate-zone fruits and vegetables (strawberries being a notable example) which would otherwise wilt in lower regions are grown there. It is also known for a snack called sundot-kulangot which literally means "poke the booger." It's actually a sticky kind of sweet made from milled glutinous rice flour mixed with molasses, and served inside pitogo shells, and with a stick to "poke" its sticky substance with.
The town of Calasiao in Pangasinan is known for its puto, a type of steamed rice cake.
Kapampangan cuisine
makes use of all the produce in the region available to the native cook. Among the treats produced in Pampanga
are longganisa (original sweet and spicy sausages), calderetang kambing (savory goat stew), and tocino
(sweetened cured pork). Combining pork cheeks and offal, Kapampangans make sisig
. Kare-kare
is also thought to have been originated from Pampanga.
Bulacan
is popular for chicharon (pork rinds) and steamed rice and tuber cakes like puto. It is a center for panghimagas or desserts, like brown rice cake
or kutsinta, sapin-sapin, suman
, cassava
cake, halaya ube and the king of sweets, in San Miguel
, Bulacan
, the famous carabao
milk candy
pastillas de leche, with its pabalat wrapper.
Cainta, in Rizal
province east of Manila
, is known for its Filipino rice cake
s and puddings. These are usually topped with latik, a mixture of coconut milk and brown sugar, reduced to a dry crumbly texture. A more modern, and time saving alternative to latik are coconut flakes toasted in a frying pan.
Antipolo
, straddled mid-level in the mountainous regions of the Philippine Sierra Madre
, is a town known for its suman and cashew products.
Laguna is known for buko pie (coconut pie) and panutsa (peanut brittle).
Batangas
is home to Taal Lake
, a body of water that surrounds Taal Volcano
. The lake is home to 75 species of freshwater fish. Among these, the maliputo and tawilis are two not commonly found elsewhere. These fish are delicious native delicacies. Batangas
is also known for its special coffee, kapeng barako.
is known for its very spicy Bicol express
. The region is also the well-known home of natong also known as laing or pinangat
(a pork or fish stew in taro leaves).
Bacolod
is known for chicken "inasal" which is a kind of roast chicken served on skewers.
Iloilo
is known for La Paz batchoy
, pancit
molo, dinuguan
, puto, biscocho and piyaya.
Cebu
is known for its lechón
. Lechon prepared "Cebu style" is characterized by a crisp outer skin and a moist juicy meat with a unique taste given by a blend of spices. Cebu is also known for sweets like dried mango
es and caramel tarts.
In Mindanao
, the southern part of Palawan
island, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi
, dishes are richly flavored with the spices common to Southeast Asia
: turmeric
, coriander
, lemon grass, cumin
, and chillies — ingredients not commonly used in the rest of Filipino cooking. Being free from Hispanicization
, the cuisine of the indigenous Moro and Lumad
peoples of Mindanao
and the Sulu archipelago
has much in common with the rich and spicy Malay cuisine
s of Malaysia and Brunei
, as well as Indonesian and Thai cuisines.
Well-known dishes from the region include Satti
(satay) and ginataang manok (chicken cooked in spiced coconut milk). Certain parts of Mindanao is predominantly Muslim
, where pork is rarely consumed.
Rendang
, a ofspicy beef curry with its origins among the Minangkabau people of Sumatra
; biryani
and kiyoning
(pilaf), dishes originally from the Middle East
, are given a Mindanaoan touch and served at special occasions.
Pyanggang is a Tausug dish made from barbecued chicken marinaded in spices, and is served with coconut milk infused with toasted coconut meat.
Popular crops such as cassava root, sweet potato
es, and yams
are grown.
Sambal
, a spicy sauce made with belacan, tamarind
, aromatic spices and chillies, is a popular base to many dishes in the region.
Another popular dish from this region is tiyula itum, a dark broth of beef or chicken lightly flavored with ginger, chili, turmeric, and toasted coconut flesh (which gives it its dark color).
Adobo
is one of the most popular Filipino dishes and is considered unofficially by many as the national dish. It usually consists of pork or chicken, sometimes both, stewed or braised in a sauce usually made from vinegar, cooking oil, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns, and soy sauce. It can also be prepared "dry" by cooking out the liquid and concentrating the flavor. Bistek
, also known as "Filipino beef steak," consists of thinly sliced beef marinated in soy sauce
and calamansi and then fried in a skillet that is typically served with onions.
Some well-known stews are kare-kare
and dinuguan
. In kare-kare, also known as "peanut stew", oxtail
or ox tripe
is the main ingredient and is cooked with vegetables in a peanut-based preparation. It is typically served with bagoong (fermented shrimp paste
). In dinuguan
, pig's blood, entrails, and meat are cooked with vinegar and seasoned with chili peppers, usually siling mahaba
.
Paksiw refers to different vinegar-based stews that differ greatly from one another based on the type of meat used. Paksiw na isda uses fish and usually includes the addition of ginger, fish sauce, and maybe siling mahaba and vegetables. Paksiw na baboy is a paksiw using pork, usually pork hocks, and often sees the addition of sugar, banana blossoms, and water so that the meat is stewed in a sweet sauce. A similar Visayan dish called humba adds fermented black beans. Both dishes are probably related to pata tim which is of Chinese origin. Paksiw na lechon is made from lechon meat and features the addition of ground liver or liver spread. This adds flavor and thickens the sauce so that it starts to caramelize around the meat by the time dish is finished cooking. Although some versions of paksiw dishes are made using the same basic ingredients as adobo, they are prepared differently, with other ingredients added and the proportions of ingredients and water being different.
In crispy pata, pork
knuckles (the pata) are marinated in garlic-flavored vinegar then deep fried until crisp and golden brown, with other parts of the pork leg prepared in the same way. Lechon manok is the Filipino take on rotisserie
chicken. Available in many hole-in-the-wall stands or restaurant chains (e.g. Andok's, Baliwag, Toto's, Sr. Pedro's, G.S. Pagtakhan's), it is typically a specially seasoned chicken roasted over a charcoal flame served with "sarsa" or lechon sauce made from mashed pork liver, starch, sugar, and spices.
Mechado
, kaldereta
, and afritada are Spanish influenced tomato sauce-based dishes that are somewhat similar to one another. In these dishes meat is cooked in tomato sauce, minced garlic, and onions. Mechado gets its name from the pork fat that is inserted in a slab of beef making it look like a wick (mitsa) coming out of a beef "candle". The larded meat is then cooked in a seasoned tomato sauce and later sliced and served with the sauce it was cooked in. Kaldereta
can be beef but is also associated with goat. Chunks of meat are cooked in tomato sauce, minced garlic, chopped onions, peas, carrots, bell peppers and potatoes to make a stew with some recipes calling for the addition of soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, chilies, ground liver or some combination thereof. Afritada tends to be the name given to the dish when chicken and pork is used. Another similar dish said to originate from the Rizal area is waknatoy. Pork or beef sirloin is combined with potatoes and cut sausages and cooked in a tomato-based sauce sweetened with pickles. Puchero
is derived from the Spanish cocido; it is a sweeter stew that has beef and banana or plantain slices simmered in tomato sauce.
Filipinos also eat tocino
and longganisa. Tocino
is a sweetened cured meat made with either chicken or pork and is marinated and cured for a number of days before being fried. Longganisa is a sweet or spicy sausage, typically made from pork though other meats can also be used, and are often colored red traditionally through the use of the anatto seed but also artificial food coloring.
Filipino soups tend to be very hearty and stew-like containing large chunks of meat and vegetables or noodles. They are usually intended to be filling and not meant to be a light preparatory introduction for the main course. They tend to be served with the rest of the meal and eaten with rice when they are not meals unto themselves. They are often referred to on local menus under the heading sabaw (broth). Sinigang
is a popular dish in this category distinguished by its sourness that often vies with adobo for consideration as the national dish. It is typically made with either pork, beef, chicken or seafood and made sour with tamarind or other suitable souring ingredients. Some seafood variants for example can be made sour by the use of guava
fruit or miso
. Another dish is tinola
. It has large chicken pieces and green papaya
slices cooked with chili, spinach, and moringa
leaves in a ginger-flavored broth. Nilagang baka is a beef stew made with cabbages and other vegetables. Binacol is a warm chicken soup cooked with coconut water and served with strips of coconut meat. La Paz batchoy
is a noodle soup garnished with pork innards, crushed pork cracklings
, chopped vegetables, and topped with a raw egg. Another dish with the same name uses misua
, beef heart, kidneys and intestines, but does not contain eggs or vegetables. Mami is a noodle soup
made from chicken, beef, pork, wonton dumplings, or intestines (called laman-loob). Ma Mon Luk
was known for it. Another chicken noodle soup is sotanghon, consisting of cellophane noodles
(also called sotanghon and from whence the name of the dish is derived), chicken, and sometimes mushrooms.
Noodle dishes are generally called pancit
. Pancit
recipes primarily consist of noodles, vegetables, and slices of meat or shrimp with variations often distinguished by the type of noodles used. Some pancit, such as mami and La Paz-styled batchoy, are noodle soups while the "dry" varieties are comparable to chow mein
in preparation. Then there is spaghetti or ispageti in the local parlance that is a modified version of spaghetti bolognese. It is sometimes made with banana ketchup instead of tomato sauce, sweetened with sugar and topped with hot dog slices.
There are several rice porridges that are popular in the Philippines. One is arroz caldo which is a rice porridge cooked with chicken, ginger and sometimes saffron, garnished with spring onions (chives), toasted garlic, and coconut milk to make a type of gruel
. Another variant is goto which is an arroz caldo made with ox tripe
. There is also another much different rice porridge called champorado
which is sweet and flavored with chocolate and often served at breakfast paired with tuyo or daing.
Another rice-based dish is arroz a la valenciana, a Spanish paella
named after the Spanish region Valencia that has been incorporated into the local cuisine. Bringhe is a local rice dish with some similarities to paella but using glutinous rice, coconut milk, and turmeric. Kiampong a type of fried rice topped with pork pieces, chives
and peanuts
. It can be found in Chinese restaurants in Binondo and Manila
.
For vegetarians, there is dinengdeng
, a dish consisting of moringa
leaves (malunggay) and slices of bittermelon. There is also pinakbet
, stewed vegetables heavily flavored with bagoong
. A type of seafood salad known as kinilaw is made up of raw seafood such as fish or shrimp cooked only by steeping in local vinegar, sometimes with coconut milk, onions, spices and other local ingredients. It is comparable to the Peruvian ceviche
.
is a side dish of pickled papaya strips similar to sauerkraut
. It's a frequent accompaniment to fried dishes like tapa or daing.
Nata de coco
is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food product produced by the fermentation of coconut water can be served with pandesal. Kesong puti is a soft white cheese made from carabao
milk (although cow milk is also used in most commercial variants). Grated mature coconut (niyog), is normally served with sweet rice-based desserts.
As a tropical oriental country it should come as no surprise there are many treats made from rice and coconuts. One often seen dessert is bibingka
, a hot rice cake
optionally topped with a pat of butter, slices of kesong puti (white cheese), itlog na maalat (salted duck eggs), and sometimes grated coconut. There is also glutinous rice sweets called biko
made with sugar, butter, and coconut milk. Another brown rice cake
is kutsinta. Puto
is another well known example of sweet steamed rice cakes prepared in many different sizes and colors. Sapin-sapin
are three-layered, tri-colored sweets made with rice flour, purple yam, and coconut milk with its gelatinous appearance. Palitaw
are rice patties covered with sesame seeds, sugar, and coconut; pitsi-pitsi which are cassava
patties coated with cheese or coconut; and tibok-tibok is based on carabao milk as a de leche (similar to maja blanca). As a snack, binatog is created with corn kernels with shredded coconut. Packaged snacks wrapped in banana or palm leaves then steamed, suman
are made from sticky rice.
For cold desserts there is halo-halo
which can be described as a dessert made with shaved ice, milk, and sugar with additional ingredients like coconut, halaya (mashed purple yam), caramel custard, plantain
s, jackfruit
, red beans, tapioca
and pinipig
being typical. Other similar treats made with shaved ice include saba con yelo which is shaved ice served with milk and minatamis na saging (ripe plantains chopped and caramelized with brown sugar); mais con yelo which is shaved ice served with steamed corn kernels, sugar, and milk; and buko pandan sweetened grated strips of coconut with gulaman, milk, and the juice or extract from pandan leaves. Sorbetes
(ice cream) is popular too. A local version uses coconut milk instead of cow milk. Ice candy made from juice
or chocolate put it in a freezer to freeze is another treat. It can be any kind of flavor depending on the maker; chocolate and buko (coconut) flavored ice candy are two of the most popular.
Aside from pastries and desserts, there are heartier snacks for merienda that can also serve as an appetizer or side dish for a meal.Siomai is the local version of Chinese shaomai
.
Lumpia
are spring rolls that can be either fresh or fried. Fresh lumpia (lumpiang sariwa) is usually made for fiestas or special occasions as it can be labor-intensive to prepare, while one version of fried lumpia (lumpiang prito), lumpiang shanghai is usually filled with ground pork and a combination of vegetables, and served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. Other variations are filled with minced pork and shrimp and accompanied by a vinegar-based dipping sauce. Lumpia has been commercialized in frozen food
form.
There's a distinct range of street food
s available in the Philippines. Some of these are skewered on sticks in the manner of a kebab
. One such example is banana-cue which is a whole banana
or plantain
skewered on a short thin bamboo stick, rolled in brown sugar, and fried. Kamote-cue is a peeled sweet potato
skewered on a stick, covered in brown sugar and then fried. Fish ball
s or squid balls are skewered on bamboo sticks then dipped in a sweet or savory sauce to be commonly sold frozen in markets and peddled by street vendors
.
Turon, a kind of fried lumpia
consisting of an eggroll or phyllo
wrapper filled with plantain
and jackfruit
and sprinkled with sugar can also be found sold in streets.
Taho
is a warm treat made up of soft beancurd which is the taho itself, dark caramel syrup called arnibal, and tapioca
pearls. It is often sold in neighborhoods by street vendors who yell out "taho" in a manner like vendors in the stands at sporting events yell out "hotdogs" or "peanuts". Sometimes taho is served chilled or flavors have been added such as chocolate or strawberry. Taho
is derived from the original Chinese
snack food known as douhua
.
There is also iskrambol (from the English "to scramble"), that is a kind of iced-based treat like a sorbet combined with various flavorings and usually topped with chocolate syrup. It is eaten by "scrambling" the contents or mixing them, then drinking with a large straw.
Street food featuring eggs include kwek-kwek which are hard-boiled quail eggs dipped in orange-dyed batter and then deep fried similar to tempura
. Tokneneng is a larger version of kwek-kwek using chicken or duck eggs. Another Filipino egg snack is balut, essentially a boiled pre-hatched poultry egg, usually duck or chicken. These fertilized eggs are allowed to develop until the embryo reaches a pre-determined size and are then boiled. There is also another egg dish called penoy which is basically hard-boiled unfertilized duck eggs. Like taho, balut is advertised by street hawkers calling out their product.
Okoy also spelled as ukoy is another batter-covered, deep-fried street food in the Philippines. Along with the batter, it normally includes bean sprouts, shredded pumpkin and very small shrimps, shells and all. It is commonly dipped in a combination of vinegar and chilli.
Among other street food are already mentioned pulutan like isaw
, seasoned hog or chicken intestines; betamax, roasted dried chicken blood served cut into and served as small cubes for which it received its name in resemblance to a Betamax
tape; and proven
, the proventriculus
of a chicken coated in cornstarch and deep-fried. There is also pinoy fries which are fries made from sweet potatoes.
, salt, and vinegar as it is popular in Pampanga
; papaitan which is goat or beef innards stew flavored with bile that gives it a bitter (pait) taste; Soup No. 5
(Also spelled as "Soup #5") which is a soup made out of bull
's testes, and can be found in restaurants in Ongpin St., Binondo, Manila; asocena
or dog meat popular in the Cordillera Administrative Region
; and pinikpikan
na manok that involves having a chicken beaten to death to tenderize the meat and to infuse it with blood. It is then burned in fire to remove its feathers then boiled with salt and itag (salt/smoke cured pork). The act of beating the chicken in preparation of the dish apparently violates the Philippine Animal Welfare Act 1998.
The Filipino
/Tagalog
words for popular cooking methods and terms are listed below:
), suha (pomelo
), pinya (pineapple
), banana
, and guyabano. The shakes usually contain crushed ice, evaporated or condensed milk, and fruits like the perennially popular mango
. Other fruit flavors are melon
, papaya
, avocado
, watermelon
, strawberry, and durian
, to name but a few.
Other chilled drinks include sago't gulaman a flavored iced-drink with sago
pearls and agar
gelatin
with banana extract sometimes added to the accompanying syrup; fresh buko juice, the water or juice straight out of a young coconut
via an inserted straw, a less fresh variation of which is made out of bottled coconut juice, scraped coconut flesh, sugar, and water; and calamansi juice, the juice of Philippine limes usually sweetened with honey, syrup or sugar.
leaves and lemongrass. Salabat
, sometimes called ginger tea, is brewed from ginger
root. There is also coffee. Coffee from the cool mountains of Batangas
is known as kapeng barako. Tsokolate is the Filipino take on hot chocolate. It is traditionally made from dry powdery chocolate tablets called tablea.
There are a wide variety of alcoholic drinks in the Philippines manufactured by local breweries and distilleries. This includes brandy
, and its variations such as brandy-iced tea powder (a popular cocktail consisting of one or more liqueurs and iced tea
powder); and brandy-grape juice powder (same as above but with grape juice powder). Rum
is often associated with Tanduay
. For serbesa (beer
), the most popular choices in restaurants and bars are San Miguel Beer, Red Horse Beer
and San Miguel Light.
Several gin
s, both local varieties like Ginebra San Miguel
(as well as GSM Blue and GSM Premium Gin) and imported brands like Gilbey's, are commonly found. Some people refer to gin by the shape of the bottle: bilog for a circular bottle and kwatro kantos (literally meaning four corners) for a square or rectangular bottle. Gin is sometimes combined with other ingredients to come up with variations. Some have gin mixed with fruit juices like pineapple, pomelo, and guyabano (soursop
).
Tuba
(toddy) is a type of hard liquor made from fresh drippings extracted from a cut young stem of palm. The cutting of the palm stem usually done early in the morning by a mananguete, a person whose profession involves climbing palm trees and extracting the tuba to supply to customers later in the day. The morning accumulated palm juice or drippings from a cut stem is then harvested by noon then brought to buyers then prepared for consumption. Sometimes this is done twice a day so that there are two harvests of tuba in a day occurring first at noon-time and later in the late-afternoon. Normally, tuba has to be consumed right after the mananguete brings it over or it becomes too sour to be consumed as a drink. Any remaining unconsumed tuba is then often stored in jars for several days to become palm vinegar. Tuba can be distilled to produce lambanog (arrack), a neutral liquor often noted for its relatively high alcohol content.
Tapuy
is a traditional Philippine alcoholic drink made from fermented glutinous rice
. It is a clear wine of luxurious alcoholic taste, moderate sweetness and lingering finish. Its average alcohol content is 14% or 28 proof, and does not contain any preservatives or sugar. To increase the awareness of tapuy, the Philippine Rice Research Institute
created a cookbook containing recipes and cocktails from famous Philippine chefs and bartenders, featuring tapuy as one of the ingredients.
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. The style of cooking and the food associated with it have evolved over several centuries from its Austronesian origins to a mixed cuisine with many Hispanic, Chinese, American, and other Asian influences adapted to indigenous ingredients and the local palate.
Dishes range from the very simple, like a meal of fried salted fish and rice, to the elaborate paella
Paella
Paella is a Valencian rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near lake Albufera, a lagoon in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain. Many non-Spaniards view paella as Spain's national dish, but most Spaniards consider it to be a regional Valencian dish...
s and cocidos created for fiestas. Popular dishes include: lechón
Lechon
Lechón is a pork dish in several regions of the world, most specifically Spain and its former colonial possessions throughout the world. The word lechón originated from the Spanish term leche ; thus lechón refers to a suckling pig that is roasted...
(whole roasted pig), longganisa (Philippine sausage), tapa
Tapa (Filipino cuisine)
Tapa is dried or cured beef, mutton or venison, although other meat or even fish may be used. Filipinos prepare thin slices of meat and cure it with salt and spices as a method of preserving it...
(cured beef), torta
Torta
Torta is a Spanish word with a huge array of culinary meanings depending from the area and period of history in question. It originated in different regional variants of flatbread, of which the torta de gazpacho and torta cenceña are still surviving in certain areas of central Spain. Tortas are...
(omelette), adobo
Adobo (Filipino cuisine)
Adobo is the name of a popular dish and cooking process in Philippine cuisine that involves meat or seafood marinated in a sauce of vinegar and garlic, browned in oil, and simmered in the marinade....
(chicken and/or pork braised in garlic, vinegar, oil and soy sauce
Soy sauce
Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...
, or cooked until dry), kaldereta
Kaldereta
Kaldereta is a popular dish in the Philippines, especially on Luzon island. The common ingredients is goat shoulders with tomato paste and liver spread....
(meat in tomato sauce stew), mechado
Mechado
Mechado is a beef dish from the Philippines. The addition of soy sauce and calamansi juice to the marinating liquid gives this recipe its distinct Filipino character.-Origin and preparation:...
(larded beef in soy and tomato sauce), puchero
Puchero
Puchero is a type of stew prepared in Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, the Philippines, and Spain, specifically the autonomous communities of Andalusia and the Canary Islands. The name comes from the Spanish word "puchero" which means "stewpot."...
(beef in bananas and tomato sauce), afritada (chicken and/or pork simmered in a tomato sauce with vegetables), kare-kare
Kare-kare
Kare-kare is a Philippine stew. It is made from peanut sauce with a variety of vegetables, stewed oxtail, beef, and occasionally offal or tripe. Meat variants may include goat meat or chicken. It is often eaten with bagoong , sometimes spiced with chili, and sprinkled with calamansi juice...
(oxtail
Oxtail
Oxtail is the culinary name for the tail of cattle. Formerly, it referred only to the tail of an ox or steer, a castrated male. An oxtail typically weighs 2 to 4 lbs. and is skinned and cut into short lengths for sale.Oxtail is a bony, gelatinous meat, and is usually slow-cooked, often stewed or...
and vegetables cooked in peanut sauce
Peanut sauce
Peanut sauce, satay sauce, bumbu kacang, or sambal kacang is a sauce widely used in the cuisines of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Africa. It is also used, to a lesser extent, in European and Middle Eastern cuisine.-Ingredients:The main ingredient is ground roasted peanuts, for...
), crispy pata
Crispy pata
Crispy pata is a Filipino dish consisting of deep fried pig trotter or knuckles served with a soy-vinegar dip. It can be served as party fare or an everyday dish. Many restaurants serves boneless pata as a speciality....
(deep-fried pig's leg), hamonado (pork sweetened in pineapple sauce), sinigang
Sinigang
Sinigang is a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its sour flavor most often associated with tamarind .- Ingredients :Sinigang is traditionally tamarind based. Other versions of the dish derive their sourness from ingredients such as guava, calamansi, bilimbi, or raw mango among others...
(meat or seafood in sour broth), pancit
Pancit
Pancit or pansit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit which means "something conveniently cooked fast." Different kinds of...
(noodles), and lumpia
Lumpia
Lumpia are pastries of Chinese origin similar to fresh popiah or fried spring rolls popular in Southeast Asia. The term lumpia derives from Hokkien lunpia , which is an alternate term for popiah...
(fresh or fried spring rolls).
History and influences
Water buffalo
The water buffalo is a domesticated bovid widely kept in Asia, Europe and South America.Water buffalo can also refer to:*Wild water buffalo , the wild ancestor of the domestic water buffalo...
es), baka (cows), manok (chickens) and baboy (pigs) to various kinds of fish and seafood. In some locales, additions to the daily diet included, monitor lizard
Monitor lizard
Monitor lizards are usually large reptiles, although some can be as small as in length. They have long necks, powerful tails and claws, and well-developed limbs. Most species are terrestrial, but arboreal and semiaquatic monitors are also known...
s, snakes, and locusts. In 3200 BCE, Austronesians from the southern China Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and Taiwan settled in the region that is now called the Philippines. They brought with them knowledge of rice cultivation and other farming practices which increased the number and variety of edible dish ingredients available for cooking.
Trade with Hokkien China
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
in the Philippines prospered prior the arrival of the European nations, going back as early as the Song dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
(960–1279 BC) with porcelain, ceramics, and silk being traded for spices and trapang
Sea cucumber (food)
Sea cucumbers are marine animals of the class Holothuroidea used in fresh or dried form in various cuisines.The creature and the food product is commonly known as bêche-de-mer in French, trepang in Indonesian, namako in Japanese and in the Philippines it is called balatan...
in Luzon
Luzon
Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...
. This early cultural contact with China introduced a number of staple food
Staple food
A staple food is one that is eaten regularly and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a diet, and that supplies a high proportion of energy and nutrient needs. Most people live on a diet based on one or more staples...
into Philippine cuisine, most notably toyo
Toyo
TOYO may refer to:Places:*Tōyō, Kōchi, a town in Japan*Tōyo, Ehime, a former city in Japan*Toyo Province, a Japanese province divided in 683*Toyo, Democratic Republic of the CongoCorporations:*Toyo Engineering Corporation, Japan...
(soy sauce
Soy sauce
Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...
; ), tokwa; (tofu
Tofu
is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
; ), tawge (bean sprout; ), and patis (fish sauce
Fish sauce
Fish sauce is a condiment that is derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment. It is an essential ingredient in many curries and sauces. Fish sauce is a staple ingredient in numerous cultures in Southeast Asia and the coastal regions of East Asia, and features heavily in Thai and Vietnamese...
), as well as the method of stir frying
Stir frying
Stir frying is an umbrella term used to describe two Chinese cooking techniques for preparing food in a wok: chǎo and bào . The term stir-fry was introduced into the English language by Buwei Yang Chao, in her book How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, to describe the chǎo technique...
and making savory soup bases. Many of these food items and dishes retained their original Hokkien names, such as pancit
Pancit
Pancit or pansit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit which means "something conveniently cooked fast." Different kinds of...
, and lumpia
Lumpia
Lumpia are pastries of Chinese origin similar to fresh popiah or fried spring rolls popular in Southeast Asia. The term lumpia derives from Hokkien lunpia , which is an alternate term for popiah...
. The Chinese food introduced during this period were food of the workers and traders, which became a staple of the noodle shops (panciterias), and can be seen in dishes like arroz caldo (congee), sinangag (fried rice
Fried rice
Fried rice is a popular component of Asian cuisine, especially Chinese food. It is made from steamed rice stir-fried in a wok, often with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, and meat. It is sometimes served as the penultimate dish in Chinese banquets...
), chopsuey
Chop suey
Chop suey is a Chinese dish consisting of meat and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery and bound in a starch-thickened sauce...
.
Spanish settlers brought with them produce from the Americas like chili pepper
Chili pepper
Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...
s, tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
es, corn, potatoes, and the method of sautéing
Sautéing
Sautéing is a method of cooking food, that uses a small amount of fat in a shallow pan over relatively high heat. Ingredients are usually cut into pieces or thinly sliced to facilitate fast cooking. The primary mode of heat transfer during sautéing is conduction between the pan and the food being...
with garlic and onions. Although chili peppers are nowhere as widely used in Filipino cooking compared to much of Southeast Asia, chili leaves are frequently used as a cooking green, again distinct from the cooking of neighbors. Spanish (and Mexican) dishes were eventually incorporated into Philippine cuisine with the more complex dishes usually being prepared for special occasions. Some dishes such as arroz a la valenciana
Arroz a la valenciana
Arroz a la valenciana or Arroz à valenciana is a typical Latin American dish, and sometimes used in Filipino cuisine...
remain largely the same in the Philippine context. Some have been adapted or have come to take on a slightly or significantly different meaning. Arroz a la cubana
Arroz a la cubana
Arroz a la cubana or arroz cubano, which means Cuban-style rice, is a Spanish dish consisting of rice, a fried egg and tomato sauce.The dish is also popular in the Philippines and Peru....
served in the Philippines usually includes ground beef picadillo. Philippine longganisa despite its name is more akin to chorizo
Chorizo
Chorizo is a term encompassing several types of pork sausages originating from the Iberian Peninsula.In English, it is usually pronounced , , or , but sometimes ....
than Spanish longaniza
Longaniza
Longaniza is a Spanish sausage similar to a chorizo and also closely associated with the Portuguese linguiça. Its defining characteristics are interpreted differently from region to region...
(in Visayan regions, it is still known as chorizo). Morcon is likely to refer to a beef roulade dish not the bulbous specialty Spanish sausage
Sausage
A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...
.
Today, Philippine cuisine continues to evolve as new techniques, styles of cooking, and ingredients find their way into the country. Traditional dishes both simple and elaborate, indigenous and foreign-influenced, are seen as are more current popular international viands and fast food
Fast food
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...
fare.
Characteristics
Counterpoint is a feature in Philippine cuisine which normally comes in a pairing of something sweet with something salty, and results in surprisingly pleasing combinations. Examples include: champorado
Champorado
For the Mexican drink, see ChampurradoTsampurado is a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Philippine cuisine. It is traditionally made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder, giving it a distinctly brown color and usually with milk and sugar to make it taste sweeter. However, dry tsampurado mixes...
(a sweet cocoa rice porridge), being paired with tuyo (salted, sun-dried fish); dinuguan
Dinuguan
Dinuguan Dinuguan Dinuguan (also called dinardaraan in Ilocano, tid-tad in Pampanga, sinugaok in Batangas, rugodugo in Waray, and sampayna or champayna in Northern Mindanao...
(a savory stew made of pig's blood and innards), paired with puto
Puto
Puto is Philippine steamed rice cake, eaten as is or with butter and/or grated fresh coconut or as accompaniment to a number of savory dishes for breakfast .-Preparation:...
(sweet, steamed rice cakes); unripe fruits such as mangoes (which are only slightly sweet but very sour), are eaten dipped in salt or bagoong; the use of cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
(which is salty) in sweetcakes (such as bibingka
Bibingka
Bibingka is a type of rice cake from the Philippines. It is traditionally eaten during Christmas season.-Preparation:Bibingka is made with rice flour and coconut milk or water. Other ingredients can vary greatly, but the most common secondary ingredients are eggs and milk. The traditional...
and puto), as well as an ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
flavoring.
Vinegar is a common ingredient. Adobo
Adobo (Filipino cuisine)
Adobo is the name of a popular dish and cooking process in Philippine cuisine that involves meat or seafood marinated in a sauce of vinegar and garlic, browned in oil, and simmered in the marinade....
is popular not solely for its simplicity and ease of preparation, but also for its ability to be stored for days without spoiling, and even improve in flavor with a day or two of storage. Tinapa
Tinapa
thumb|TinapaTinapa is the Filipino term for fish cooked or preserved through the process of smoking. It is a native delicacy in the Philippines and is often made from milkfish, which is locally known as bangus...
is a smoke-cured fish while tuyo, daing, and dangit are corned, sun-dried fish popular because they can last for weeks without spoiling, even without refrigeration.
Cooking and eating in the Philippines has traditionally been an informal and communal affair centered around the family kitchen. Filipinos traditionally eat three main meals a day: agahan or almusal (breakfast), tanghalían (lunch), and hapunan (dinner) plus an afternoon snack called meriénda
Merienda
Merienda is a light meal in Southern Europe , Latin America, and the Philippines. Usually taken in the afternoon or for brunch, it fills in the meal gap between lunch at noon and dinner, or between breakfast and lunch...
(also called minandál or minindál). Snacking is normal. Dinner, while still the main meal, is smaller than other countries. Usually, either breakfast or lunch is the largest meal. Food tends to be served all at once and not in courses. Unlike many of their Asian counterparts Filipinos do not eat with chopsticks. Due to Western influence, food is often eaten using flatware—forks, knives, spoons—but the primary pairing of utensils used at a Filipino dining table is that of spoon and fork not knife and fork. The traditional way of eating is with the hands, especially dry dishes such as inihaw or prito. The diner will take a bite of the main dish, then eat rice pressed together with his fingers. This practice, known as kamayan, is rarely seen in urbanized areas. However, Filipinos tend to feel the spirit of kamayan when eating amidst nature during out of town trips, beach vacations, and town fiestas.
Common dishes
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
. It is most often steamed and served during meals. Leftover rice is often fried with garlic to make sinangag, which is usually served at breakfast together with a fried egg and cured meat
Curing (food preservation)
Curing refers to various food preservation and flavoring processes, especially of meat or fish, by the addition of a combination of salt, nitrates, nitrite or sugar. Many curing processes also involve smoking, the process of flavoring, or cooking...
or sausages. Rice is often enjoyed with the sauce or broth from the main dishes. In some regions, rice is mixed with salt, condensed milk, cocoa, or coffee. Rice flour is used in making sweets, cakes and other pastries. While rice is the main staple food, bread is also a common staple.
A variety of fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
s and vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s are often used in cooking. Banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
s (the saba
Saba banana
Saba banana, also known as Cardaba banana, is a triploid hybrid banana cultivar originating from the Philippines. It is primarily a cooking banana though it can also be eaten raw. It is one of the most important banana varieties in Philippine cuisine....
variety in particular), Calamondin
Calamondin
× Citrofortunella microcarpa, the Calamondin or Calamansi, is a fruit tree in the family Rutaceae, commonly called the calamondin, golden lime, panama orange, chinese orange, acid orange, calamonding, or calamandarin in English. It is believed to originate from China and has spread throughout...
(kalamansi), guava
Guava
Guavas are plants in the myrtle family genus Psidium , which contains about 100 species of tropical shrubs and small trees. They are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America...
s (bayabas), mango
Mango
The mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
es, papaya
Papaya
The papaya , papaw, or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, the sole species in the genus Carica of the plant family Caricaceae...
s, and pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
s lend a distinctly tropical flair in many dishes, but mainstay green leafy vegetables like water spinach (kangkong), Chinese cabbage (petsay), Napa cabbage (petsay wombok), cabbage (repolyo) and other vegetables like eggplants (talong) and yard-long beans (sitaw) are just as commonly used. Coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
s are ubiquitous. Coconut meat is often used in desserts, coconut milk
Coconut milk
Coconut milk is the water that comes from the grated meat of a coconut. The colour and rich taste of the milk can be attributed to the high oil content. In many parts of the world, the term coconut milk is also used to refer to coconut water, the naturally occurring liquid found inside the hollow...
(kakang gata) in sauces, and coconut oil
Coconut oil
Coconut oil is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of matured coconuts harvested from the coconut palm . Throughout the tropical world, it has provided the primary source of fat in the diets of millions of people for generations. It has various applications in food, medicine, and industry...
for frying. Abundant harvests of root crops like potatoes, carrots, taro
Taro
Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae . Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated, and is the subject of this article. More specifically, this article describes the 'dasheen' form of taro; another variety is called eddoe.Taro is...
(gabi), cassava
Cassava
Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...
(kamoteng kahoy), purple yam (ube), and sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
(kamote) make them readily available. The combination of tomatoes (kamatis), garlic (bawang), and onions (sibuyas) is found in many dishes.
Meat staples include chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
, pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
, beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
, and fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
. Seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
is popular as a result of the bodies of water surrounding the archipelago. Popular catches include tilapia
Tilapia
Tilapia , is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the tilapiine cichlid tribe. Tilapia inhabit a variety of fresh water habitats, including shallow streams, ponds, rivers and lakes. Historically, they have been of major importance in artisan fishing in Africa and the...
, catfish
Catfish
Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...
(hito), milkfish
Milkfish
The milkfish is the sole living species in the family Chanidae. - Description and biology :...
(bangus), grouper
Grouper
Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.Not all serranids are called groupers; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name grouper is usually given to fish in one of two large genera: Epinephelus...
(lapu-lapu), shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
(hipon), prawns (sugpo), mackerel
Mackerel
Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of fish, mostly, but not exclusively, from the family Scombridae. They may be found in all tropical and temperate seas. Most live offshore in the oceanic environment but a few, like the Spanish mackerel , enter bays and can be...
(galunggong, hasa-hasa), swordfish, oysters (talaba), mussels (tahong), clams
CLaMS
CLaMS is a modular chemistry transport model system developed at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. CLaMS was first described by McKenna et al. and was expanded into three dimensions by Konopka et al....
(halaan and tulya), large and small crabs (alimango and alimasag respectively), game fish
Game fish
Game fish are fish pursued for sport by recreational anglers. They can be freshwater or marine fish. Game fish can be eaten after being caught, though increasingly anglers practise catch and release to improve fish populations. Some game fish are also targeted commercially, particularly...
, sablefish, tuna, cod, blue marlin
Blue marlin
Blue marlin may refer to:* Atlantic blue marlin, Makaira nigricans* Indo-Pacific blue marlin, Makaira mazara, whether or not it is a separate species from Makaira nigricans is currently debated* MV Blue Marlin, a heavy transport ship...
, and squid
Squid
Squid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs and two, usually longer, tentacles...
/cuttlefish
Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda . Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but molluscs....
(both called pusit). Also popular are seaweeds, abalone
Abalone
Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...
, and eel
Eel
Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...
.
The most common way of having fish is to have it salted, pan-fried or deep-fried, and then eaten as a simple meal with rice and vegetables. It may also be cooked in a sour broth of tomatoes or tamarind
Tamarind
Tamarind is a tree in the family Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic .-Origin:...
as in pangat, prepared with vegetables and a souring agent to make sinigang
Sinigang
Sinigang is a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its sour flavor most often associated with tamarind .- Ingredients :Sinigang is traditionally tamarind based. Other versions of the dish derive their sourness from ingredients such as guava, calamansi, bilimbi, or raw mango among others...
, simmered in vinegar and peppers to make paksiw, or roasted over hot charcoal or wood (inihaw). Other preparations include escabeche
Escabeche
Escabeche is a typical Mediterranean cuisine which refers to both a dish of poached or fried fish that is marinated in an acidic mixture before serving, and to the marinade itself...
(sweet and sour) or relleno (deboned and stuffed). Fish can be preserved by being smoked (tinapa
Tinapa
thumb|TinapaTinapa is the Filipino term for fish cooked or preserved through the process of smoking. It is a native delicacy in the Philippines and is often made from milkfish, which is locally known as bangus...
) or sun-dried (tuyo or daing).
Food is often served with various dipping sauces. Fried food is often dipped in vinegar
Vinegar
Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...
, soy sauce
Soy sauce
Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...
, juice squeezed from kalamansi
Calamondin
× Citrofortunella microcarpa, the Calamondin or Calamansi, is a fruit tree in the family Rutaceae, commonly called the calamondin, golden lime, panama orange, chinese orange, acid orange, calamonding, or calamandarin in English. It is believed to originate from China and has spread throughout...
(Philippine lime, calamondin, or calamansi), or a combination of two or all. Patis (fish sauce
Fish sauce
Fish sauce is a condiment that is derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment. It is an essential ingredient in many curries and sauces. Fish sauce is a staple ingredient in numerous cultures in Southeast Asia and the coastal regions of East Asia, and features heavily in Thai and Vietnamese...
) may be mixed with kalamansi as dipping sauce for most seafood. Fish sauce
Fish sauce
Fish sauce is a condiment that is derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment. It is an essential ingredient in many curries and sauces. Fish sauce is a staple ingredient in numerous cultures in Southeast Asia and the coastal regions of East Asia, and features heavily in Thai and Vietnamese...
, fish paste
Fish paste
-Fermented products:* Ngapi: a fish paste used in the Cuisine of Burma* Petis Ikan: a salty dark fish paste used in the Cuisine of Indonesia, mostly Madurese....
(bagoong
Bagoong Terong
Bagoong Terong or bagoong, and bugguong in the Ilocano language, is a common ingredient used in the Philippines and particularly in Northern Ilocano cuisine. It is made by salting and fermenting the bonnet mouth fish. This bagoong is coarser than Bagoong Monamon, and contains fragments of the...
), shrimp paste
Shrimp paste
Shrimp paste or shrimp sauce, is a common ingredient used in Southeast Asian and Southern Chinese cuisine. It is known as terasi in Indonesian, ngapi in Burmese, kapi in Thai, Khmer and Lao language, belacan in Malay, mắm ruốc, mắm tép and mắm tôm in...
(bagoong alamang) and crushed ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
root (luya) are condiments that are often added to dishes during the cooking process or when served.
Breakfast
Pandesal
Pan de sal is a rounded bread made of flour, eggs, yeast, sugar, and salt. It has become a common food in the Philippines.-Description:...
(small bread rolls), kesong puti
Kesong puti
Kesong puti or Filipino fresh cheese is a soft, white cheese, similar to cottage cheese, made from unskimmed carabao's milk, salt and rennet. It has a soft, close texture and slight salty taste. Some commercial versions are slightly sour due to the use of vinegar in place of rennet...
(white cheese), champorado
Champorado
For the Mexican drink, see ChampurradoTsampurado is a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Philippine cuisine. It is traditionally made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder, giving it a distinctly brown color and usually with milk and sugar to make it taste sweeter. However, dry tsampurado mixes...
(chocolate rice porridge), sinangag (garlic fried rice
Fried rice
Fried rice is a popular component of Asian cuisine, especially Chinese food. It is made from steamed rice stir-fried in a wok, often with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, and meat. It is sometimes served as the penultimate dish in Chinese banquets...
), and meat—such as tapa
Tapa (Filipino cuisine)
Tapa is dried or cured beef, mutton or venison, although other meat or even fish may be used. Filipinos prepare thin slices of meat and cure it with salt and spices as a method of preserving it...
, longganisa, tocino
Tocino
In Caribbean countries such as Puerto Rico and Cuba, tocino is made from pork fatback and neither cured nor smoked, but just fried until very crunchy and added to recipes, much like lardons in French cuisine.-Preparation in the Philippines:...
, karne norte
Corned beef
Corned beef is a type of salt-cured beef products present in many beef-eating cultures. The English term is used interchangeably in modernity to refer to three distinct types of cured beef:...
(corned beef), or fish such as daing na bangus (salted and dried milkfish
Milkfish
The milkfish is the sole living species in the family Chanidae. - Description and biology :...
)—or itlog na pula (salted duck eggs). Coffee is also commonly served particularly kapeng barako, a variety of coffee produced in the mountains of Batangas noted for having a strong flavor.
Certain portmanteaus in Filipino have come into use to describe popular combinations of items in a Filipino breakfast. An example of such a combination order is kankamtuy: an order of kanin (rice), kamatis (tomatoes) and tuyo (dried fish). Another is tapsi: an order of tapa and sinangág. Other examples include variations using a silog suffix, usually some kind of meat served with sinangág and itlog (egg). The three most commonly seen silogs are tapsilog (having tapa as the meat portion), tocilog (having tocino as the meat portion), and longsilog (having longganisa as the meat portion). Other silogs include hotsilog (with a hot dog
Hot dog
A hot dog is a sausage served in a sliced bun. It is very often garnished with mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, relish and/or sauerkraut.-History:...
), bangsilog (with bangus (milkfish)
Milkfish
The milkfish is the sole living species in the family Chanidae. - Description and biology :...
), dangsilog (with danggit (rabbitfish)
Rabbitfish
Rabbitfishes or spinefoots are perciform fishes in the family Siganidae. The 28 species are in a single genus, Siganus. In some now obsolete classifications, the species having prominent face stripes—colloquially called foxfaces–are in the genus Lo. Other species like the Masked...
), spamsilog (with spam
Spam (food)
Spam is a canned precooked meat product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation, first introduced in 1937. The labeled ingredients in the classic variety of Spam are chopped pork shoulder meat, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, and sodium nitrite as a preservative...
), adosilog (with adobo), chosilog (with chorizo
Chorizo
Chorizo is a term encompassing several types of pork sausages originating from the Iberian Peninsula.In English, it is usually pronounced , , or , but sometimes ....
), chiksilog (with chicken), cornsilog (with corned beef
Corned beef
Corned beef is a type of salt-cured beef products present in many beef-eating cultures. The English term is used interchangeably in modernity to refer to three distinct types of cured beef:...
), and litsilog (with lechon/litson
Lechon
Lechón is a pork dish in several regions of the world, most specifically Spain and its former colonial possessions throughout the world. The word lechón originated from the Spanish term leche ; thus lechón refers to a suckling pig that is roasted...
). Pankaplog is a slang term referring to a breakfast consisting of pandesal
Pandesal
Pan de sal is a rounded bread made of flour, eggs, yeast, sugar, and salt. It has become a common food in the Philippines.-Description:...
, kape (coffee), and itlog (egg). An establishment that specializes in such meals is called a tapsihan or "tapsilugan".
Merienda
Tea (meal)
Tea can refer to any of several different meals or mealtimes, depending on a country's customs and its history of drinking tea. However, in those countries where the term's use is common, the influences are generally those of the former British Empire...
. If the meal is taken close to dinner, it is called merienda cena, and may be served instead of dinner.
Filipinos have a number of options to take with their traditional kape (coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
): breads and pastries like pandesal
Pandesal
Pan de sal is a rounded bread made of flour, eggs, yeast, sugar, and salt. It has become a common food in the Philippines.-Description:...
, ensaymada
Ensaimada
The Ensaïmada is a pastry product from Majorca, Spain. It is a common cuisine eaten in most former Spanish territories in Latin America and the Philippines, which has been continuously made and eaten for a very long time. The first written references to the Majorcan ensaïmada date back to the 17th...
(buttery sweet rolls covered with cheese), hopia
Hopia
Hopia is a popular Filipino bean filled pastry originally introduced by Fujianese immigrants in urban centres of the Philippines around the start of the American civil occupation...
(pastries similar to mooncake
Mooncake
Mooncake is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival / Zhongqiu Festival. The festival is for lunar worship and moon watching; mooncakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy on this occasion. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings...
s filled with sweet bean paste) and empanada (savory pastries stuffed with meat). There's also the option of cakes made with sticky rice (kakanin) like kutsinta, sapin-sapin, palitaw
Palitaw
Palitaw is a small, flat, sweet rice cake eaten in the Philippines. They are made from malagkit washed, soaked, and then ground. Scoops of the batter are dropped into boiling water where they float to the surface as flat discs - an indication that they're done...
, biko, suman, bibingka
Bebinca
Bebinca, also known as bibik or bebinka, is a type of pudding and a traditional Goan dessert. The ingredients include plain flour, sugar, ghee and coconut milk....
, and pitsi-pitsi.
Savory dishes often eaten during merienda include pancit
Pancit
Pancit or pansit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit which means "something conveniently cooked fast." Different kinds of...
canton (stir-fried noodles), palabok (rice noodles with a shrimp-based sauce), tokwa't baboy
Tokwa at baboy
Tokwa at Baboy or Tokwa't Baboy ' is a typical Filipino appetizer dish. It usually includes pork ears, pork belly and deep-fried tofu, and is dipped in a mixture of soy sauce, pork broth, vinegar, chopped white onions, scallions, and red chili peppers.It is normally eaten with rice porridge as a...
(fried tofu with boiled pork ears in a garlic-flavored soy sauce and vinegar sauce), and dinuguan
Dinuguan
Dinuguan Dinuguan Dinuguan (also called dinardaraan in Ilocano, tid-tad in Pampanga, sinugaok in Batangas, rugodugo in Waray, and sampayna or champayna in Northern Mindanao...
(a spicy stew made with pork blood) which is often served with puto (steamed rice flour cakes).
Dim sum
Dim sum
Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates...
and dumplings, brought over by the Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
ese people, have been given a Filipino touch and are often eaten for merienda. Street food, most of which are skewered on bamboo sticks, such as squid balls, fish balls and others, are common choices too.
Pulutan
Sisig
Sisig is a Kapampangan term which means "to snack on something sour". It usually refers to fruits, often unripe or half-ripe, sometimes dipped in salt and vinegar...
.
Deep fried pulutan include chicharrón (also spelled tsitsaron), pork rinds that have been salted, dried, then fried; chicharong bituka, pig intestines that have been deep fried to a crisp; chicharong bulaklak, similar to chicharong bituka it is made from mesenteries of pig intestines and has a bulaklak or flower appearance; and chicharong manok, chicken skin that has been deep fried
Frying
Frying is the cooking of food in oil or another fat, a technique that originated in ancient Egypt around 2500 BC. Chemically, oils and fats are the same, differing only in melting point, but the distinction is only made when needed. In commerce, many fats are called oils by custom, e.g...
until crisp.
Some grilled food include barbecue isaw, chicken or pig intestines marinated and skewered; barbecue tenga, pig ears that have been marinated and skewered; pork barbecue which is skewered pork marinated in a usually sweet blend; betamax, salted solidified pork or chicken blood which is skewered; adidas which is grilled
Grilling
Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above or below.Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat quickly and meat that has already been cut into slices...
or sautée
Sautee
Sautee may refer to:*Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia*Sautee Valley Historic District*Sautéing, a method of cooking food....
d chicken feet. And there is sisig
Sisig
Sisig is a Kapampangan term which means "to snack on something sour". It usually refers to fruits, often unripe or half-ripe, sometimes dipped in salt and vinegar...
a popular pulutan made from the pig's cheek skin, ears and liver that is initially boiled, then grilled over charcoal and afterwards minced and cooked with chopped onions, chillies, and spices.
Smaller snacks such as mani (peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
) are often sold boiled in the shell, salted, spiced or flavored with garlic by street vendors in the Philippines. Another snack is kropeck, which is fish crackers.
Fried tokwa't baboy is tofu
Tofu
is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
fried with boiled pork then dipped in a garlic-flavored soy sauce
Soy sauce
Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...
or vinegar dip that is also served as a side dish to pancit luglog
Pancit
Pancit or pansit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit which means "something conveniently cooked fast." Different kinds of...
or pancit palabok
Pancit
Pancit or pansit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit which means "something conveniently cooked fast." Different kinds of...
.
Breads and pastries
There are also rolls like pianono, which is a chiffon roll flavored with different fillings. Brazo de mercedes, a rolled cake or jelly roll, is made from a sheet of meringue
Meringue
Meringue is a type of dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar, occasionally some recipes may call for adding an acid such as cream of tartar or a small amount of vinegar and a binding agent such as cornstarch found in icing sugar which may be added in addition to the corn starch which...
rolled around a custard filling. Similar to the previous dessert, it takes on a layered presentation instead of being rolled and typically features caramelized sugar and nuts for sans rival. Silvañas are large, oval-shaped, cookie-sized desserts, with a thin meringue on either side of a buttercream filling and dusted with crumbed cookies. Not overly sweet, they are rich, crisp, chewy, and buttery all at the same time. Barquillos use sweet thin crunchy wafers rolled into tubes that can be sold hollow or filled with polvoron (sweetened and toasted flour mixed with ground nuts). Meringue
Meringue
Meringue is a type of dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar, occasionally some recipes may call for adding an acid such as cream of tartar or a small amount of vinegar and a binding agent such as cornstarch found in icing sugar which may be added in addition to the corn starch which...
s are also present in the Philippines, due to the Spanish influence, but they are called merengue – with all the vowels pronounced. Leche flan is a type of caramel custard made with eggs and milk similar to the French creme caramel. Leche flan (the local term for the originally Spanish flan de leche, literally "milk flan"), which is a heavier version of the Spanish flan made with condensed milk and more egg yolks. Leche flan is usually steamed over an open flame or stove top, although rarely it can also be seen baked. Leche flan is a staple in celebratory feasts.
A heavier version of leche flan, tocino del cielo, is similar, but has significantly more egg yolks and sugar.
The egg pie with a very rich egg custard filling is a mainstay in local bakeries. It is typically baked so that the exposed custard on top is browned. Buko pie is made with a filling made from young coconut meat and dairy. Mini pastries like turrones de casuy are made up of cashew marzipan
Marzipan
Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar and almond meal. Persipan is a similar, yet less expensive product, in which the almonds are replaced by apricot or peach kernels...
wrapped with a wafer made to resemble a candy wrapper but take on a miniature look of a pie in a size of about a quarter
Quarter (United States coin)
A quarter dollar, commonly shortened to quarter, is a coin worth ¼ of a United States dollar, or 25 cents. The quarter has been produced since 1796. The choice of 25¢ as a denomination, as opposed to 20¢ which is more common in other parts of the world, originated with the practice of dividing...
. There is also napoleones – again with all the vowels pronounced – a mille-feuille
Mille-feuille
The mille-feuille , vanilla slice, cream slice, custard slice, also known as the Napoleon, is a pastry originating in France.Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry , alternating with two layers of pastry cream , but sometimes whipped cream, or jam are substituted...
pastry stuffed with a sweet milk-based filling.
There are hard pastries like biskotso
Biskotso
Biskotso refers to baked bread topped with butter and sugar, or garlic, in some cases.Biskotsos are a part of Filipino cuisine. They originated from Iloilo province....
a crunchy, sweet, twice-baked bread. Another baked goody is sinipit which is a sweet pastry covered in a crunchy sugar glaze, made to resemble a length of rope. Similar to sinipit is a snack eaten on roadsides colloquially called shingaling. It is hollow but crunchy with a salty flavor.
For a softer treat there is mamon a chiffon-type cake sprinkled with sugar, its name derived from a slang Spanish term for breast. There's also crema de fruta, which is an elaborate sponge cake topped in succeeding layers of cream, custard, candied fruit, and gelatine. Similar to a sponge cake is mamoncillo which generally refers to slices taken from a large mamon cake, but it is unrelated to the fruit
Mamoncillo
Melicoccus bijugatus, commonly called Spanish lime, genip, guinep, genipe, quenepa, mamoncillo, or honeyberry, is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, native or naturalised over a wide area of the tropics, including South and Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and parts...
of the same name. Sandwich pastries like inipit are made with two thin layers of chiffon sandwiching a filling of custard that is topped with butter and sugar. Another mamon variant is mamon tostada, basically mamoncillo toasted to a crunchy texture.
Stuffed pastries of both Western and Eastern influence are common. One can find empanada
Empanada
An empanada is a stuffed bread or pastry baked or fried in many countries in Latin America, Southern Europe and parts of Southeast Asia. The name comes from the verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread. Empanada is made by folding a dough or bread patty around the stuffing...
s, turnover-type pastry filled with a savory-sweet meat filling. Typically made with ground meat and raisins, it can be deep fried or baked. Siopao
Siopao
Siopao is a Hokkien term for bāozi , literally meaning "steamed buns". It has also been incorporated in to Thai cuisine where it is called salapao ....
is the local version of Chinese baozi
Baozi
A bāozi or simply known as bao, bau, humbow, nunu, bausak, pow or pau is a type of steamed, filled bun or bread-like item in various Chinese cuisines, as there is much variation as to the fillings and the preparations...
. Buchi is another snack probably of Chinese origin. Bite-sized, buchi is made of deep-fried dough balls (often from rice flour) filled with a sweet mung bean paste, and coated on the outside with sesame seeds, some variants have ube as the filling. There are also many varieties of the mooncake-like hopia
Hopia
Hopia is a popular Filipino bean filled pastry originally introduced by Fujianese immigrants in urban centres of the Philippines around the start of the American civil occupation...
, which come in different shapes (from a flat, circular stuffed form, to cubes), and have different textures (predominantly using flaky pastry, but sometimes like the ones in mooncakes) and fillings.
Fiesta food
Lechon
Lechón is a pork dish in several regions of the world, most specifically Spain and its former colonial possessions throughout the world. The word lechón originated from the Spanish term leche ; thus lechón refers to a suckling pig that is roasted...
(also litson) serves as the centerpiece of the dinner table. It is usually a whole roasted suckling pig, but piglets (lechonillo, or lechon de leche) or cattle calves (lechong baka) can also be prepared in place to the popular adult pig. It is typically served with lechon sauce. Other dishes include hamonado (honey-cured beef, pork or chicken), relleno (stuffed chicken or milkfish), mechado
Mechado
Mechado is a beef dish from the Philippines. The addition of soy sauce and calamansi juice to the marinating liquid gives this recipe its distinct Filipino character.-Origin and preparation:...
, afritada, caldereta, puchero, paella
Paella
Paella is a Valencian rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near lake Albufera, a lagoon in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain. Many non-Spaniards view paella as Spain's national dish, but most Spaniards consider it to be a regional Valencian dish...
, menudo, morcon, embutido (referring to a meatloaf dish, not a sausage as understood elsewhere), suman (a savory rice and coconut milk concoction steamed in leaves such as banana), and pancit
Pancit
Pancit or pansit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit which means "something conveniently cooked fast." Different kinds of...
canton. The table may also be have various sweets and pastries such as leche flan, ube, sapin-sapin, sorbetes (ice creams), totong (a rice, coconut milk and mongo bean pudding), ginataan (a coconut milk pudding with various root vegetables and tapioca pearls), and gulaman
Gulaman
Gulaman, in Filipino cuisine, refers to the bars of dried seaweed used to make jellies or flan, as well as the desserts made from it. Agarose or agar is made of processed seaweed, mostly from Gelidium corneum--one of the most common edible alga, dehydrated and formed into foot-long dry bars which...
(an agar
Agar
Agar or agar-agar is a gelatinous substance derived from a polysaccharide that accumulates in the cell walls of agarophyte red algae. Throughout history into modern times, agar has been chiefly used as an ingredient in desserts throughout Asia and also as a solid substrate to contain culture medium...
jello-like ingredient or dessert
Gelatin dessert
Gelatin desserts are desserts made with sweetened and flavored gelatin. They can be made by combining plain gelatin with other ingredients or by using a premixed blend of gelatin with additives...
).
Christmas Eve, known as Noche Buena
Nochebuena
Nochebuena, , is a Spanish word referring to the night of Christmas Eve. In Spain, Cuba, Latin America, and the Philippines, the evening consists of a traditional dinner with family....
, is the most important feast. During this evening, the star of the table is the Christmas ham
Ham
Ham is a cut of meat from the thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especiallypigs. Nearly all hams sold today are fully cooked or cured.-Etymology:...
and Edam cheese (queso de bola). Supermarkets are laden with these treats during the Christmas season and are popular giveaways by Filipino companies in addition to red wine, brandy, groceries, or pastries. Available mostly during the Christmas season and sold in front of churches along with bibingka
Bibingka
Bibingka is a type of rice cake from the Philippines. It is traditionally eaten during Christmas season.-Preparation:Bibingka is made with rice flour and coconut milk or water. Other ingredients can vary greatly, but the most common secondary ingredients are eggs and milk. The traditional...
, puto bumbong is a purple yam-flavored puto.
More common at celebrations than in everyday home meals, lumpiang sariwa, sometimes referred to as fresh lumpia, is a fresh spring roll that consists of a soft crepe wrapped around a filling that can include strips of kamote (sweet potato), singkamas (jicama
Jícama
Pachyrhizus erosus, commonly known as Jícama , Yam, and Mexican Turnip, is the name of a native Mexican vine, although the name most commonly refers to the plant's edible tuberous root. Jícama is one species in the genus Pachyrhizus. Plants in this genus are commonly referred to as yam bean,...
), bean sprouts, green beans, cabbage, carrots and meat (often pork). It can be served warm or cold and typically with a sweet peanut and garlic sauce. Ukoy is shredded papaya combined with small shrimp (and occasionally bean sprouts) and fried to make shrimp patties. It is often eaten with vinegar seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper. Both lumpiang sariwa and ukoy are often accompanied together in Filipino parties. Lumpiang sariwa has Chinese
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
origins, having been derived from popiah
Popiah
Popiah is a Fujian/Chaozhou-style fresh spring roll common in Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Popiah is often eaten in the Fujian province of China and its neighbouring Chaoshan on the Qingming Festival. In the Teochew dialect, popiah is pronounced as "Bo-BEE-a", which means "thin wafer"...
.
Regional specialties
Northern Philippine cuisine
Ilocanos, from the rugged Ilocos regionIlocos Region
The Ilocos region or Region I is a Region of the Philippines and is located in the northwest of Luzon. It borders to the east the regions of the Cordillera Administrative Region and Cagayan Valley and to the south the region of Central Luzon...
, boast of a diet heavy in boiled or steamed vegetables and freshwater fish, but they are particularly fond of dishes flavored with bagoong
Bagoong Terong
Bagoong Terong or bagoong, and bugguong in the Ilocano language, is a common ingredient used in the Philippines and particularly in Northern Ilocano cuisine. It is made by salting and fermenting the bonnet mouth fish. This bagoong is coarser than Bagoong Monamon, and contains fragments of the...
, fermented fish that is often used instead of salt. Ilocanos often season boiled vegetables with bagoong monamon
Bagoong Monamon
Bagoong monamon, bagoong monamon-dilis, or simply bagoong and bugguong munamon in Ilocano, is a common ingredient used in the Philippines and particularly in Northern Ilocano cuisine. It is made by fermenting salted anchovies which is not designed, nor customarily used for immediate consumption...
(fermented anchovy paste) to produce pinakbet
Pinakbet
Pinakbet or pakbet is a popular Ilocano dish, from the northern regions of the Philippines, although it has become popular throughout the archipelago. The word is the contracted form of the Ilocano word pinakebbet, meaning "shrunk" or "shriveled"...
. Local specialties include the soft white larvae of ants and "jumping salad" of tiny live shrimp.
The Igorot
Igorot
Cordillerans are the people of the Cordillera region, in the Philippines island of Luzon. The word, Igorot is a misnomer term invented by the Spaniards in mockery against the Nortnern Luzon tribes. The word ‘Igorot’ also as coined and applied by the Spaniards means a savage, head-hunting and...
s prefer roasted meats, particularly carabao
Carabao
The carabao or Bubalus bubalis carabanesis is a subspecies of the domesticated water buffalo found in the Philippines, Guam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and various parts of Southeast Asia...
meat, goat meat, and venison
Venison
Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer but also other animals such as antelope, wild boar, etc.-Etymology:The word derives from the Latin vēnor...
.
Due to its mild, sub-tropical climate, Baguio, along with the outlying mountainous regions, is renowned for its produce. Temperate-zone fruits and vegetables (strawberries being a notable example) which would otherwise wilt in lower regions are grown there. It is also known for a snack called sundot-kulangot which literally means "poke the booger." It's actually a sticky kind of sweet made from milled glutinous rice flour mixed with molasses, and served inside pitogo shells, and with a stick to "poke" its sticky substance with.
The town of Calasiao in Pangasinan is known for its puto, a type of steamed rice cake.
Kapampangan cuisine
Kapampangan cuisine
Lútûng Kapampangan "differed noticeably from that of other groups in the Philippines." It has many similarities with Cantonese cuisine, particularly Macanese cuisine, with a touch of local, Spanish, Malay, and even Mexican. The Kapampangan kitchen is the biggest and widely used room in the...
makes use of all the produce in the region available to the native cook. Among the treats produced in Pampanga
Pampanga
Pampanga is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Pampanga is bordered by the provinces of Bataan and Zambales to the west, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to the north, and Bulacan to the southeast...
are longganisa (original sweet and spicy sausages), calderetang kambing (savory goat stew), and tocino
Tocino
In Caribbean countries such as Puerto Rico and Cuba, tocino is made from pork fatback and neither cured nor smoked, but just fried until very crunchy and added to recipes, much like lardons in French cuisine.-Preparation in the Philippines:...
(sweetened cured pork). Combining pork cheeks and offal, Kapampangans make sisig
Sisig
Sisig is a Kapampangan term which means "to snack on something sour". It usually refers to fruits, often unripe or half-ripe, sometimes dipped in salt and vinegar...
. Kare-kare
Kare-kare
Kare-kare is a Philippine stew. It is made from peanut sauce with a variety of vegetables, stewed oxtail, beef, and occasionally offal or tripe. Meat variants may include goat meat or chicken. It is often eaten with bagoong , sometimes spiced with chili, and sprinkled with calamansi juice...
is also thought to have been originated from Pampanga.
Bulacan
Bulacan
Bulacan , officially called the Province of Bulacan or simply Bulacan Province, is a first class province of the Republic of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Region in the island of Luzon, north of Manila , and part of the Metro...
is popular for chicharon (pork rinds) and steamed rice and tuber cakes like puto. It is a center for panghimagas or desserts, like brown rice cake
Rice cake
A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten, and are particularly prevalent in Asia. The origin of rice cake seems to be...
or kutsinta, sapin-sapin, suman
Suman (food)
Suman is a rice cake originating from the Philippines. It is made from glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk, and often steamed in banana leaves. It is served wrapped in buli or buri palm leaves and usually eaten sprinkled with sugar...
, cassava
Cassava
Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...
cake, halaya ube and the king of sweets, in San Miguel
San Miguel, Bulacan
San Miguel de Mayumo is a 1st class, partially urban municipality located in the 3rd district of the province of Bulacan, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 138,839 people.-History:...
, Bulacan
Bulacan
Bulacan , officially called the Province of Bulacan or simply Bulacan Province, is a first class province of the Republic of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Region in the island of Luzon, north of Manila , and part of the Metro...
, the famous carabao
Carabao
The carabao or Bubalus bubalis carabanesis is a subspecies of the domesticated water buffalo found in the Philippines, Guam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and various parts of Southeast Asia...
milk candy
Candy
Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added...
pastillas de leche, with its pabalat wrapper.
Cainta, in Rizal
Rizal
Rizal is a province located in the CALABARZON , just 16 kilometers east of Manila. The province was named after the country's national hero, José Rizal. Rizal Governor Casimiro A. Ynares III on June 17, 2008 announced the transfer of the Capitol from Pasig. Its P 270-million capitol building,...
province east of Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, is known for its Filipino rice cake
Rice cake
A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten, and are particularly prevalent in Asia. The origin of rice cake seems to be...
s and puddings. These are usually topped with latik, a mixture of coconut milk and brown sugar, reduced to a dry crumbly texture. A more modern, and time saving alternative to latik are coconut flakes toasted in a frying pan.
Antipolo
Antipolo
Antipolo is a city in the Philippines located in the province of Rizal; about 25 kilometers east of Manila. It is the largest city in the Calabarzon Region in terms of population...
, straddled mid-level in the mountainous regions of the Philippine Sierra Madre
Sierra Madre (Philippines)
The Sierra Madre is a mountain range in The Philippines. It is located along the north-eastern coast of Luzon Island, running north/south. Quezon National Forest Park is situated in the range.-Geography:...
, is a town known for its suman and cashew products.
Laguna is known for buko pie (coconut pie) and panutsa (peanut brittle).
Batangas
Batangas
Batangas is a first class province of the Philippines located on the southwestern part of Luzon in the CALABARZON region. Its capital is Batangas City and it is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and Laguna to the north and Quezon to the east. Across the Verde Island Passages to the south is the...
is home to Taal Lake
Taal Lake
Taal Lake is a freshwater lake in the province of Batangas, on the island of Luzon, Philippines. The lake is situated within a caldera formed by very large eruptions between 500,000 and 100,000 years ago. It is the country's third largest lake...
, a body of water that surrounds Taal Volcano
Taal Volcano
Taal Volcano is a complex volcano located on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Historical eruptions are concentrated on Volcano Island, an island near the middle of Lake Taal. The lake partially fills Taal Caldera, which was formed by powerful prehistoric eruptions between 140,000 to 5,380 BP...
. The lake is home to 75 species of freshwater fish. Among these, the maliputo and tawilis are two not commonly found elsewhere. These fish are delicious native delicacies. Batangas
Batangas
Batangas is a first class province of the Philippines located on the southwestern part of Luzon in the CALABARZON region. Its capital is Batangas City and it is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and Laguna to the north and Quezon to the east. Across the Verde Island Passages to the south is the...
is also known for its special coffee, kapeng barako.
Central Philippine cuisine
BicolBicol Region
The Bicol Region or Bicolandia is one of the 17 regions of the Philippines. Its regional center is Legazpi City...
is known for its very spicy Bicol express
Bicol Express
Bicol Express is a popular Filipino dish which was popularized in the district of Malate, Manila but made in traditional Bicolano style. It is a stew made from long chilies , coconut milk, shrimp paste or stockfish, onion, pork, and garlic...
. The region is also the well-known home of natong also known as laing or pinangat
Pinangat
Pinangat is a Filipino dish which originated in Bicol Region, Philippines.More popularly known in Manila as Laing, this dish is a nice blend of taro leaves, chili, meat and coconut milk wrapped in gabi leaves and tied securely with coconut leaf.-Recipes:...
(a pork or fish stew in taro leaves).
Bacolod
Bacolod
Bacolod may refer to the following:*Bacolod City, the capital city of Negros Occidental, Philippines*Metro Bacolod*Bacolod, Lanao del Norte, a municipality in Lanao del Norte, Philippines*BRP Bacolod City , a transport ship of the Philippine Navy...
is known for chicken "inasal" which is a kind of roast chicken served on skewers.
Iloilo
Iloilo
Iloilo is a province of the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Iloilo occupies the southeast portion of Panay Island and is bordered by Antique Province to the west and Capiz Province and the Jintotolo Channel to the north. Just off Iloilo's southeast coast is Guimaras Province,...
is known for La Paz batchoy
Batchoy
Batchoy is a noodle soup made with pork organs, crushed pork cracklings, shrimp, vegetables, chicken stock, chicken breast, beef loin and round noodles. Its origins can be traced to the district of La Paz, Iloilo City in the Philippines, hence it is oftentimes referred to as La Paz...
, pancit
Pancit
Pancit or pansit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit which means "something conveniently cooked fast." Different kinds of...
molo, dinuguan
Dinuguan
Dinuguan Dinuguan Dinuguan (also called dinardaraan in Ilocano, tid-tad in Pampanga, sinugaok in Batangas, rugodugo in Waray, and sampayna or champayna in Northern Mindanao...
, puto, biscocho and piyaya.
Cebu
Cebu Island
Cebu is an island of the Philippines. It is the main island of Cebu Province at the center of the Visayan Islands, south of Manila.It lies to the east of Negros Island; to the east is Leyte and to the southeast is Bohol Island. It is flanked on both sides by the Cebu Strait and Tañon Strait...
is known for its lechón
Lechon
Lechón is a pork dish in several regions of the world, most specifically Spain and its former colonial possessions throughout the world. The word lechón originated from the Spanish term leche ; thus lechón refers to a suckling pig that is roasted...
. Lechon prepared "Cebu style" is characterized by a crisp outer skin and a moist juicy meat with a unique taste given by a blend of spices. Cebu is also known for sweets like dried mango
Mango
The mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
es and caramel tarts.
Southern Philippine cuisine
Mindanao
Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
, the southern part of Palawan
Palawan
Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the MIMAROPA region or Region 4. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the...
island, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi
Tawi-Tawi
Tawi-Tawi is an island province of the Philippines located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao . The capital of Tawi-Tawi is Bongao. The province is the southernmost of the country sharing sea borders with the Malaysian State of Sabah and the Indonesian East Kalimantan province. To the...
, dishes are richly flavored with the spices common to Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
: turmeric
Turmeric
Turmeric is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is native to tropical South Asia and needs temperatures between 20 °C and 30 °C and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive...
, coriander
Coriander
Coriander is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae. Coriander is native to southern Europe and North Africa to southwestern Asia. It is a soft, hairless plant growing to tall. The leaves are variable in shape, broadly lobed at the base of the plant, and slender and feathery higher on the...
, lemon grass, cumin
Cumin
Cumin is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to India. Its seeds are used in the cuisines of many different cultures, in both whole and ground form.-Etymology:...
, and chillies — ingredients not commonly used in the rest of Filipino cooking. Being free from Hispanicization
Hispanicization
Hispanicisation or Hispanisation refers to the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by Hispanic culture or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-Hispanic becomes Hispanic...
, the cuisine of the indigenous Moro and Lumad
Lumad
The Lumad is a term being used to denote a group of indigenous peoples of the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous"...
peoples of Mindanao
Mindanao
Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
and the Sulu archipelago
Sulu Archipelago
The Sulu Archipelago is a chain of islands in the southwestern Philippines. This archipelago is considered to be part of the Moroland by the local rebel independence movement. This island group forms the northern limit of the Celebes Sea....
has much in common with the rich and spicy Malay cuisine
Malay cuisine
Malay cusine is the cuisine of Malay people of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Southern Thailand. Different Malay regions are all known for their unique or signature dishes - Terengganu and Kelantan for their Nasi dagang, Nasi kerabu and Keropok lekor, Negeri Sembilan for its...
s of Malaysia and Brunei
Brunei
Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
, as well as Indonesian and Thai cuisines.
Well-known dishes from the region include Satti
Satay
Satay , or sate, is a dish of marinated, skewered and grilled meat, served with a sauce. Satay may consist of diced or sliced chicken, goat, mutton, beef, pork, fish, other meats, or tofu; the more authentic version uses skewers from the midrib of the coconut palm frond, although bamboo skewers are...
(satay) and ginataang manok (chicken cooked in spiced coconut milk). Certain parts of Mindanao is predominantly Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
, where pork is rarely consumed.
Rendang
Rendang
Rendang is a dish which originated from the Minangkabau ethnic group of Indonesia, and is now commonly served across the country. One of the characteristic foods of Minangkabau culture, it is served at ceremonial occasions and to honour guests...
, a ofspicy beef curry with its origins among the Minangkabau people of Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
; biryani
Biryani
Biryani, biriani, or beriani is a set of rice-based foods made with spices, rice and meat, fish, eggs or vegetables. The name is derived from the Persian word beryā which means "fried" or "roasted"....
and kiyoning
Pilaf
Pilaf is a dish in which rice is cooked in a seasoned broth . In some cases, the rice may also attain its brown color by being stirred with bits of cooked onion, as well as a large mix of spices...
(pilaf), dishes originally from the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, are given a Mindanaoan touch and served at special occasions.
Pyanggang is a Tausug dish made from barbecued chicken marinaded in spices, and is served with coconut milk infused with toasted coconut meat.
Popular crops such as cassava root, sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
es, and yams
Yam (vegetable)
Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea . These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania...
are grown.
Sambal
Sambal
Sambal is a chili based sauce which is normally used as a condiment. Sambals are popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the southern Philippines and Sri Lanka, as well as in the Netherlands and in Suriname through Javanese influence. It is typically made from a variety of chili peppers and is...
, a spicy sauce made with belacan, tamarind
Tamarind
Tamarind is a tree in the family Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic .-Origin:...
, aromatic spices and chillies, is a popular base to many dishes in the region.
Another popular dish from this region is tiyula itum, a dark broth of beef or chicken lightly flavored with ginger, chili, turmeric, and toasted coconut flesh (which gives it its dark color).
Main dishes
Adobo (Filipino cuisine)
Adobo is the name of a popular dish and cooking process in Philippine cuisine that involves meat or seafood marinated in a sauce of vinegar and garlic, browned in oil, and simmered in the marinade....
is one of the most popular Filipino dishes and is considered unofficially by many as the national dish. It usually consists of pork or chicken, sometimes both, stewed or braised in a sauce usually made from vinegar, cooking oil, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns, and soy sauce. It can also be prepared "dry" by cooking out the liquid and concentrating the flavor. Bistek
Bistek
Bistek, also known as bistek Tagalog, is a Philippine dish typically made with onions and strips of sirloin beef slowly cooked in soy sauce, and calamansi juice....
, also known as "Filipino beef steak," consists of thinly sliced beef marinated in soy sauce
Soy sauce
Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...
and calamansi and then fried in a skillet that is typically served with onions.
Some well-known stews are kare-kare
Kare-kare
Kare-kare is a Philippine stew. It is made from peanut sauce with a variety of vegetables, stewed oxtail, beef, and occasionally offal or tripe. Meat variants may include goat meat or chicken. It is often eaten with bagoong , sometimes spiced with chili, and sprinkled with calamansi juice...
and dinuguan
Dinuguan
Dinuguan Dinuguan Dinuguan (also called dinardaraan in Ilocano, tid-tad in Pampanga, sinugaok in Batangas, rugodugo in Waray, and sampayna or champayna in Northern Mindanao...
. In kare-kare, also known as "peanut stew", oxtail
Oxtail
Oxtail is the culinary name for the tail of cattle. Formerly, it referred only to the tail of an ox or steer, a castrated male. An oxtail typically weighs 2 to 4 lbs. and is skinned and cut into short lengths for sale.Oxtail is a bony, gelatinous meat, and is usually slow-cooked, often stewed or...
or ox tripe
Tripe
Tripe is a type of edible offal from the stomachs of various farm animals.-Beef tripe:...
is the main ingredient and is cooked with vegetables in a peanut-based preparation. It is typically served with bagoong (fermented shrimp paste
Shrimp paste
Shrimp paste or shrimp sauce, is a common ingredient used in Southeast Asian and Southern Chinese cuisine. It is known as terasi in Indonesian, ngapi in Burmese, kapi in Thai, Khmer and Lao language, belacan in Malay, mắm ruốc, mắm tép and mắm tôm in...
). In dinuguan
Dinuguan
Dinuguan Dinuguan Dinuguan (also called dinardaraan in Ilocano, tid-tad in Pampanga, sinugaok in Batangas, rugodugo in Waray, and sampayna or champayna in Northern Mindanao...
, pig's blood, entrails, and meat are cooked with vinegar and seasoned with chili peppers, usually siling mahaba
Siling mahaba
Siling mahaba or siling haba or siling pangsigang , sometimes called finger chili, is one of two common kinds of native chili found in the Philippines, the other being siling labuyo....
.
Paksiw refers to different vinegar-based stews that differ greatly from one another based on the type of meat used. Paksiw na isda uses fish and usually includes the addition of ginger, fish sauce, and maybe siling mahaba and vegetables. Paksiw na baboy is a paksiw using pork, usually pork hocks, and often sees the addition of sugar, banana blossoms, and water so that the meat is stewed in a sweet sauce. A similar Visayan dish called humba adds fermented black beans. Both dishes are probably related to pata tim which is of Chinese origin. Paksiw na lechon is made from lechon meat and features the addition of ground liver or liver spread. This adds flavor and thickens the sauce so that it starts to caramelize around the meat by the time dish is finished cooking. Although some versions of paksiw dishes are made using the same basic ingredients as adobo, they are prepared differently, with other ingredients added and the proportions of ingredients and water being different.
In crispy pata, pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
knuckles (the pata) are marinated in garlic-flavored vinegar then deep fried until crisp and golden brown, with other parts of the pork leg prepared in the same way. Lechon manok is the Filipino take on rotisserie
Rotisserie
Rotisserie is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit - a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This method is generally used for cooking large joints of meat or entire animals, such as pigs,...
chicken. Available in many hole-in-the-wall stands or restaurant chains (e.g. Andok's, Baliwag, Toto's, Sr. Pedro's, G.S. Pagtakhan's), it is typically a specially seasoned chicken roasted over a charcoal flame served with "sarsa" or lechon sauce made from mashed pork liver, starch, sugar, and spices.
Mechado
Mechado
Mechado is a beef dish from the Philippines. The addition of soy sauce and calamansi juice to the marinating liquid gives this recipe its distinct Filipino character.-Origin and preparation:...
, kaldereta
Kaldereta
Kaldereta is a popular dish in the Philippines, especially on Luzon island. The common ingredients is goat shoulders with tomato paste and liver spread....
, and afritada are Spanish influenced tomato sauce-based dishes that are somewhat similar to one another. In these dishes meat is cooked in tomato sauce, minced garlic, and onions. Mechado gets its name from the pork fat that is inserted in a slab of beef making it look like a wick (mitsa) coming out of a beef "candle". The larded meat is then cooked in a seasoned tomato sauce and later sliced and served with the sauce it was cooked in. Kaldereta
Kaldereta
Kaldereta is a popular dish in the Philippines, especially on Luzon island. The common ingredients is goat shoulders with tomato paste and liver spread....
can be beef but is also associated with goat. Chunks of meat are cooked in tomato sauce, minced garlic, chopped onions, peas, carrots, bell peppers and potatoes to make a stew with some recipes calling for the addition of soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, chilies, ground liver or some combination thereof. Afritada tends to be the name given to the dish when chicken and pork is used. Another similar dish said to originate from the Rizal area is waknatoy. Pork or beef sirloin is combined with potatoes and cut sausages and cooked in a tomato-based sauce sweetened with pickles. Puchero
Puchero
Puchero is a type of stew prepared in Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, the Philippines, and Spain, specifically the autonomous communities of Andalusia and the Canary Islands. The name comes from the Spanish word "puchero" which means "stewpot."...
is derived from the Spanish cocido; it is a sweeter stew that has beef and banana or plantain slices simmered in tomato sauce.
Filipinos also eat tocino
Tocino
In Caribbean countries such as Puerto Rico and Cuba, tocino is made from pork fatback and neither cured nor smoked, but just fried until very crunchy and added to recipes, much like lardons in French cuisine.-Preparation in the Philippines:...
and longganisa. Tocino
Tocino
In Caribbean countries such as Puerto Rico and Cuba, tocino is made from pork fatback and neither cured nor smoked, but just fried until very crunchy and added to recipes, much like lardons in French cuisine.-Preparation in the Philippines:...
is a sweetened cured meat made with either chicken or pork and is marinated and cured for a number of days before being fried. Longganisa is a sweet or spicy sausage, typically made from pork though other meats can also be used, and are often colored red traditionally through the use of the anatto seed but also artificial food coloring.
Filipino soups tend to be very hearty and stew-like containing large chunks of meat and vegetables or noodles. They are usually intended to be filling and not meant to be a light preparatory introduction for the main course. They tend to be served with the rest of the meal and eaten with rice when they are not meals unto themselves. They are often referred to on local menus under the heading sabaw (broth). Sinigang
Sinigang
Sinigang is a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its sour flavor most often associated with tamarind .- Ingredients :Sinigang is traditionally tamarind based. Other versions of the dish derive their sourness from ingredients such as guava, calamansi, bilimbi, or raw mango among others...
is a popular dish in this category distinguished by its sourness that often vies with adobo for consideration as the national dish. It is typically made with either pork, beef, chicken or seafood and made sour with tamarind or other suitable souring ingredients. Some seafood variants for example can be made sour by the use of guava
Guava
Guavas are plants in the myrtle family genus Psidium , which contains about 100 species of tropical shrubs and small trees. They are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America...
fruit or miso
Miso
is a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the fungus , the most typical miso being made with soy. The result is a thick paste used for sauces and spreads, pickling vegetables or meats, and mixing with dashi soup stock to serve as miso...
. Another dish is tinola
Tinola
Tinola in Tagalog or Cebuano or la uya in Ilocano is a soup-based dish served as an appetizer or main entrée in the Philippines. Traditionally, this dish is cooked with chicken, wedges of green papaya, and chili pepper leaves or Bird's eye chili leaves in broth flavored with ginger, onions and...
. It has large chicken pieces and green papaya
Papaya
The papaya , papaw, or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, the sole species in the genus Carica of the plant family Caricaceae...
slices cooked with chili, spinach, and moringa
Moringa
Moringa is the sole genus in the flowering plant family Moringaceae. The name is derived from the Tamil word murunggai or the Malayalam word muringa, both of which refer to M. oleifera...
leaves in a ginger-flavored broth. Nilagang baka is a beef stew made with cabbages and other vegetables. Binacol is a warm chicken soup cooked with coconut water and served with strips of coconut meat. La Paz batchoy
Batchoy
Batchoy is a noodle soup made with pork organs, crushed pork cracklings, shrimp, vegetables, chicken stock, chicken breast, beef loin and round noodles. Its origins can be traced to the district of La Paz, Iloilo City in the Philippines, hence it is oftentimes referred to as La Paz...
is a noodle soup garnished with pork innards, crushed pork cracklings
Pork rind
Pork rind , is the fried or roasted skin of a pig. Frying melts most of the fat from the pork rind...
, chopped vegetables, and topped with a raw egg. Another dish with the same name uses misua
Misua
Misua is a very thin variety of salted Chinese noodles made from wheat flour. It is originated from Fujian, China...
, beef heart, kidneys and intestines, but does not contain eggs or vegetables. Mami is a noodle soup
Noodle soup
Noodle soup refers to a variety of soups with noodles and other ingredients served in a light broth. Noodle soup is an East and Southeast Asian staple. Less well known, a form of fresh noodle is used in soup in certain parts of Europe , and in northern China; usually, it is served for breakfast...
made from chicken, beef, pork, wonton dumplings, or intestines (called laman-loob). Ma Mon Luk
Ma Mon Luk
Ma Mon Luk was a pioneering Chinese Filipino chef and entrepreneur. He established the popular Chinese restaurant that bears his name, Ma Mon Luk.-Life:...
was known for it. Another chicken noodle soup is sotanghon, consisting of cellophane noodles
Cellophane noodles
Cellophane noodles are a type of transparent noodle made from starch , and water.They are generally sold in dried form, boiled to reconstitute, then used in soups, stir fried dishes,...
(also called sotanghon and from whence the name of the dish is derived), chicken, and sometimes mushrooms.
Pancit
Pancit or pansit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit which means "something conveniently cooked fast." Different kinds of...
. Pancit
Pancit
Pancit or pansit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit which means "something conveniently cooked fast." Different kinds of...
recipes primarily consist of noodles, vegetables, and slices of meat or shrimp with variations often distinguished by the type of noodles used. Some pancit, such as mami and La Paz-styled batchoy, are noodle soups while the "dry" varieties are comparable to chow mein
Chow mein
Chow mein is a Chinese term for a dish of stir-fried noodles, of which there are many varieties.-Etymology:...
in preparation. Then there is spaghetti or ispageti in the local parlance that is a modified version of spaghetti bolognese. It is sometimes made with banana ketchup instead of tomato sauce, sweetened with sugar and topped with hot dog slices.
There are several rice porridges that are popular in the Philippines. One is arroz caldo which is a rice porridge cooked with chicken, ginger and sometimes saffron, garnished with spring onions (chives), toasted garlic, and coconut milk to make a type of gruel
Gruel
Gruel is a food preparation consisting of some type of cereal—oat, wheat or rye flour, or rice—boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk than eaten and need not even be cooked...
. Another variant is goto which is an arroz caldo made with ox tripe
Tripe
Tripe is a type of edible offal from the stomachs of various farm animals.-Beef tripe:...
. There is also another much different rice porridge called champorado
Champorado
For the Mexican drink, see ChampurradoTsampurado is a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Philippine cuisine. It is traditionally made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder, giving it a distinctly brown color and usually with milk and sugar to make it taste sweeter. However, dry tsampurado mixes...
which is sweet and flavored with chocolate and often served at breakfast paired with tuyo or daing.
Another rice-based dish is arroz a la valenciana, a Spanish paella
Paella
Paella is a Valencian rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near lake Albufera, a lagoon in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain. Many non-Spaniards view paella as Spain's national dish, but most Spaniards consider it to be a regional Valencian dish...
named after the Spanish region Valencia that has been incorporated into the local cuisine. Bringhe is a local rice dish with some similarities to paella but using glutinous rice, coconut milk, and turmeric. Kiampong a type of fried rice topped with pork pieces, chives
Chives
Chives are the smallest species of the edible onions. A perennial plant, they are native to Europe, Asia and North America.. Allium schoenoprasum is the only species of Allium native to both the New and the Old World....
and peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
. It can be found in Chinese restaurants in Binondo and Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
.
For vegetarians, there is dinengdeng
Dinengdeng
Dinengdeng is a dish of the Ilocano people of the Philippines, similar to pinakbet. It is classified as a bagoong soup based dish...
, a dish consisting of moringa
Moringa
Moringa is the sole genus in the flowering plant family Moringaceae. The name is derived from the Tamil word murunggai or the Malayalam word muringa, both of which refer to M. oleifera...
leaves (malunggay) and slices of bittermelon. There is also pinakbet
Pinakbet
Pinakbet or pakbet is a popular Ilocano dish, from the northern regions of the Philippines, although it has become popular throughout the archipelago. The word is the contracted form of the Ilocano word pinakebbet, meaning "shrunk" or "shriveled"...
, stewed vegetables heavily flavored with bagoong
Bagoong Terong
Bagoong Terong or bagoong, and bugguong in the Ilocano language, is a common ingredient used in the Philippines and particularly in Northern Ilocano cuisine. It is made by salting and fermenting the bonnet mouth fish. This bagoong is coarser than Bagoong Monamon, and contains fragments of the...
. A type of seafood salad known as kinilaw is made up of raw seafood such as fish or shrimp cooked only by steeping in local vinegar, sometimes with coconut milk, onions, spices and other local ingredients. It is comparable to the Peruvian ceviche
Ceviche
Ceviche is a seafood dish popular in the coastal regions of the Americas, especially Central and South America. The dish is typically made from fresh raw fish marinated in citrus juices such as lemon or lime and spiced with chilli peppers. Additional seasonings such as onion, salt,...
.
Side dishes and complements
Itlog na pula (red eggs) are duck eggs that have been cured in brine or a mixture of clay-and-salt for a few weeks, making them salty. They are later hard boiled and dyed with red food coloring, hence its name, to distinguish them from chicken eggs before they are sold over the shelves. They are often served mixed in with diced tomatoes. AtcharaAtchara
Atchara, also spelled as Achara or Atsara, is a Philippine condiment made from pickled unripe papaya. This dish is often served as a side dish for fried or grilled foods such as pork barbecue.-Preparation:...
is a side dish of pickled papaya strips similar to sauerkraut
Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut , directly translated from German: "sour cabbage", is finely shredded cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria, including Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus. It has a long shelf-life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid...
. It's a frequent accompaniment to fried dishes like tapa or daing.
Nata de coco
Nata de coco
Nata de coco is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food product produced by the fermentation of coconut water, which gels through the production of microbial cellulose by Acetobacter xylinus. Nata de coco is most commonly sweetened as a candy or dessert, and can accompany many things including...
is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food product produced by the fermentation of coconut water can be served with pandesal. Kesong puti is a soft white cheese made from carabao
Carabao
The carabao or Bubalus bubalis carabanesis is a subspecies of the domesticated water buffalo found in the Philippines, Guam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and various parts of Southeast Asia...
milk (although cow milk is also used in most commercial variants). Grated mature coconut (niyog), is normally served with sweet rice-based desserts.
Desserts
Bibingka
Bibingka is a type of rice cake from the Philippines. It is traditionally eaten during Christmas season.-Preparation:Bibingka is made with rice flour and coconut milk or water. Other ingredients can vary greatly, but the most common secondary ingredients are eggs and milk. The traditional...
, a hot rice cake
Rice cake
A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten, and are particularly prevalent in Asia. The origin of rice cake seems to be...
optionally topped with a pat of butter, slices of kesong puti (white cheese), itlog na maalat (salted duck eggs), and sometimes grated coconut. There is also glutinous rice sweets called biko
Kalamay
Kalamay, also spelled Calamay, is a sticky sweet delicacy that is popular in many regions of the Philippines. It is made of coconut milk, brown sugar, and ground glutinous rice. They can also be flavored with margarine, peanut butter, or vanilla. Kalamay can be eaten alone but is usually used as a...
made with sugar, butter, and coconut milk. Another brown rice cake
Rice cake
A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten, and are particularly prevalent in Asia. The origin of rice cake seems to be...
is kutsinta. Puto
Puto
Puto is Philippine steamed rice cake, eaten as is or with butter and/or grated fresh coconut or as accompaniment to a number of savory dishes for breakfast .-Preparation:...
is another well known example of sweet steamed rice cakes prepared in many different sizes and colors. Sapin-sapin
Sapin-sapin
Sapin-sapin is a layered glutinous rice and coconut dessert in Philippine cuisine. It is made from rice flour, coconut milk, sugar, water, and coloring with coconut flakes sprinkled on top. Sapin-sapin means "layers" and the dessert is recognizable for its layers, each colored separately...
are three-layered, tri-colored sweets made with rice flour, purple yam, and coconut milk with its gelatinous appearance. Palitaw
Palitaw
Palitaw is a small, flat, sweet rice cake eaten in the Philippines. They are made from malagkit washed, soaked, and then ground. Scoops of the batter are dropped into boiling water where they float to the surface as flat discs - an indication that they're done...
are rice patties covered with sesame seeds, sugar, and coconut; pitsi-pitsi which are cassava
Cassava
Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...
patties coated with cheese or coconut; and tibok-tibok is based on carabao milk as a de leche (similar to maja blanca). As a snack, binatog is created with corn kernels with shredded coconut. Packaged snacks wrapped in banana or palm leaves then steamed, suman
Suman (food)
Suman is a rice cake originating from the Philippines. It is made from glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk, and often steamed in banana leaves. It is served wrapped in buli or buri palm leaves and usually eaten sprinkled with sugar...
are made from sticky rice.
For cold desserts there is halo-halo
Halo-halo
Halo-halo is a popular Filipino dessert that is a mixture of shaved ice and evaporated milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans and fruits, and served in a tall glass or bowl....
which can be described as a dessert made with shaved ice, milk, and sugar with additional ingredients like coconut, halaya (mashed purple yam), caramel custard, plantain
Plantain
Plantain is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa. The fruit they produce is generally used for cooking, in contrast to the soft, sweet banana...
s, jackfruit
Jackfruit
The jackfruit is a species of tree in the Artocarpus genus of the mulberry family . It is native to parts of Southern and Southeast Asia. It is the national fruit of Bangladesh, . The jackfruit tree is believed to be indigenous to the southwestern rain forests of India...
, red beans, tapioca
Tapioca
Tapioca is a starch extracted Manihot esculenta. This species, native to the Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and most of the West Indies, is now cultivated worldwide and has many names, including cassava, manioc, aipim,...
and pinipig
Crisped rice
Crisped rice refers to a method of cooking rice which leaves the grains with a crisp, airy texture.It is created in much the same way as popcorn; in short, the reaction of both starch and moisture when heated within the shell of the grain...
being typical. Other similar treats made with shaved ice include saba con yelo which is shaved ice served with milk and minatamis na saging (ripe plantains chopped and caramelized with brown sugar); mais con yelo which is shaved ice served with steamed corn kernels, sugar, and milk; and buko pandan sweetened grated strips of coconut with gulaman, milk, and the juice or extract from pandan leaves. Sorbetes
Sorbetes
Sorbetes is a Philippine version of ice cream usually peddled from street carts in the Philippines. It is distinct from the similarly named sorbet. It is usually served with small wafer or sugar cones and recently, bread buns...
(ice cream) is popular too. A local version uses coconut milk instead of cow milk. Ice candy made from juice
Juice
Juice is the liquid that is naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue.Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fruit or vegetable flesh without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree...
or chocolate put it in a freezer to freeze is another treat. It can be any kind of flavor depending on the maker; chocolate and buko (coconut) flavored ice candy are two of the most popular.
Street food and other snacks
Shaomai
Shumai, also called pork dumplings, is a traditional Chinese dumpling served in dim sum.-Popular Chinese varieties:In the Qing Dynasty, the fillings varied by season: spring- garlic chives, summer- mutton and pumpkin, autumn- crab meat, winter- mixed seafood.Many varieties have been created as the...
.
Lumpia
Lumpia
Lumpia are pastries of Chinese origin similar to fresh popiah or fried spring rolls popular in Southeast Asia. The term lumpia derives from Hokkien lunpia , which is an alternate term for popiah...
are spring rolls that can be either fresh or fried. Fresh lumpia (lumpiang sariwa) is usually made for fiestas or special occasions as it can be labor-intensive to prepare, while one version of fried lumpia (lumpiang prito), lumpiang shanghai is usually filled with ground pork and a combination of vegetables, and served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. Other variations are filled with minced pork and shrimp and accompanied by a vinegar-based dipping sauce. Lumpia has been commercialized in frozen food
Frozen food
Freezing food preserves it from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten. Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved their game and produce in unheated buildings during the winter season. Freezing food slows down decomposition by turning water to ice, making it...
form.
There's a distinct range of street food
Street food
Street food is ready-to-eat food or drink sold in a street or other public place, such as a market or fair, by a hawker or vendor, often from a portable stall. While some street foods are regional, many are not, having spread beyond their region of origin. Most street food are both finger and fast...
s available in the Philippines. Some of these are skewered on sticks in the manner of a kebab
Kebab
Kebab is a wide variety of meat dishes originating in Middle East and later on adopted by the Middle East, and Asia Minor, and now found worldwide. In English, kebab with no qualification generally refers more specifically to shish kebab served on the skewer...
. One such example is banana-cue which is a whole banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
or plantain
Plantain
Plantain is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa. The fruit they produce is generally used for cooking, in contrast to the soft, sweet banana...
skewered on a short thin bamboo stick, rolled in brown sugar, and fried. Kamote-cue is a peeled sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
skewered on a stick, covered in brown sugar and then fried. Fish ball
Fish ball
Fish balls are a common food in southern China and overseas Chinese communities made from surimi . They are also common in Scandinavia, where they are usually made from cod or haddock.-Terminology:...
s or squid balls are skewered on bamboo sticks then dipped in a sweet or savory sauce to be commonly sold frozen in markets and peddled by street vendors
Hawker (trade)
A hawker is a vendor of merchandise that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with peddler or costermonger. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells items or food that are native to the area...
.
Turon, a kind of fried lumpia
Lumpia
Lumpia are pastries of Chinese origin similar to fresh popiah or fried spring rolls popular in Southeast Asia. The term lumpia derives from Hokkien lunpia , which is an alternate term for popiah...
consisting of an eggroll or phyllo
Phyllo
Phyllo, filo, or fillo dough is paper-thin sheets of unleavened flour dough used for making pastries in Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisine.-History:An early, thick form of phyllo appears to be of Central Asian Turkic origin...
wrapper filled with plantain
Plantain
Plantain is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa. The fruit they produce is generally used for cooking, in contrast to the soft, sweet banana...
and jackfruit
Jackfruit
The jackfruit is a species of tree in the Artocarpus genus of the mulberry family . It is native to parts of Southern and Southeast Asia. It is the national fruit of Bangladesh, . The jackfruit tree is believed to be indigenous to the southwestern rain forests of India...
and sprinkled with sugar can also be found sold in streets.
Taho
Taho
Tahô is a Philippine snack food made of fresh soft/silken tofu, arnibal , and pearl sago . This staple comfort food is a signature sweet and can be found all over the country...
is a warm treat made up of soft beancurd which is the taho itself, dark caramel syrup called arnibal, and tapioca
Tapioca
Tapioca is a starch extracted Manihot esculenta. This species, native to the Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and most of the West Indies, is now cultivated worldwide and has many names, including cassava, manioc, aipim,...
pearls. It is often sold in neighborhoods by street vendors who yell out "taho" in a manner like vendors in the stands at sporting events yell out "hotdogs" or "peanuts". Sometimes taho is served chilled or flavors have been added such as chocolate or strawberry. Taho
Taho
Tahô is a Philippine snack food made of fresh soft/silken tofu, arnibal , and pearl sago . This staple comfort food is a signature sweet and can be found all over the country...
is derived from the original Chinese
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
snack food known as douhua
Douhua
Douhua or doufuhua is a Chinese dessert made with very soft tofu. It is also referred to as tofu pudding and soybean pudding.-History:...
.
There is also iskrambol (from the English "to scramble"), that is a kind of iced-based treat like a sorbet combined with various flavorings and usually topped with chocolate syrup. It is eaten by "scrambling" the contents or mixing them, then drinking with a large straw.
Street food featuring eggs include kwek-kwek which are hard-boiled quail eggs dipped in orange-dyed batter and then deep fried similar to tempura
Tempura
], is a Japanese dish of seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried.-Batter:A light batter is made of cold water and soft wheat flour . Eggs, baking soda or baking powder, starch, oil, and/or spices may also be added...
. Tokneneng is a larger version of kwek-kwek using chicken or duck eggs. Another Filipino egg snack is balut, essentially a boiled pre-hatched poultry egg, usually duck or chicken. These fertilized eggs are allowed to develop until the embryo reaches a pre-determined size and are then boiled. There is also another egg dish called penoy which is basically hard-boiled unfertilized duck eggs. Like taho, balut is advertised by street hawkers calling out their product.
Okoy also spelled as ukoy is another batter-covered, deep-fried street food in the Philippines. Along with the batter, it normally includes bean sprouts, shredded pumpkin and very small shrimps, shells and all. It is commonly dipped in a combination of vinegar and chilli.
Among other street food are already mentioned pulutan like isaw
Isaw
Isaw is a street food from the Philippines, made from barbecued pig or chicken intestines. The intestines are cleaned, turned inside out, and cleaned again, repeating the process several times. They are then either boiled, then grilled, or immediately grilled on sticks...
, seasoned hog or chicken intestines; betamax, roasted dried chicken blood served cut into and served as small cubes for which it received its name in resemblance to a Betamax
Betamax
Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
tape; and proven
Proven (food)
Proven is a type of street food popular in some regions of the Philippines. It consists essentially of the proventriculus of a chicken, dipped in cornstarch, and deep-fried...
, the proventriculus
Proventriculus
The proventriculus is part of the digestive system of birds, invertebrates and insects.-Birds:The proventriculus is a standard part of avian anatomy...
of a chicken coated in cornstarch and deep-fried. There is also pinoy fries which are fries made from sweet potatoes.
Exotic dishes
Some exotic dishes in the Filipino diet are camaro, which are field crickets cooked in soy sauceSoy sauce
Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...
, salt, and vinegar as it is popular in Pampanga
Pampanga
Pampanga is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Pampanga is bordered by the provinces of Bataan and Zambales to the west, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to the north, and Bulacan to the southeast...
; papaitan which is goat or beef innards stew flavored with bile that gives it a bitter (pait) taste; Soup No. 5
Soup Number Five
Soup Number Five, variously spelled Soup No. 5 or Soup #5, is a soup made from bull's testes or penis. The dish originates from Filipino cuisine. It is believed to have aphrodisiac properties....
(Also spelled as "Soup #5") which is a soup made out of bull
Bull
Bull usually refers to an uncastrated adult male bovine.Bull may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Bull , an original show on the TNT Network* "Bull" , an episode of television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...
's testes, and can be found in restaurants in Ongpin St., Binondo, Manila; asocena
Asocena
Asocena is a dish primarily consisting of dog meat originating from the Philippines. The dish's name is a compound word, from aso, the Filipino word for "dog" and Spanish word cena, which means "dinner" or "an evening meal", the literal translation being "dog-meal" or "a meal of dog meat"...
or dog meat popular in the Cordillera Administrative Region
Cordillera Administrative Region
The Cordillera Administrative Region is a region in the Philippines composed of the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province, as well as Baguio City, the regional center. The Cordillera Administrative Region encompasses most of the areas within the Cordillera...
; and pinikpikan
Pinikpikan
Pinikpikan is a dish from the mountains of the Cordillera region in the Philippines.It is prepared by beating a live chicken with a stick prior to cooking. The beating bruises the chicken's flesh, bringing blood to its surface, which is said to improve the flavour after cooking...
na manok that involves having a chicken beaten to death to tenderize the meat and to infuse it with blood. It is then burned in fire to remove its feathers then boiled with salt and itag (salt/smoke cured pork). The act of beating the chicken in preparation of the dish apparently violates the Philippine Animal Welfare Act 1998.
Cooking methods
Filipino language
This move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:...
/Tagalog
Tagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
words for popular cooking methods and terms are listed below:
- "Adobo/InadoboAdobo (Filipino cuisine)Adobo is the name of a popular dish and cooking process in Philippine cuisine that involves meat or seafood marinated in a sauce of vinegar and garlic, browned in oil, and simmered in the marinade....
" − cooked in vinegar, oil, garlic and soy sauce. - "Babad/Binabad/Ibinabad" − to marinate.
- "Banli/Binanlian/Pabanli" − blanched.
- "Bagoong/Binagoongan/ – sa Bagoong" − cooked with fermented fish paste bagoongBagoongBagoong is a Philippine condiment made of partially or completely fermented fish or shrimps and salt. The fermentation process also results in fish sauce .The preparation of bagoong can vary regionally in the Philippines....
. - "Binalot" – literally "wrapped." This generally refers to dishes wrapped in banana leaves, pandan leaves, or even aluminum foil. The wrapper is generally inedible (in contrast to lumpia — see below).
- "Buro/Binuro" − fermented.
- "Daing/Dinaing/Padaing" − marinated with garlic, vinegar, and black peppers. Sometimes dried and usually fried before eating.
- "Guinataan/sa Gata" − cooked with coconut milk.
- "Guisa/Guisado/Ginisa" or "Gisado" − sautéed with garlic, onions and/or tomatoes.
- "Halabos/Hinalabos" – mostly for shellfish. Steamed in their own juices and sometimes carbonated soda.
- "Hilaw/Sariwa" – unripe (for fruits and vegetables), raw (for meats). Also used for uncooked food in general (as in lumpiaLumpiaLumpia are pastries of Chinese origin similar to fresh popiah or fried spring rolls popular in Southeast Asia. The term lumpia derives from Hokkien lunpia , which is an alternate term for popiah...
ng sariwa). - "Hinurno" – baked in an oven or roasted.
- "Ihaw/Inihaw" − grilled over coals.
- "Kinilaw" or "Kilawin" − marinated in vinegarVinegarVinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...
or calamansi juice along with garlicGarlicAllium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
, onionOnionThe onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
s, gingerGingerGinger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
, tomatoTomatoThe word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
, pepperCapsicumCapsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its species are native to the Americas where they have been cultivated for thousands of years, but they are now also cultivated worldwide, used as spices, vegetables, and medicines - and have become are a key element in...
s. - "Laga/Nilaga/Palaga" − boiled/braised.
- "Nilasing" − cooked with an alcoholic beverage like wine or beer.
- "Lechon/Litson/Nilechon" − roasted on a spit.
- "Lumpia" – wrapped with an edible wrapper.
- "Minatamis" − sweetened.
- "Pinakbet" − to cook with vegetables usually with sitaw (yardlong beans), calabazaCalabazaCalabaza is a term that can be applied to a variety of gourds and melons grown throughout the world.-Etymology :The word calabaza is derived from the Persian term for melon . The French term "calabasse", and hence "calabash" is based on the older Spanish...
, talong (eggplant), and ampalaya (bitter melonBitter melonMomordica charantia, called bitter melon or bitter gourd in English, is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit, which is among the most bitter of all fruits...
) among others and bagoongBagoongBagoong is a Philippine condiment made of partially or completely fermented fish or shrimps and salt. The fermentation process also results in fish sauce .The preparation of bagoong can vary regionally in the Philippines....
. - "Paksiw/Pinaksiw" − cooked in vinegar.
- "Pangat/Pinangat" − boiled in salted water with fruit such as tomatoes or ripe mangoes.
- "Palaman/Pinalaman" − "filled" as in siopao, though "palaman" also refers to the filling in a sandwich.
- "Pinakuluan" – boiled.
- "Prito/Pinirito" − fried or deep fried. From the Spanish frito.
- "Relleno/Relyeno" – stuffed.
- "TapaTapa (Filipino cuisine)Tapa is dried or cured beef, mutton or venison, although other meat or even fish may be used. Filipinos prepare thin slices of meat and cure it with salt and spices as a method of preserving it...
/TinapaTinapathumb|TinapaTinapa is the Filipino term for fish cooked or preserved through the process of smoking. It is a native delicacy in the Philippines and is often made from milkfish, which is locally known as bangus...
" – dried and smoked. Tapa refers to meat treated in this manner, mostly marinated and then dried and fried afterwards. Tinapa meanwhile is almost exclusively associated with smoked fish. - "Sarza/Sarciado" – cooked with a thick sauce.
- "Sinangag" – garlic fried rice.
- "Sigang/SinigangSinigangSinigang is a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its sour flavor most often associated with tamarind .- Ingredients :Sinigang is traditionally tamarind based. Other versions of the dish derive their sourness from ingredients such as guava, calamansi, bilimbi, or raw mango among others...
" − boiled in a sour broth usually with a tamarindTamarindTamarind is a tree in the family Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic .-Origin:...
base. Other common souring agents include guavaGuavaGuavas are plants in the myrtle family genus Psidium , which contains about 100 species of tropical shrubs and small trees. They are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America...
, raw mangoMangoThe mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
es, calamansi also known as calamondinCalamondin× Citrofortunella microcarpa, the Calamondin or Calamansi, is a fruit tree in the family Rutaceae, commonly called the calamondin, golden lime, panama orange, chinese orange, acid orange, calamonding, or calamandarin in English. It is believed to originate from China and has spread throughout...
. - "Tosta/Tinosta/Tostado" – toasted.
- "Torta/Tinorta/Patorta" – to cook with eggs in the manner of an omeletteOmeletteIn cuisine, an omelette or omelet is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat , or some combination of the above...
.
Chilled drinks and shakes
Due to the tropical climate, chilled drinks are popular. Stands selling cold fruit drinks and fruit shakes are common. Tropical fruit drinks one encounters include those based on dalandan (green mandarinMandarin orange
The orange, also known as the ' or mandarine , is a small citrus tree with fruit resembling other oranges. Mandarin oranges are usually eaten plain or in fruit salads...
), suha (pomelo
Pomelo
The pomelo is a citrus fruit native to Southeast Asia. It is usually pale green to yellow when ripe, with sweet white flesh and very thick albedo . It is the largest citrus fruit, 15–25 cm in diameter, and usually weighing 1–2 kg...
), pinya (pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
), banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
, and guyabano. The shakes usually contain crushed ice, evaporated or condensed milk, and fruits like the perennially popular mango
Mango
The mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
. Other fruit flavors are melon
Melon
thumb|200px|Various types of melonsThis list of melons includes members of the plant family Cucurbitaceae with edible, fleshy fruit e.g. gourds or cucurbits. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit...
, papaya
Papaya
The papaya , papaw, or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, the sole species in the genus Carica of the plant family Caricaceae...
, avocado
Avocado
The avocado is a tree native to Central Mexico, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel...
, watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon is a vine-like flowering plant originally from southern Africa. Its fruit, which is also called watermelon, is a special kind referred to by botanists as a pepo, a berry which has a thick rind and fleshy center...
, strawberry, and durian
Durian
The durian is the fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus Durio and the Malvaceae family . Widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk...
, to name but a few.
Other chilled drinks include sago't gulaman a flavored iced-drink with sago
Sago
Sago is a starch extracted in the spongy center or pith, of various tropical palm stems, Metroxylon sagu. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Moluccas, where it is called saksak and sagu. A type of flour, called sago flour, is made from sago. The largest supply...
pearls and agar
Agar
Agar or agar-agar is a gelatinous substance derived from a polysaccharide that accumulates in the cell walls of agarophyte red algae. Throughout history into modern times, agar has been chiefly used as an ingredient in desserts throughout Asia and also as a solid substrate to contain culture medium...
gelatin
Gelatin
Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle , flavorless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar...
with banana extract sometimes added to the accompanying syrup; fresh buko juice, the water or juice straight out of a young coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
via an inserted straw, a less fresh variation of which is made out of bottled coconut juice, scraped coconut flesh, sugar, and water; and calamansi juice, the juice of Philippine limes usually sweetened with honey, syrup or sugar.
Other drinks
There are some commonly known variations of tea in the country. Pandan iced tea made is made with pandanPandanus
Pandanus is a genus of monocots with about 600 known species. They are numerous palmlike dioecious trees and shrubs native of the Old World tropics and subtropics. They are classified in the order Pandanales, family Pandanaceae.-Overview:...
leaves and lemongrass. Salabat
Ginger tea
Ginger tea is a beverage in many countries, made from ginger root. In China, the tea is made by boiling peeled and sliced ginger to which brown sugar is often added. Sliced orange or lemon fruit may also be added to give a flavour. In Korean cuisine, ginger tea is called saenggang cha...
, sometimes called ginger tea, is brewed from ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
root. There is also coffee. Coffee from the cool mountains of Batangas
Batangas
Batangas is a first class province of the Philippines located on the southwestern part of Luzon in the CALABARZON region. Its capital is Batangas City and it is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and Laguna to the north and Quezon to the east. Across the Verde Island Passages to the south is the...
is known as kapeng barako. Tsokolate is the Filipino take on hot chocolate. It is traditionally made from dry powdery chocolate tablets called tablea.
Alcoholic
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
, and its variations such as brandy-iced tea powder (a popular cocktail consisting of one or more liqueurs and iced tea
Iced tea
Iced tea is a form of cold tea, often served in a glass with ice. It may or may not be sweetened. Iced tea is also a popular packaged drink. It can be mixed with flavored syrup, with common flavors including lemon, peach, raspberry, lime, passion fruit, and cherry...
powder); and brandy-grape juice powder (same as above but with grape juice powder). Rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
is often associated with Tanduay
Tanduay
Tanduay Rhum is an alcohol beverage from the Philippines. It is produced by Tanduay Distillers Inc, and with origins dating from 1854, has over 155 years of history.-Tanduay Products:*Barcelona Brandy*Boracay Rhum*Cossack Blue*Cossack Vodka...
. For serbesa (beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
), the most popular choices in restaurants and bars are San Miguel Beer, Red Horse Beer
Red Horse Beer
Red Horse Beer is an extra-strong lager brewed by Philippine-based San Miguel Brewery....
and San Miguel Light.
Several gin
Gin
Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...
s, both local varieties like Ginebra San Miguel
Ginebra San Miguel
Ginebra San Miguel, Inc. is a Philippines-based diversified alcoholic beverage company owned by San Miguel Corporation, then called La Tondeña Distillers, Inc. from 1987 to 2003. Founded originally by the late Carlos Palanca, Sr. as La Tondeña, Inc...
(as well as GSM Blue and GSM Premium Gin) and imported brands like Gilbey's, are commonly found. Some people refer to gin by the shape of the bottle: bilog for a circular bottle and kwatro kantos (literally meaning four corners) for a square or rectangular bottle. Gin is sometimes combined with other ingredients to come up with variations. Some have gin mixed with fruit juices like pineapple, pomelo, and guyabano (soursop
Soursop
The Soursop is tripti broadleaf, flowering, evergreen tree native to Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America, Colombia and Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Soursop is also native to sub-Saharan African countries that lie within the tropics. Today, it is also grown in some areas...
).
Tuba
Palm wine
Palm wine also called Palm Toddy also called "Kallu" written in Malayalam and கள்ளு in Tamil or simply Toddy is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm tree such as the palmyra, and coconut palms...
(toddy) is a type of hard liquor made from fresh drippings extracted from a cut young stem of palm. The cutting of the palm stem usually done early in the morning by a mananguete, a person whose profession involves climbing palm trees and extracting the tuba to supply to customers later in the day. The morning accumulated palm juice or drippings from a cut stem is then harvested by noon then brought to buyers then prepared for consumption. Sometimes this is done twice a day so that there are two harvests of tuba in a day occurring first at noon-time and later in the late-afternoon. Normally, tuba has to be consumed right after the mananguete brings it over or it becomes too sour to be consumed as a drink. Any remaining unconsumed tuba is then often stored in jars for several days to become palm vinegar. Tuba can be distilled to produce lambanog (arrack), a neutral liquor often noted for its relatively high alcohol content.
Tapuy
Tapuy
Philippine rice wine, popularly known as tapuy, is an alcoholic rice drink. It is a traditional beverage originated from Banaue and the Mountain Province, where it is used for important occasions such as weddings, rice harvesting ceremonies, fiestas and cultural fairs...
is a traditional Philippine alcoholic drink made from fermented glutinous rice
Glutinous rice
Glutinous rice is a type of short-grained Asian rice that is especially sticky when cooked. It is called glutinous Glutinous rice (Oryza sativa var. glutinosa or Oryza glutinosa; also called sticky rice, sweet rice, waxy rice, botan rice, biroin chal, mochi rice, and pearl rice, and pulut) is a...
. It is a clear wine of luxurious alcoholic taste, moderate sweetness and lingering finish. Its average alcohol content is 14% or 28 proof, and does not contain any preservatives or sugar. To increase the awareness of tapuy, the Philippine Rice Research Institute
Philippine Rice Research Institute
The Philippine Rice Research Institute is one of the Philippines' rice research institutes, and collaborates with the International Rice Research Institute also headquartered in the Philippines. PhilRice plays a key role in building and sustaining a competitive rice economy through research into...
created a cookbook containing recipes and cocktails from famous Philippine chefs and bartenders, featuring tapuy as one of the ingredients.
See also
- List of Philippine dishes
- Philippine condiments
- List of Philippine restaurant chains