The question of “What Is The Food Of The Philippines?” is one that many Filipinos, including myself, have grappled with. Growing up as a Filipino-American, I often found it challenging to articulate the essence of our cuisine. It’s a cuisine so diverse and complex that defining it in simple terms feels almost impossible.
Arlyn Osborne, a recipe developer and food writer, aptly describes it as “so many things and it’s different for so many people.” Cookbook author Marvin Gapultos echoes this sentiment, noting that “it’s got so many different flavors, it’s hard to explain.”
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A vibrant collage showcasing the diversity of Filipino cuisine, encapsulating its rich flavors and cultural influences.
Doreen Fernandez, a respected food writer and cultural historian, explains in her book Sarap: Essays on Philippine Food, that this difficulty stems from the many cultural influences that have shaped Filipino cuisine. From Spanish-named dishes like embutido and lechon to Chinese-influenced lumpia and pancit, these coexist with indigenous specialties like kinilaw and sinigang. Philippine cuisine is a dynamic and ever-evolving reflection of its history, absorbing influences, adapting to new technologies and tastes, and continually evolving.
With over 7,000 islands and a diverse population, it’s no wonder that Filipinos struggle to encapsulate their cuisine in a few words. However, while defining Filipino food as a whole might be challenging, describing the deliciousness of specific dishes is much easier. This cuisine is most approachable when explored through its most popular dishes, such as adobo, pancit, and lumpia.
Filipino meals aren’t structured around courses, so we’ll explore the cuisine through five categories: rice, soups and stews, pulutan (snacks), fiesta food (celebration dishes), and sweets. These categories reflect the main ways Filipinos share and enjoy food. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it provides a solid foundation for understanding this rich and nuanced cuisine.
In Filipino homes, food is served family-style in large bowls or platters, encouraging everyone to partake. White rice is a constant presence, and dishes meant to accompany it are placed at the center of the table. Condiments like vinegar, fish sauce, bagoong (fermented seafood sauce), and calamansi (a citrus fruit) are always available to customize the flavors to individual preferences. For grand celebrations, the traditional “kamayan” style involves food served directly on banana leaves for communal enjoyment.
Rice: The Cornerstone of Filipino Cuisine
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A split image showcasing two popular Filipino rice dishes: savory garlic fried rice (sinangag) and comforting arroz caldo.
Rice is fundamental to daily life in the Philippines, consumed from breakfast to dinner, and even in sweets and snacks. It symbolizes prosperity and wealth, making it customary to bring rice into a new home first.
Plain white rice accompanies every meal. Elizabeth Ann Besa-Quirino, a cookbook author and food writer, emphasizes, “I cannot imagine a meal without rice. Every Filipino dish was meant to be eaten with rice. A lot of our dishes are saucy in nature and rice was meant to catch those sauces.” Chef Yana Gilbuena adds that plain rice complements the bold flavors of Filipino dishes. “Our dishes are already very bold in flavor. You need the rice to not compete with that and instead complement it.”
Leftover rice transforms into sinangag, or garlic fried rice. Paired with an egg, it forms the base for silog, a popular breakfast with endless variations. Add a salty protein like fried Spam (Spamsilog), tapa (cured beef) for tapsilog, corned beef for cornsilog, or bacon for bacsilog to complete the meal.
Arroz caldo is the Filipino version of congee. This comforting chicken and rice porridge, seasoned with garlic, ginger, and patis (fish sauce), is often used as a remedy for colds.
- Arroz Caldo Recipe
- Garlic Fried Rice Recipe
Soups and Stews: Heartwarming Filipino Comfort Food
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A vibrant collage showcasing the diverse world of Filipino soups and stews, from light broths to rich, hearty gravies.
Soups and stews are central to Filipino cuisine year-round, ranging from light broths to hearty gravies. The term “sabaw” refers to soup and broth, and it’s common to ask, “Do you want more sabaw?” during meals. Saucing your rice with sabaw is customary.
Adobo, often considered the national dish, existed before Spanish colonization. It denotes both a dish and a method of stewing meat in vinegar. Variations abound, differing by region and household. A popular version features chicken or pork stewed with soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaf, and garlic. Other versions use fish, squid, shrimp, or lamb, and add coconut milk or turmeric. Adobo can be cooked dry or left wet with flavorful sabaw. Some families add fruit or vegetables like pineapple or potatoes. The vinegar acts as a preservative, making adobo taste even better the next day.
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A comforting bowl of Sinigang na Baboy, a sour and savory Filipino pork soup.
Like adobo, sinigang has many variations. This refreshing, sour soup includes meat or fish and vegetables. The sourness comes from tamarind, guava, calamansi, green mango, tomato, or kamias. Pork sinigang is common, but it can also be made with chicken, salmon, or shrimp. Vegetables like long beans, radishes, taro, eggplant, cabbage, and okra are welcome additions.
Dinuguan, a rich, slightly tangy pork stew, features a sauce made from pork blood, vinegar, garlic, onion, and chiles. It’s often called “chocolate meat.” Traditionally, it includes offal like intestines, liver, kidneys, and lungs, but versions with pork belly, shoulder, or ribs are also common. Dinuguan is traditionally served with puto, a steamed rice cake.
Pinakbet is a savory vegetable stew seasoned with fermented seafood paste, often including eggplant, long beans, bitter melon, okra, and squash. It traditionally uses bagoong isda (fermented anchovy sauce), but versions with bagoong alamang (fermented shrimp paste) or ginisang bagoong (sautéed bagoong alamang) are also popular. The flavor depends on the bagoong used, with bagoong isda providing a deeper, funkier flavor and bagoong alamang offering a touch of sweetness.
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A rich and flavorful bowl of Kare-Kare, a Filipino stew with oxtail, vegetables, and a peanut-based sauce.
Kare-kare, meaning “curry-curry,” is a Filipino “really good curry.” Made with oxtail and tripe, the gravy is thickened with pounded toasted rice and peanuts, or peanut butter. Annatto gives the gravy its signature orange hue, and patis deepens the umami flavor. It’s customary to add bagoong alamang or ginisang bagoong to cut through the richness.
- Filipino-Style Chicken Adobo Recipe
- Sinigang na Baboy (Filipino Pork in Sour Tamarind Soup) Recipe
- Dinuguan (Filipino Pork Blood Stew) Recipe
- Pinakbet (Filipino Vegetable Stew) Recipe
- Kare-Kare (Filipino Curry) Recipe
Pulutan: Filipino Snacks for Sharing and Enjoying
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A mouthwatering collage of Filipino Pulutan dishes, perfect for sharing and enjoying with drinks.
Inuman sessions, or drinking sessions, involve friends bonding over pulutan – crunchy, salty, and fatty snacks best enjoyed with alcohol. Pulutan comes from the verb pulutin, meaning “to pick up.” It can range from simple chicharron (fried pork rinds) dipped in vinegar to more elaborate dishes served with rice.
A popular pulutan is ukoy – deep-fried shrimp and vegetable fritters. These fritters come in various sizes and contain vegetables like sweet potato, cabbage, squash, green papaya, scallions, carrots, and bean sprouts. They are delicious when dipped in spiced vinegar with minced garlic and chiles.
Sizzling sisig, a favorite Filipino street food, is a finely-chopped hash of pork ears, cheeks, snout, and organs dressed in soy sauce, calamansi juice, and chiles. Mayonnaise can be added for creaminess, or a fried egg for richness. Eaten with rice, it’s also considered a remedy for nausea and hangovers.
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A sizzling plate of Sisig, a popular Filipino dish made with chopped pork, onions, and chili peppers.
Lechon kawali, crispy, deep-fried pork belly, is a delicious pulutan. The pork belly is parboiled with garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaf, then dried overnight. It’s sliced into nuggets and fried until golden and crispy, served with vinegar or lechon sauce.
Filipinos also enjoy raw fish as pulutan, particularly kinilaw. This indigenous dish features raw fish marinated in vinegar or citrus juice. The name applies to both the dish and the marination method, kilaw, meaning “to cook in sourness.” Variations include coconut, tabon-tabon (a bitter fruit), coconut milk, mango, or sugar. The kilaw method can also be used on grilled meat like goat, beef, pork, or carabao (water buffalo) to create kilawin.
- Ukoy (Filipino Shrimp and Vegetable Fritters) Recipe
- Sizzling Sisig (Filipino Crispy Pork with Eggs) Recipe
- Lechon Kawali (Filipino Crispy Fried Pork Belly) Recipe
- Kilawin Recipe
- Kinilaw (Filipino-Style Marinated Fish) Recipe
Fiesta Food: Culinary Centerpieces of Filipino Celebrations
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A festive collage of Filipino fiesta dishes, perfect for celebrations and gatherings.
Filipinos love gatherings, whether for holidays, birthdays, or visiting relatives. These fiestas are a cornerstone of Filipino culture, representing labor, human bonds, and the good life.
At these gatherings, a specific set of dishes, known as fiesta food, are served. These dishes often require extensive preparation. The most famous is lechon, a whole spit-roasted suckling pig. Many fiesta dishes are Spanish in origin but have become a part of Filipino life over time. Leaving a fiesta with “pabaon“, a wrapped package of food, is customary, representing friendship and goodwill.
Embutido is a classic fiesta dish. This cylindrical meatloaf, made with ground pork, raisins, hard-boiled eggs, and ham or sausage, is traditionally steamed but can also be baked. It’s served cold, warm, or fried with a tangy sweet and sour sauce and banana ketchup.
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A beautifully plated Embutido, a Filipino-style meatloaf served with rice and sauce.
Lumpiang Shanghai, tightly wound egg rolls stuffed with pork and vegetables, are a party favorite. Making lumpia is labor-intensive, so families often set up an assembly line. These crispy snacks are easy to eat and quickly disappear.
Noodles, or pancit, symbolize prosperity, long life, and good luck. Two common pancit dishes are pancit bihon and pancit palabok. Pancit bihon features rice vermicelli, chicken, shrimp, carrots, and cabbage seasoned with soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauce. Pancit palabok includes rice noodles dressed with a shrimp-infused annatto sauce and garnished with shrimp, chicharron, hard-boiled egg, scallions, and citrus wedges.
- Embutido (Filipino-Style Meatloaf) Recipe
- Lumpiang Shanghai (Filipino Egg Rolls) Recipe
- Pancit Bihon (Filipino Rice Noodles) Recipe
- Pancit Palabok Recipe
Sweets: Filipino Treats for Any Time of Day
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A delightful collage of Filipino sweets, showcasing the diverse and tempting flavors of Filipino desserts.
Sweets in Filipino cuisine aren’t just desserts; they’re enjoyed at any time, as breakfast, snacks, or part of a meal. They complement the flavors already on the table.
Sweets fall into three categories: native sweets, Spanish sweets, and American sweets, all of which have become distinctly Filipino over time.
Native sweets consist largely of “kakanin“, rice cakes. Biko is a sticky rice cake topped with latik (coconut curds or caramel), and bibingka is a fluffy rice cake decorated with cheese and salted duck egg. Leche flan, a rich custard, arrived with the Spaniards. Filipino takes on American fruit salad include buko pandan, a mix of pandan jelly, young coconut meat (buko), cream, and condensed milk. Halo-halo is an iconic shaved ice dessert finished with leche flan and ube ice cream.
- Biko (Filipino Sticky Rice Cake) Recipe
- Bibingka (Filipino Rice Cake) Recipe
- Leche Flan (Filipino Baked Custard) Recipe
- Buko Pandan (Filipino Dessert Salad) Recipe
- Halo-Halo (Filipino Shaved Ice Dessert) Recipe
- Ube Ice Cream Recipe
