Filipino Delicacies

Adobo - a favourite dish consisting of pork and/or chicken stewed in a broth of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and peppercorns.
Arroz caldo - A Spanish-inspired rice porridge cooked with chicken and ginger, garnished with spring onions. (also called "lugaw")
Balut - essentially ducklings boiled before they hatch. Duck eggs that have been fertilized are allowed to develop until the embryo reaches a pre-determined size, then boiled.
La Paz Batchoy - A noodle soup garnished with pork innards, crushed pork cracklings, chopped vegetables, and topped with a raw egg.
Bibingka - A hot rice cake topped with a spread of butter, slices of kesong puti (white cheese) and itlog na maalat (salted duck eggs), and sometimes grated coconut.
Biko - glutinous rice sweets creamed with sugar, butter, and coconut milk.
Binakol - warm chicken soup with coconut meat.
Binatog - corn kernels with shredded coconut.
Bistek - thinly sliced beef marinated in soya sauce and kalamansi.
Crispy Pata - 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.
Cuchinta - brown rice cake.
Dinuguan - also called "blood porridge", a dish made from pig blood, entrails, and meat.
Fishballs / Squidballs - commonly sold frozen in stores, and typically peddled by hawkers, they are skewered in bamboo sticks and sauces are dripped over.
Goto - Rice porridge with ox tripe.
Halo-halo - A dessert composed of shaved ice, milk, coconut sport, purple yam pudding and caramel custard, sweetened plantains, jackfruit.

Itlog na maalat/Itlog na Pula - Duck eggs that are hard boiled, then cured in warm brine. Their shells are often dyed with red food coloring to distinguish them from chicken eggs.
Isaw - Seasoned hog and/or chicken intestines. A popular street food.
Kare-kare - Also known as "Peanut Stew", boiled oxtail and/or ox tripe in a peanut-based stew of mixed vegetables, served with alamang (fermented shrimp paste).
Kesong puti - is a soft white cheese made from carabao's milk.
Kinilaw - raw fish cooked only by steeping in local vinegar, sometimes with coconut milk, onions, spices and other local ingriedients. It is comparable to ceviche.
Leche flan - caramel custard made with eggs and milk
Lechon - whole roasted suckling pig, piglet (lechonillo) or cattle calf (lechong baka).
Longanisa - sweet or spicy homemade sausages.
Lumpiang sariwa - fresh spring rolls, served with a sweet sauce.
Lumpia - fried spring rolls filled with cooked ground beef and vegetables.
Lumpiang shanghai - tiny fried spring rolls filled with minced pork and shrimp and served with sweet and sour sauce.
Mamon - 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 - Rice patties with sesame seeds, sugar, and coconut.
Penoy - Hard boiled duck eggs.
Pichi-pichi - cassava patties with coconut.
Pinakbet - Vegetables stewed with bagoong.
Puto - sweet steamed rice muffins
Puto Bumbong - purpled-colored sweets cooked in tubes that are placed on a special steamer. When cooked, they are removed from the tubes, topped with butter, and sprinkled with sugar and niyog (grated coconut). They are then wrapped in banana leaves until they are ready to be eaten.

Kwek-kwek - boiled quail eggs dipped in batter then deep fried. Another popular street delicacy.
Sinigang - a tamarind-soured soup typically made with pork, beef, or seafood.
Sapin-sapin - are three-layered tricolor sweets made with rice flour, purple yam and coconut milk.
Sorbetes - is basically the same as regular ice cream, but is made primarily with coconut milk. Considered by many as "dirty ice cream."
Suman - sticky rice sticks wrapped in banana or palm leaves. They are dipped in sugar and sometimes eaten with ripe mangoes.
Taho - a warm snack made of soft bean curd (the taho itself), a dark syrup, and tapioca balls. Cold(cold dark syrup) flavored (chocolate, strawberry etc.) taho is now available.
Tinola - Traditional chicken ginger soup cooked with whole chicken pieces, green papaya, and spinach or malunggay leaves.
Tocino - sweetened cured meat. The meat either chicken or pork is marinated and aged for a number of days and is then grilled.
Ukoy - shrimp and squash fritters
Betamax - common street food, roasted dried chicken blood, served in little cubes, the origin of the name is quite funny because of its squared shape and black color, identical to a miniaturized Electronic Betamax tape.
Tokneneng - quail eggs fried in batter usually has food coloring, also a common street food.


Pulutan is a word which means "finger food". Though at times eaten with a fork, Pulutan is served as an appetizer or as a snack accompanied with liquor or non-alcoholic beverages.

Adidas - grilled or sautéed chicken feet
Chicharon - salted, dried and fried pork rind
Chicharong Bituka - crispy pig's intestines (also called bulaklak, which translates to flower because of its appearance when fried)
Mani - salted and/or spicy fried peanuts, sometimes flavored with garlic
Pork Barbecue - Filipino Satays marinated in a special blend
Sisig - minced pig’s cheeks cooked with herbs and spices and are served sizzling on a hot plate.
Siomai - Chinese dumplings (steamed meatballs sealed in wonton wrappers) dipped in soy sauce with squeezed kalamansi (Philippine lemon)
Lumpiang Shanghai - tiny fried spring rolls filled with minced meat.
Tokwa't Baboy - fried tofu with pork by-products (usually either pork ears or other innards) and dipped in a garlic-flavored soy sauce/vinegar dip.