The famed Halo halo a cold dessert treat for summer
The popular La Paz Batchoy of Iloilo where it originates from Lapaz District of Iloilo City
Lambanog, a popular Tagalog wine
A typical Filipino Fiesta setting featuring the native Filipino dishes. Clockwise from the lowermost left: Kaldereta, Pinakbet, Kare-kare with Bagoong (Shrimp Paste sauce), Crispy Pata
Pinasugbo, a popular sweet treat from Iloilo
Polvoron
Pyanggang - a Tausug dish of barbecued chicken marinaded in spices
Sapin-sapin, layered sticky, glutinous rice cake
Tapuy - a favorite wine or sometimes alcoholic drink of the people of Mountain Province, Benguet, Kalinga, Apayao and Ifugao
Tuba, a favorite wine of the people of Panay and the rest of the Visayas
Philippines is rich in natural resources. It is gifted with lots of bounty from beautiful landscapes, flora and fauna and beautiful people. One thing that people in the world never noticed and appreciated about the Philippines is the bounty of food of gastronomic proportions all throughout the country.
When people wants Asian cuisine, they always think about Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai and Indian food but not Filipino food. One reason is that Filipino food is a diverse mixture of Oriental and Western influences but they never thought it has some unique flavor distinct from other foreign food.
People from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao has a good and discriminating taste that will not only serve your table but also make you salivate and makes Filipino food your epic and legendary palate. Although some Filipino food is fusion or at least influenced and inspired by Asian, Spanish, Latino and American cuisine, it has its own distinct, unique variation. Some of the most popular food you can try at home and ultimately, even start your own Filipino food restaurant:
Valenciana - Filipino version of the popular Spanish dish paella. It includes various diced meats, such as frankfurters/hot dogs, vienna sausage, chorizo de bilbao, carrots, celery, raisins, garlic, and onions mixed with glutinous rice. Named by the Spaniards who brought the dish to the Philippines after the town in Spain (Valencia) where paella originated.
Lechon - whole roasted pig
Longganisa - A pork sausage similar to a chorizo.
Atchara - Primarily pickled unripe papaya.
Burong Mangga - A food made by mixing sugar, salt, and water to unripened mangoes that have previously been salted.
Binalot - Literally "wrapped". Food wrapped in banana leaves. Usually a meal consisting of a smoked or fried viand and rice sometimes accompanied by a salted egg, tomatoes, or atchara.
Chicharon - Pork Rinds Crackers or Chips. A dish made of fried pork rinds. It is sometimes made from chicken, mutton, or beef.
Tinapa / Tuyo - Fish preserved through the process of smoking (tinapa) or drying (tuyo).
Tocino - A cured meat product native to the Philippines. It is usually made out of pork and is similar to ham and bacon although beef is also used.
Batchoy - noodle soup made with pork organs (liver, spleen, kidneys and heart), pork rinds cracklings, chicken stock, beef loin and round noodles. It is the famous dish of Iloilo, Philippines
Bagnet
Kaldereta - meat in tomato sauce stew
Afritada - chicken and/or pork simmered in a peanut sauce with vegetables
Kare-kare - oxtail or pork shank and vegetables cooked in peanut sauce
Pinakbet - Ilocano dish made up of kabocha squash, eggplant, beans, okra, and tomato stew flavored with shrimp paste (bagoong)
Mechado - larded beef in soy and tomato sauce. Name derived from mitsa meaning "wick" which is what the pork fat inserted into a slab of beef looks like before the larded beef is cooked, sliced, and served in the seasoned tomato sauce it is cooked in.
Puchero - beef or pork stew in bananas and sometimes with langka (raw jackfruit) and tomato sauce
Sinigang - beef or pork meat or seafood in sour broth
Pinasugbo - fried, crispy bananas with sesame seeds. Popular dessert dish in Iloilo.
Champorado - sweet cocoa rice porridge
Bicho-bicho - Filipino sugar or honey glazed donut
Dinuguan - stew made up of pig's blood and innards
Butter scotch - popular pastry in Iloilo
Puto - sweet, steamed rice cake
Sinanglaw - Ilocano dish. A hotpot made from beef innards.
Pancit Lomi - A Chinese-Filipino dish made with a variety of thick fresh egg noodles of about a quarter of an inch in diameter.
Polvoron - A pastry made from compressed toasted flour, milk, and sugar. Sometimes made with ground peanuts, cashews, and/or pinipig. May be coated with milk and/or milk chocolate.
Hojaldres, calchetas - pastries
Rosquillos - Philippine cookies made from flour, eggs, shortening, sugar, and baking powder. Originally created by Margarita “Titay” T. Frasco in 1907 in Liloan, Cebu. Its name comes from the Spanish word rosca (ringlet).
Utap - Variant spelling: otap. Oval-shaped puff pastry usually made with flour, shortening, coconut, and sugar.
Bulalo - A beef shank stew including the bone and marrow.
Dinengdeng - A bagoong soup based dish similar to pinakbet. It contains fewer vegetables and contains more bagoong soup base.
Paksiw - generally means to cook and simmer in vinegar. Common dishes bearing the term, however, can vary substantially depending on what is being cooked. Paksiw na isda is fish poached in a vinegar and water broth usually seasoned with fish sauce and spiced with siling mahaba and possibly containing vegetables. Paksiw na baboy is pork, usually hock or shank, cooked in ingredients similar to those in adobo but with the addition of sugar and banana blossoms to make it sweeter and water to keep the meat moist and to yield a rich sauce. Paksiw na lechon is roasted pork lechon meat cooked in lechon sauce or its component ingredients of vinegar, garlic, onions, black pepper and ground liver or liver spread and some water. The cooking reduces the sauce so that by the end the meat is almost being fried.
Sinanglay - popular dish of Bicol region. A dish wherein fish, preferably Tilapia, is wrapped in pechay or mustard leaves and is simmered in rich coconut milk.
Misua - noodles soup
Different kinds of Pancit (noodles) dish using miki noodles:
1. Pancit Palabok - Rice noodles cooked in anato seeds, usually served with hard-boiled egg, chicharon, spring onions, and kalamansi
2. Pancit Canton - Chinese-Filipino version of Cantonese lo mein using flour-based noodles.
3. Pancit Luglug - Same as pancit palabok except with larger noodles.
4. Pancit Tuguegarao or Batil-patong - originating from the province of Cagayan
5. Pancit Bihon Guisado
6. Pancit Habhab
7. Pancit Malabon
Sotanghon - A clear chicken soup with vermicelli noodles
Bibingka - sweet rice cake made with rice flour, coconut, coconut milk. The hot rice cake optionally topped with a pat of butter and/or slices of kesong puti (Mozzarella cheese). It is very popular in cold December and January.
Sisig - is a Kapampangan term which means "to snack on something sour". Sizzling sisig, a Filipino dish made from parts of pig’s head and liver, usually seasoned with calamansi and chili peppers.
Cripy Pata - deep fried portions of pork legs including knuckles often served with a chili and calamansi flavored dipping soy sauce or chili flavored vinegar for dipping.
Bicol Express - a spicy Bicol region dish. It is a stew made from long chili peppers, coconut milk, shrimp paste or stockfish, onion, pork, and garlic.
Curacha - boiled or steamed sea crab. It is a popular dish in Zamboanga
Giniling (Picadillo) - Ground pork or beef cooked with garlic, onion, soy sauce, tomatoes, and potatoes and frequently with carrots, raisins, and bell peppers.
Biko - A sticky sweet delicacy made from glutinous rice, coconut milk, and brown sugar. It is similar to Kalamay, but uses whole grains. It is also known as Sinukmani or Sinukmaneng.
Bandi - coconut and peanut brittle with sesami seeds
Bukayo - A sweet popular with children, it is made by simmering strips of young, gelatinous coconut (buko) in water and then mixing these with sugar.
Buko Pandan - coconut juice with coconut shavings, sweetened condensed milk and green gelatin.
Buko Pie - A traditional pastry, young coconut filled pie.
Camote cue - Deep fried kamote (sweet potato) skewers with caramelised brown sugar.
Cascaron - A dessert made of rice flour, coconut and sugar.
Leche flan - A rich custard made of egg yolks with a layer of soft caramel on top (as opposed to crème brûlée, which has a hard caramel top). Sometimes sliced and added to other desserts such as halo-halo.
Espasol - A cylindrical cake made of rice flour cooked in coconut milk and sweetened coconut strips, which is then dusted with toasted rice flour.
Hopia - A popular bean filled pastry originally introduced by Fujianese immigrants from China in urban centres of the Philippines.
Maja blanca - coconut milk made into gelatin with optional sweet corn kernels and coconut shavings. A version of blancmange.
Maruya or Kumbo - Fritters usually made from Saba bananas. It is called Kumbo in Iloilo.
Palitaw - They are made from malagkít (sticky rice) washed, soaked, and then ground. Scoops of the batter are dropped into boiling water where they float to the surface as flat discs which are then dipped in grated coconut and presented with a separate dip of sugar and toasted sesame seeds. Palitaws are used in Muasi, a popular native dessert in Iloilo.
Muasi - sweet chocolate soup using brown (muscovado) sugar and palitaw
Ube halaya - Ube jam, made from boiled and mashed purple yam. Ube halaya (Or halayang ube; variant spellings halea, haleya; from the Spanish jalea, "jam") is also used in pastries and other desserts such as halo-halo and ice cream.
Kalamay hati - A sticky sweet delicacy made of ground glutinous rice, grated coconut, brown sugar, margarine, peanut butter, and vanilla (optional).
Bagoong alamang - Shrimp paste made from minute shrimp or krill.
Bagoong monamon - A common condiment used in the Philippines and particularly in Northern Ilocano cuisine. It is made by fermenting salted anchovies.
Piaya - a popular pastry from Negros Occidental. A flat pastry filled with a jam made of muscovado sugar and sometimes sprinkled with sesame seeds, grilled on a pan. Different flavours include ube (purple yam), mango and chocolate.
Latík - in the northern Philippines refers to coconut milk curds used as toppings. In the Visayan regions, it is called suman and refers to a thick, sweet syrup made from coconut milk and sugar.
Dodol - A toffee-like food delicacy made with coconut milk, jaggery, and rice flour. Sticky, thick and sweet, it is served mostly during festivals such as Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha.
Pinangat - Pinangat or pangat also refers to a dish or method of cooking involving poaching fish in salted water and tomatoes. In Bicol refers to a dish of taro leaves, chili, meat, and coconut milk tied securely with coconut leaf.
Kaldereta - A dish made with cuts of pork, beef or goat with tomato paste or tomato sauce with liver spread added to it.
Rendang - spicy beef curry
Puto Cuchinta - moist jelly-like rice cakes made with brown sugar and lye. It is usually served with grated coconut.
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, plantains, jackfruit, red beans, tapioca and pinipig being typical.
Leche con yelo - popular version of halo-halo made of shaved ice, sweetened condensed milk and food color.
Pyanggang - is a Tausug dish made from barbecued chicken marinaded in spices, and served with coconut milk infused with toasted coconut meat.
Sapin-sapin - are three-layered, tri-colored sweets made with rice flour, purple yam, and coconut milk with its gelatinous appearance. Takes its name from the word sapin, "to spread" or "to cover".
Palitaw - are rice patties covered with sesame seeds, sugar, and coconut
Siomai - Ground pork, beef, and shrimp, among others, combined with extenders like green peas, carrots and the like which is then wrapped in wonton wrappers.
Siopao - Steamed filled bun. Common versions are asado, shredded meat in a sweet sauce similar to a Chinese barbecued pork filling, and bola-bola, a packed ground pork filling.
Linupak - a dessert made from mashed cassava, sweet potatoes, or saba bananas with butter or margarine. The term came from the root word, "lupak" which means the process of mashing the cassava or banana to make it a mashed cassava or mashed banana using a big mortar and pestle called lusong.
* lusong - a mortar conventionally made of carved wood and is used for pounding rice and other root crops so as to remove the hull from the grains or to mash root crops.
Pitsi-pitsi - cassava patties coated with cheese or coconut
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.
Banana cue - Deep fried Saba bananas coated in caramelised brown sugar with optional sesame seeds coating.
Barquillos - popular treats in Iloilo and Negros Occidental. A flat, sweet flour-based pastry rolled into a hollow tube. Sometimes eaten with sorbetes or western ice cream.
Barquiron - Barquillos filled with polvoron.
Baye baye - A sticky dessert made from newly harvested rice.
Belekoy - A sweet pastry made from flour, sugar, sesame seeds, and vanilla.
Binignit or Linugaw - A dessert soup made with glutinous, sticky rice (pilit) coconut milk, tubers such as purple yam, sweet potato, and plantains as well as jackfruit, sago and tapioca pearls.
Ibus - A type of rice cake from South East Asia made from rice that has been wrapped in a woven palm leaf pouch or banana leaves then boiled.
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.
Salabat - sometimes called ginger tea, is brewed from ginger root and usually served during the cold months.
Tablea - chocolate cubes made from pure cacao beans which are dried, roasted, ground and then formed into tablets. It is an ideal desserts, candies or local sweet treats for everyone.
Tsokolate - Filipino version of hot chocolate drinks made using tablea.
Street foods which include:
a. balut - steamed duck embryo
b. fish balls / squid balls - skewers on bamboo sticks. A common street food most often made from the meat of cuttlefish or pollock and served with a sweet and spicy sauce or with a thick black sweet and sour sauce.
c. lumpiang shanghai - are spring rolls usually filled with ground pork and a combination of vegetables, and served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce
d. skewers
d.1 adidas - chicken feet named after the popular shoe brand
d.2 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
d.3 isaw - seasoned hog or chicken intestines
d.4 proven - the proventriculus of a chicken coated in cornstarch and deep-fried
d.5 kwek-kwek - deep-fried Penoy, a version of balut without the duck embryo. It is a hard-boiled quail eggs dipped in orange-dyed batter and then deep fried similar to tempura.
e.6 tokneneng - a tempura-like Filipino street food, made by deep-frying orange batter covered hard-boiled eggs. Similar to kwek-kwek but uses balut instead of Penoy
Ensaymada - A pastry or a brioche made with butter (instead of lard) and topped with grated cheese (usually queso de bola, the local name for aged Edam) and sugar.
Pan de coco - A rich sweet bread with a sweet coconut filling.
Taho - is a warm treat made up of soft beancurd which is the taho itself, dark caramel syrup called arnibal, and tapioca pearls
Camaro - which are field crickets cooked in soy sauce, 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 Number 5 - also spelled as Soup No. 5 or Soup #5 which is a soup made out of bull's testes and can be found in restaurants in Ongpin St., Binondo, Manila
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).
Tuba - is a type of hard liquor made from fresh drippings extracted from a cut young stem of coconut palm
Lambanog - is an alcoholic beverage most commonly described as coconut wine or coconut vodka. The drink is distilled from the sap of the unopened coconut flower, and is known for its potency and high alcohol content (80 and 90 proof).
Tapuy - is a traditional Philippine alcoholic drink from the Mountain Province, Benguet and Ifugao 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.
Basi - Popular Ilocano alcoholic beverage. Made from sugar cane. If fermented longer, it turns into suka or vinegar
Photo Sources:
Wikipedia
Niconica Wordpress
Gabino 3 Powered by Photobucket
Hub Pages
Lambanog.Org
Pinoyfoodillustrated.blogspot.com
