Filipino cuisine offers tasters a melange of sour, sweet, and salty tastes, paired with a range of textures, from soft to crunchy. Whether it's deep-fried, baked, grilled, roasted, or broiled, Filipino street food is often prepared and sold by vendors daily, who work hard selling their fare on busy streets in the Philippines. These foods are often enjoyed as a light snack or "kakanin" in Tagalog (depending on the kind of fare, it can even be eaten as a light meal known as "merienda").
Travelers keen on visiting the Philippines as their next travel destination should let their tastebuds go wild to sample some of the most popular street fares in the country. Some of these tasty delectables are also best enjoyed with either a steaming bowl of rice or a cold bottle of San Miguel!
8 Kikiam
Kikiam is the Filipino variation of the Chinese ngo hiang. This savory street snack is simply a mixture of ground meats (usually chicken, pork, or shrimp) seasoned with five-spice powder, which is wrapped around bean curd sheets before being deep-fried. Kikiam is often served with other fried goodies and street fare like fishballs and kwek-kwek. Sweet sauces like chili sauce or ketchup (especially the Filipino favorite, banana ketchup) goes great with the saltiness of the kikiam!
7 Okoy (Or Ukoy)
There is no shortage of fried delights in Filipino cuisine and okoy (or ukoy, depending on who you speak to) is one of them! This street food is a shrimp fritter, typically made using dried baby shrimp, rice flour, and various vegetables like bean sprouts, potatoes, squash, and carrots. Okoy is paired best with a tangy vinegar sauce seasoned with chilies, onions, and garlic. Street vendors (and home cooks) can also make their own variations, adding ingredients like tofu or bell peppers to their shrimp fritters. Whether it's homemade or prepared by a hardworking street vendor, the best okoy is crispy and fresh from the pan!
6 Isaw
Unless they're non-meat eaters, travelers heading to the Philippines shouldn't turn down isaw unless they give it a try...at least once. Often regarded as inexpensive street fare, isaw are barbecued intestines from pork or chicken, which is usually served fresh from the grill and on a stick. Vendors will usually sell isaw alongside other barbequed foods, known as "ini haw" in Tagalog. This specialty is quite popular in the Philippines and is best served alongside a soy-based dipping sauce. Delicious isaw is chewy in texture shouldn't taste overpoweringly bitter.
5 Turon
Imagine the delicate sweetness of banana wrapped comfortably in a pastry, which is then deep-fried and topped with homemade caramel sauce. If that makes you hungry, then you're craving some turon! Turon is usually made with jackfruit pieces and either saba (a banana variety native to the Philippines) or plantains dipped in brown sugar. To make it even sweeter, after it's deep-fried, the banana egg rolls are then dipped in homemade caramel sauce, enhancing the delectable crunchiness of the dessert.
4 Balut
Westerners may find the idea of fertilized duck egg unappetizing, but balut actually has been a favorite among locals way before it was introduced to the world as a "shocking" delicacy. Visitors who are curious about tasting balut are encouraged to first gently crack the egg until an opening appears, before seasoning it lightly (either with salt, pepper, green onions, or vinegar). Then, the broth (which is essentially poultry broth) should be lightly sipped through the cracked opening, before removing the eggshell completely and consuming the egg inside.
3 Kwek-Kwek
Kwek-kwek is simply boiled quail egg battered and deep-fried until golden brown. The batter looks similar to Japanese tempura batter, and pairs well with tangy sauces, especially soy or vinegar-based ones! A variation of kwek-kwek is also available as street fare, which is known as "tokneneng"; this delight is prepared the same manner, the only difference being that hard-boiled duck eggs are used instead of quail eggs.
2 Taho
Another simple street fare with bold flavors, taho is a mixture of silken tofu drenched in sugary syrup with boiled starchy pearls known as "sago". This sweet treat is sold by vendors in the Philippines known as magtataho, who traditionally carry two buckets; the larger bucket contains the smooth silky tofu, while the second bucket (usually a smaller one) houses the sugary syrup and the delectable sago pearls.
1 Halo-Halo
All cuisines in the world have their own spin on shaved ice, and the Philippines is no different. Another national favorite-especially when cooling off from the scorching sun-halo-halo literally means "mix-mix" in Tagalog. Ice is finely crushed in a machine, which is then placed into a bowl or cup. Brightly colored mixins like sweet beans, corn, ube ice cream, ube, leche flan, coconut pieces, sago pearls, fruit pieces, and agar jelly (amongst many other toppings), are added to the ice. To top everything off, cold condensed milk is generously added to the mixture to make the ultimate decadent Filipino dessert. For a more fun presentation, halo-halo can even be served inside a hollow "buko", or coconut!