Food & Drink

Cooking in the Philippines involves more moderate use of spices than other Asian cuisine. Seafood features on most menus, freshly caught and simply served with some lime. San Miguel is the best-known beer.

Cooking Methods

The Tagalog words for popular cooking methods are listed below:

• Ginataan - cooked with coconut milk
• Guisado - sautéed with garlic, onions and tomatoes
• Inadobo - cooked in soy sauce, vinegar and garlic
• Inihaw - grilled over charcoals
• Kinilaw or Kilawin - cubes of raw fish pickled in a marinade of vinegar and/or kalamansi juice, usually along with garlic, onions, ginger, tomato, and/or hot/sweet peppers
• Nilaga - boiled, sometimes with onions and black peppers
• Pinaksiw - cooked in vinegar and ginger or just add all-purpose sauce
• Prito - fried or deep fried
• Sinigang - boiled with a tamarind base

Meals

Filipinos traditionally eat three main meals a day - almusal (breakfast), tanghalian (lunch), and hapunan (dinner) plus an afternoon snack called merienda.

Almusal: Breakfast

Traditional breakfast usually includes the following:

• Champorado - is a type of rice porridge flavoured with chocolate. It is not to be confused with Mexican champurrado which is a hot chocolate drink.
• Daing na Bangus - means salted and dried milkfish. It is often served with sinangag (fried rice) and fried eggs as well as sliced tomatoes, vinegar or achara.
• Itlog na Pula - are salted duck eggs usually served with tomatoes, onions, and sinangag.
• Kape barako - is strong brewed coffee from the mountains of Batangas.
• Kesong puti - is a soft fresh cheese made from carabao's milk.
• Longganisa - is a local chorizo or sausage, served with fried eggs and sinangag.
• Pan de sal - is derived from Spanish words for 'bread of salt'. Contrary to its name, it contains relatively little salt is a sweet bread roll which can be spread with butter, jam, marmalade, peanut butter or kesong puti.
• Silogs - are meat as a main ingredient to be served with sinangág (fried rice) and itlog (egg). The three most commonly seen silogs are
  • tapsilog having tapa as the meat ingredient;
  • tocilog having tocino as the meat ingredient;
  • longsilog having longganisa as a meat ingredient.
• Sinangag - is fried garlic rice, served with a choice or two from other meat dishes.
• Tapa - is local beef jerky, served with fried eggs and sinangag.
• Tocino - is sweetened meat, served with fried eggs and sinangag.

Merienda: Afternoon Snack

Merienda is a snack taken in the afternoons. It is similar in concept to afternoon tea. Filipinos have a number of options to take with their traditional kape (coffee). If the meal is taken close to dinner, it is called merienda cena, which qualifies as dinner itself.

Breads such as pan de sal, ensaymada, (buttery sweet rolls with cheese), and empanada (ground chicken-filled bread rolls) are served. Also, rice cakes (kakanin) like kutsinta, sapin-sapin, palitaw, biko, suman, bibingka, and pitsi-pitsi are served. Other sweets such as hopia (pastries similar to mooncakes filled with sweet bean paste, sometimes flavoured) and bibingka (sweet hot rice cakes with salted eggs and cheese on top) are other favourites. Savoury dishes such as 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-flavoured soy sauce and vinegar sauce), puto (steamed rice flour cakes), and dinuguan (a spicy stew made with pork blood) can also be served during merienda.

Pulutan: Appetizers

Pulutan (literally 'something that is picked') is a word which means 'finger food'. It originally served as a snack accompanied with liquor or beer but has found their way into Philippine cuisine as appetizers.

• Adidas - are chicken feet grilled or sautéed.
• Barbecue Isaw - are chicken or pig intestines marinated, skewered, then grilled.
• Barbecue Tenga - are pig ears marinated, skewered, then grilled.
• Betamax - is salted, solidified chicken blood, either grilled or skewered (see also Street Foods, below)
• Chicharon - are pork rinds salted, fried, then dried.
• Chicharong Bituka or Chibab - are crispy pig's intestines that have been deep fried.
• Chicken Skin or Chink - is crispy chicken skin deep fried.
• Mani - are fried peanuts salted or spiced; it is sometimes flavoured with garlic.
• Sisig - are minced pig's cheeks, ears, livers, snouts and brains cooked with onions, chillies, and spices then served sizzling on a hot plate.
• Tokwa't Baboy - is fried tofu with boiled pork by-products (usually either pork ears or other innards) then dipped in a garlic-flavoured soy sauce or vinegar dip.

Main Meals

Soups

• Binacol - is warm chicken soup with coconut meat.
• La Paz Batchoy - is a noodle soup garnished with pork innards, crushed pork cracklings, chopped vegetables and topped with a raw egg.
• Sinigang - is a tamarind-soured soup typically made with pork, beef or seafood.
• Tinola - is traditional chicken ginger soup cooked with whole chicken pieces, green papaya with chilli, spinach or malunggay leaves.
• Sotanghon - is the Filipino version of chicken noodle soup, consisting of vermicelli noodles, chicken, and sometimes mushrooms.

Stews

• Adobo - consists of pork and/or chicken stewed in a broth of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and peppercorns.
• Afritada - is made of pork or beef and vegetables simmered in tomato sauce.
• Dinengdeng - consists of malunggay leafs and bittermelon.
• Dinuguan - is a stew made from pig blood, entrails and meat.
• Kaldereta - is beef or goat simmered in vinegar and tomato sauce.
• Kare-kare - also known as 'peanut stew,' is boiled oxtail and/or ox tripe in a peanut-based stew of mixed vegetables, served with alamang (fermented shrimp paste).
• Mechado - is pork cooked in tomato sauce, minced garlic and onions.
• Pinakbet - are vegetables stewed with bagoong.
• Pochero - is beef and banana simmered in tomato sauce.

Salads

• Kinilaw - is raw fish cooked only by steeping in local vinegar, sometimes with coconut milk, onions, spices and other local ingredients. It is comparable to ceviche.
• Porridges
• Arroz caldo - also called lugaw, is a Spanish inspired rice porridge cooked with chicken and ginger, garnished with spring onions.
• Goto - is rice porridge with ox tripe.

Noodles

• Pancit - is a dish primarily consisting of noodles, vegetables, and meat or shrimp with variations primarily distinguished by the type of noodles used.

Fried Foods

• Crispy Pata - are pork knuckles (pata) marinated then deep fried until crispy golden brown. However, the knuckles are a small portion, thus it is the whole leg of pork that is usually served.
• Lumpia - are fried spring rolls filled with cooked ground beef and vegetables.
• Lumpiang shanghai - are tiny fried spring rolls filled with minced pork and shrimp and served with sweet and sour sauce.
• Ukoy - are shrimp and squash fritters.

Sausages

• Longanisa - are sweet or spicy homemade sausages.

Steak

• Bistek - also known as Philippine Beef Steak, is thinly sliced beef marinated in soya sauce and kalamansi.

Grilled Foods

• Tocino - is sweetened cured meat. The meat either chicken or pork is marinated and aged for a number of days then grilled.

Desserts and Snacks

• Balut - are essentially boiled pre-hatched ducklings. These fertilized duck eggs are allowed to develop until the embryo reaches a pre-determined size to be boiled.
• Bibingka - is a hot rice cake topped with a spread of butter, slices of kesong puti (white cheese), itlog na maalat (salted duck eggs), and sometimes grated coconut.
• Biko - are glutinous rice sweets creamed with sugar, butter and coconut milk.
• Binatog - are corn kernels with shredded coconut.
• Halo-halo - is a dessert composed of shaved ice, milk, coconut sport, purple yam pudding, caramel custard, sweetened plantains and jackfruit.
• Kutsinta - is brown rice cake.
• Leche Flan - is caramel custard made with eggs and milk.
• Mamon - is a buttery sweet sponge cake that is softer than butter cake.
• Nata de coco - is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food product produced by the bacterial fermentation of coconut water.
• Palitaw - are rice patties with sesame seeds, sugar and coconut.
• Pitsi-pitsi - are cassava patties with cheese or coconut.
• Penoy - are hard boiled duck eggs.
• Puto - are sweet steamed rice muffins.
• Sapin-sapin - are three-layered tricoloured sweets made with rice flour, purple yam and coconut milk.
• Sorbetes is similar to ice cream but made primarily with coconut milk instead of dairy products. It is considered by many as 'dirty ice cream.'
• Suman - is a sticky rice or cassava sticks wrapped in banana or palm leaves. They are then dipped in sugar and sometimes eaten with ripe mangoes.
• Taho - is a warm snack made of soft beancurd (the taho itself), dark syrup and tapioca balls. Cold (dark syrup) flavoured (chocolate/strawberry/etc.) taho is now available.

Street Foods

• Betamax - is roasted dried chicken blood served as little cubes. The origin of the name is quite funny because of its squared shape and black colour, which is identical in appearance to a miniaturized electronic Betamax tape.
• Fishballs/Squidballs - are skewered in bamboo sticks and sauces are then dripped over them. It is commonly sold frozen in stores and typically peddled by hawkers.
• Isaw - is seasoned hog and/or chicken intestines.
• Kwek-kwek - are boiled quail eggs dipped in batter then deep fried, a popular delicacy.
• Tokneneng - are boiled chicken eggs dipped in batter usually marked with food colouring. It is a larger version of the kwek-kwek.

Regional Specialties

The Philippine islands are home to various ethnic groups resulting in varied regional cuisine.

Ilocanos

Ilocanos from the rugged Ilocos region boast of a diet heavy in boiled or steamed vegetables and freshwater fish, but they are particularly fond of dishes flavoured 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.

Igorots

The Igorots prefer roasted meats, particularly carabao's meat, goat's meat and venison.

Pampanga

Pampanga is the culinary centre of the Philippines. Among the treats produced in Pampanga are longganisa (original sweet and spicy sausages), kalderetang kambing (savoury goat stew), and tocino (sweetened-cured pork).

Kapampangan cuisine makes use of every regional produce available to the native cook, combining pork cheeks and offal to make sisig. Kare-kare is also known to have been originated from Pampanga.

Southern Regions

Further south, dishes are filled with the scents of Southeast Asia: coconut milk, turmeric, coriander, lemon grass, ginger and chillies - an ingredient not present in other regional cuisine (except in the Bicol Region whose use of chillies is more liberal compared to others). Since southern regions are predominantly Islamic, pork dishes are hardly present. Popular crops such as cassava root, sweet potatoes (kamote) and yams are grown.

Other Regional Specialties

• Cainta in Rizal, province east of Manila, is known for its Filipino rice cakes and puddings.
• Cebu is popular for lechón, sweets (like dried mangoes), mango and caramel tarts.
• Iloilo is popular for La Paz batchoy, pancit molo, dinuguan, puto, and biskotso.
• Laguna is known for buko pie (coconut pie) and panutsa (molasses clustered peanuts).