Manila City - Gateway to Paradise (Part 2)

Eat

Manila is a huge city, so individual places to eat are not listed here but rather in the individual articles on the various Manila districts.

Regional Dishes

Manila is a national hub of regional cooking and has almost all the regions of the Philippines represented - either in exclusively regional eateries or featured with other cuisines. General restaurants, either catering for the working class or the elite, can offer varied dishes coming from every region and cater for almost everyone's taste palette. For example, the northern region called Ilocos has its favorite fare called Pinakbet approved by practically everyone but still closely identified as Ilocano fare.

Here are just some of the regional dishes that feature in the restaurants, canteens, and carinderias in Manila:

Northern Luzon Island Region or Ilocos (Ilocano)

Ilocanos are known as industrious and thrifty people who living in the limited cultivable strip of land bounded between the sea and the Cordillera mountain range.

§  Pinakbet - vegetable dish seasoned with fermented fish

§  Papaetan - tripe seasoned with bile secretion

§  Dinengdeng -

Central Luzon Island Region (Kapampangan)

Pampaguenos lead in the art of combining the best of Spanish and Chinese legacies.

§  Relleno - stuffed fish or chicken

§  Pastel -

§  Cocido -

§  Pansit Palabok - noodle dish

§  They also excel in fine desserts such as Turon de Casuy, Mazapan, Leche Flan and Biscochos Borrachos

Central Luzon Island Region

Tagalogs are generally good cooks too:

§  Adobo - now considered as National Dish, it's pork, beef, or chicken marinated in soy sauce and vinegar.

§  Sinigang - Philippines' answer to Tom Yam, a meat or seafood boiled in a sour fruit.

§  Dinuguan - internal organs of butchered animals and cooked with pork blood. (Note: eating animal organs was introduced by the Spaniards).

§  Hipong Halabos - boiled shrimp

§  Kari-Kari - beef parts flavored by vegetables and pounded peanut turned into sauce.

§  Biya with Gata - fish cooked in coconut milk.

§  Pangat - fish cooked without coconut milk.

Southern Luzon Peninsula Region or Bicol

Bicolanos are considered the hotties because they can tolerate chili more than any other Filipinos. They also like coconut milk.

§  Pinangat - minced young coconut meat with either shrimps or freshwater fish (mudfish, tilapia, catfish)and hot pepper wrapped in taro leaves then cook boiled in pure coconut milk.

§  Tanaguktok - (also called sinanglay) fish stuffed with tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger and the inevitable hot pepper wrapped in banana leaf and then cooked in cocomilk.

§  Gulay na Natong - Taro leaves cooked in coconut milk

§  Bicol Express (non-Bicolano recipe) - very hot meat dish

§  Bicol Express (the local recipe)- a dish comprising of 70% julienned chilli peppers with a mixture of pork fat, salted small shrimps (locally known as balaw)sauteed in onions, garlic, ginger and sometimes tomatoes then cooked in cocomilk.

Western Visayas Islands Region

These islands, including Iloilo (Ilongo), are fertile and more blessed with rain than the other Visayan islands and the waters abound with fish. Ilongos are some of the most creative in the Visayas when it comes to cooking.

§  Pansit Molo - soup with wanton like dumplings.

§  Laswa - vegetables cooked in little water with fermented fish.

§  Linagpang - broiled fish.

§  Inasal - another fish cooked over charcoal.

§  Kadyos - vegetables with fish or meat.

Central Visayas Islands Region

Cebuanos live on these dry and barren islands and are corn eating rather than rice eating people. They have been influenced by Mexicans.

§  Corn Suman - corn desert removed from the cob and re-wrapped in the husk.

§  Utap or Hojaldres - Cebuano biscuit.

Eastern Visayas Islands Region or Samar-Leyte

Warays are coconut milk lovers minus the hot chili pepper.

§  Kinilao - raw fish in lime and vinegar.

Street Food/Comfort Food

Street Food is often described as "Pamatid Gutom" or food to tide over, something to temporarily hush a stomach growl, sold at small food stalls, food stands, or food carts set up in places with high amount of pedestrian traffic. Cheap and rushed, it could be something commuters can chew & swallow, or gulp in seconds while transferring from one route to another, or from station to station, with a quick standing stop at a sushi, siomai, barbecue, or hotdog stall.

The variety of street food available is tremendous and may reward the truly adventurous traveler. Because of the huge variety, we have split the examples into two sections: those dishes normally sold by Stationary vendors and those often sold by Ambulant (or itinerant) vendors:

Stationary vendors

§  Boiled Eggs

§  Balut – boiled duck embryo, generally safe to eat as the whole duck egg is intact and well cooked. The sight of the fully formed duckling complete with wings, ribbed feet and beak may not be too easily swallowed by the squeamish however.

§  Penoy – boiled undeveloped duck egg.

§  Quail Egg – boiled quail egg.

§  Grilled Meat Cuts

§  Barbecue – the term barbecue in the Philippines usually means bite size pieces of pork marinated, skewered and charcoal grilled. Chicken barbecue (bbq for short) is also common.

§  Isaw, Helmet, Adidas and Betamax - grilled chicken (or pork) intestines, head, feet, and blood with funny names, respectively.

§  Atay, Balun-balunan, Puso - body parts liver, gizzard, heart.

§  Deep Fried Meat Balls

§  Bola Bola – deep fried balls with variations such as fish, squid, pork, chicken, beef, or combination.

§  Kikyam – ground meat wrapped in bean curd sheets, then deep fried.

§  Sausage – small cured meat cuts then deep fried.

§  Hotdog – deep fried hotdog, in different sizes - nite size, jumbo, meat types or combinations.

§  Waffle Hotdog - exactly American style.

§  Dimsum

§  Siomai - meat dumpling wrapped in wonton wrapper with variations as either pork, shrimp, chicken, beef, sharks fin, or beef & shrimp.

§  Siopao - steamed bun with stuffings such as asado, bola bola, or egg, or combination.

§  Deep Fried – Batter Added

§  Kwek Kwek and Tokneneng – boiled egg (duck, chicken or quail) covered in an orangey batter and deep fried in hot oil. Usually dipped in vinegar with onions, chili peppers and garlic.

§  Ukoy - shrimp, mung sprouts, carrots or any veggie thrown in formed into flat pattie with a batter and deep fried.

§  Sushi Rolls

§  Plantains

§  Boiled Saba – Philippine plantain, boiled.

§  Banana Cue/Q – Philippine plantain fried in hot oil coated with caramelized brown sugar and served on a barbecue stick like a barbecue.

§  Maruya – deep fried plantain slices held together by a batter.

§  Turon – sweet spring rolled plantain with a slice of jackfruit flesh, deep fried.

§  Root Crops

§  Camote Cue/Q – sweet potato served the same way as banana cue/q.

§  Kalingking - sweet potato cut french fries style, a handful are held together in batter and deep fried.

§  Fresh Fruits

§  Watermelon - sliced.

§  Singkamas – sliced jicama topped with fermented shrimp.

§  Pinya – sliced pineapple on stick.

§  Mangga – sliced crunchy mangoes topped with salt or fermented shrimp.

§  Lanzones

§  Santol

§  Guapple - giant guava the size of a big apple, sprinkled with salt, very crunchy.

§  Pancakes

§  Pancake – simply slattered in margarine.

§  Japanese Pancake – with variation filling.

§  Crepe –with variation in fillings.

§  Waffle– with variation in fillings.

§  Native Cakes

§  Puto Bungbong – exact Philippine version of the Puto Bambu sold at Pasar Seni in Kuala Lumpur and where "white" tourists are going gaga. Here, the mixture of grounded rice and sugar is steamed over a real bamboo over claypot heated by charcoal and not by industrial stove. Sold especially during the 9 days of "Misa de Gallo" a very long time tradition of early morning mass prelude to the eave of Christmas.

§  Nilupak – a steady fixture along the streets abutting markets, this local pudding variety is made from sweetened pounded root crop tuber and formed in a style of mashed potato but with drier and stickier consistency.

§  Bico

§  Puto

§  Kalamay

§  Bibingka

§  Palitaw

§  Kuchinta

§  Pichi Pichi - cassava patties.

§  Espasol

§  Ube

§  Ube Halaya

§  Sapin Sapin

§  Suman - glutinous sweet rice or cassava wrapped in leaf and steamed.

§  Asian Inspired Cakes

§  Mochi

§  Buchi

§  Peanut Ampao

§  Tikoy

§  Hopia

§  Bread & Pastries

§  Donut

§  Pan de Coco

§  Ensaymada

§  Empanada - with variation in fillings.

§  Fusion

§  Putopao - another Philippine product of fusion ingenuity, the common Chinese pao or bao or steamed meat bun has its dough substituted by steamed rice cake instead.

§  Beverage or Palamig

§  Gulaman - refreshing drink made from brown sugar syrup and water, made heavier by adding colorful squiggly pieces of jelly from agar agar sometimes mixed with evaporated milk.

§  Sago - brown sugar syrup mixed on iced water with tapioca balls.

§  Mix - Gulaman & sago.

§  Buko Juice - coconut juice and shredgings.

§  Melon Juice

§  Creamed Palamig

§  Buko Macapuno Cream - young sport coconut shredded with very diluted cream almost like evaporated milk, in a portable cup.

§  Buko Macapuno Pandan Cream - likewise, with Pandan flavor distinguished by its green color.

§  Buko Macapuno and Nata de Coco Cream - likewise but added with Nata from coconut, the jelly cream formed from fermented coconut juice.

§  Jelly Cream - an all-jelly cast, including Nata de Coco.

§  Combined Macapuno & Jelly

§  Sorbetes/Ice Cream

Low income workers patronize them the most as they commute to their homes, often taking two-hour trips. These are noted in the open streets where they are the cheapest and these are what most bloggers and media immediately see. But there are ones that are as even cleaner as those found in Bangkok or at par with those in hawker centers in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, or Japan and Korea.

Mall walkways and Food Courts offer a wide selection of Street Food menu and that is some notches less in worrying about hygiene. Expect the cost to be a little bit higher, although that would just come up to be in cents difference.

For a taste of street food without the accompanying risk, try out the following establishments:

§  Balut Eggspress - serves balut, kwek kwek and one day old chicks, which are quite literally day old chicks marinated and fried in hot oil then eaten whole including the bones. They have a stall in the MRT Ayala Station.

§  Nanay Q - serving special pork and chicken BBQ, liempo, grilled fish and shrimps. They also serve special Pinoy dishes such as Beef Caldereta, Menudo, Pinapaitan, Gambas and Sinigang. Sisig is also their specialty. They have branches at Robinsons Pioneer and Edsa Central. You may visit for more info..

Carinderyas/Carinderias sound like Spanish style cooking but there is no relation to it. It's simply a collective term for a working class type of eating stall, now with table and seats for sit-in meals, more as a hole-in-the-wall or a makeshift school canteen (some may have wheels) for the lowly construction worker, the jeepney driver, or the student low and tight on budget. The style of presenting the food (no menus but some have posted menus) is laid out on a glass-covered or open counter in pots or deep square aluminum platters (for the more classy ones) and where the customer can just scan his eyes and choose what he wants.

Panaderyas/Panaderias are Bakeries dispensing bread and pastries. But the line is not clear if they are a separate class of their own or as Street Food. Goldilocks Bakeshop operate as a full-time restaurant but they can have some presence in malls as food stand types. Dunkin’ Donuts or Mister Donut also establish their presence as either a shop with dining tables or as a stand-alone stall.

Ambulant Food

This is a special class of Street Food distinguished from the stationary establishments. Vendors roam around in their carts in a certain route and a specific time, as some foods sold are time sensitive, meaning they can only be eaten say, in the morning, or as an afternoon snack. Some of their itineraries are neighborhoods, where their target clientèle are pre-school or school age children, and some are office blocks, where their prime targets are lady workers. There are only a few types of these food that are mobile.

§  Taho - this ubiquitous mushy tofu, found in the whole Southeast Asia has this Philippine version topped with sugar syrup and tapioca balls. It's patonized mostly by children in the morning.

§  Mais - boiled corn-on-the-cob sold in the early to late afternoon.

§  Binatog - boiled glutinous corn topped with coconut milk, sugar, and fresh coconut gratings.

§  Bola Bola - fried fish balls, small hotdogs, etc...

§  Assorted Fruits

§  Ice Cream or Dirty Ice Cream - sold in folksy carts, it announces its presence with a bell that looks more like a collector's item. Flavors are as native themed as its cart - mango, carabao cheese, pandan, and yam.

Breakfast Fare

Breakfast in the city is described as dry - meaning not wet as in noodle and soup or porridge like what is taken in the morning in most Southeast Asian cities. More like an amalgam of the East and the West, specifically the American, Hispanic, and Malay, somehow as if McDonald's and Cuban entrees collided with Nasi Lemak to form these creations that are very catchy to begin with for they all end with "SILOG".

First, these are the key words in Tagalog: Sinangag for fried garlic rice and Itlog for egg more often sunny side up and rarely scrambled. They combine to form the portmanteau "SILOG". Along with these is the main item - meat or fish plus the given mainstays - Set A: lettuce-sliced tomato(s)-sliced cucumber(s), Set B: carrots and peas toppings over sinangag, Set C: achara or pickled unripe papaya and carrots, Set D: fried garlic or shallots over sinangag, or Set E: onion rings. The main items are as follows:

§  Tapsilog - for tapa or cured beef jerky

§  Dasilog - for daing or sun-dried fish

§  Adosilog - for adobo (vinegar & soy sauce marinated chicken, pork or beef)

§  Hamsilog - for ham

§  Disilog - for dilis or fried smelt or anchovy

§  Cornsilog - for corned beef

§  Bacsilog - for bacon

§  Bangsilog - for bangus or milkfish

§  Bisteksilog - for beef steak

§  Dangsilog - for danggit or rabbitfish

§  Vicsilog - for vic or chinless hogfish

§  Chosilog - for chorizo or Spanish style sausage

§  Chiksilog - for fried chicken

§  Embotidosilog - for embotido or Philippine-style meatloaf

§  Shanghaisilog - for shanghai roll or Philppine-style fried srping roll

§  Hotsilog - for hotdog or Philippine-style red hotdog

§  Longsilog - for longganisa or Philippine-style sausage (derived from Chinese style)

§  Tosilog - for tosino or sugar/honey cured meat

§  Masilog - for 'Ma Ling' brand Chinese luncheon meat

§  SPAMsilog - for 'SPAM' brand luncheon meat

§  Nuggetsilog - for chicken nuggets

§  Porksilog - for chuleta or porkchop

§  Lechonsilog - for roasted pork

§  Liemposilog - for crispy pork

§  Bangusilog - for fried milkfish

§  Baloneysilog - for Bologna sausage

§  Pusitsilog - for fried breaded squid rings or octopus tentacles, or plain midget squids

§  Siomaisilog - for siomai ( a type of meat dumpling)

§  Tuyosilog - for sun dried mackerel

§  Isawsilog - for a piece of pork intestines

Of course, this is assisted with hot coffee, tea, or juice and a couple of morning bread called Pan de Sal (salted bread).

There are stalls or Carinderias/Carinderyas that specialize in this breakfast "SILOG" fare called "Tapsihan"named for the first type of of these combo ever concocted, the tapsilog.

Snacks/Chichireya

Snacks or nibblers called Chichireya or Papak while office workers multi-task and at the same time working and chatting. Also, it is eaten on long journeys or while watching movies or simply doing school work.

§  Peanut - garlic-fried peanut

§  Japanese Peanut

§  Cornick - garlic-fried corn ear

§  Green Pea - garlic-fried green pea

§  Butong Pakwan - watermelon seeds

§  Champoy - preserved dried fruits

§  Kiamoy

§  Cheese Curls - popular junk food

§  Chippy - popular junk food

§  Ampao - poprice thats molded in blocks by sugar syrup

Restaurants

When it comes to dining, in a nutshell, Filipino food can be described as timid in flavor, not much creativity. Food is trained to have only one dominant flavor - either the bitterness, the sweetness, the sourness, or the saltiness is enhanced. For some reason, the ingredients used don't have that wide range like those in Malaysia, Vietnam or Thailand, its closest neighbors. Filipinos are just as happy and contented to limit their range of ingredients, a people that never had a royalty. Practically all countries that had/have a monarchy developed their superior palate taste through the royal court. No particular doting attention is given no more than it fills the stomach of the ordinary hungry person.

In a close comparison on a vegetable & spice market tour between the Philippines and Vietnam, the Philippine counterpart is limited. For seasoning, Filipino dishes do not digress from the daily triumvirate of garlic, onion, and tomatoes, sometimes ginger. No cinnamon, anise, or cardamom. On the herb section, only parsley, spring onion, and lemon grass are popularly known to Filipinos, while in Vietnam, there are so many kinds of herbs used in the daily diet. One glaring observation, basil is not eaten fresh, only as seasoning sold as dry as a dead leaf. As a side note, the saw-leaf herb which is an everyday ingredient in Vietnam which happened to originate in Mexico, ironically skipped the Philippines during the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade.

Speaking of Acapulco, Mexicans drink tamarind as a beverage. Tamarind juice coming from the tamarind fruit, being as Asian as rice, is surpisingly absent in the Philippine beverage menu even though it is popular in Latin America and the rest of the Southeast Asian countries.

Noodle varieties are limited to a handful. Rice wrappers for spring roll is just one type, unlike in Vietnam. Having plenty of variation and versatility for example, the Vietnamese would use rice as sesamed crackers, or Mexicans would make their corn into taco shells, or Indians would use wheat as poppadoms.

Filipino food is safe to say more as a comfort food, a peasant food concocted at a time when all Filipinos were all living on agricultural-fishing existence, contented to eat simply on rice and one or two-dish meal - one dry and the other wet or soupy. Even if Filipinos have attained a higher degree of sophistication, the same ingredients are used and the same flavor is maintained.

Most sit-down and casual dining restaurants in Manila would fall under the mid-range category. But there are budget ones as well. For budget dining, just follow the office workers making a beeline to building basements, canteens, or carinderias (road side stalls) during lunchbreak almost everywhere in the city and even in high class Makati area. The men usually wear short sleeved Barong Tagalog and the ladies, like bank teller attires. These are not lowly workers but they pay lunch as cheap as US$1.00 complete with a clear broth, a dish, and a cup of rice enough to energize the office worker for the rest of the day. University canteens open to the public offer student meals and have resident nutritionists too. Along Recto and Nicanor Reyes Sts., the epicenter of downtown university belt cosmos, there are dime a dozen shops that offer complete and filling budget meals as low as ₱35.

Local Snack or Ice Cream Parlors

Some of the food offered by these parlors may be also be on restaurant menus (since these are categorically dessert items), those that specialize in local cuisine. But these parlors are also a separate category of their own. Goldilocks and Red Ribbon, super hygienic Americanized establishments stand out from the rest usually found in malls, and from the humble food stalls in the public markets where they originated. These two are basically bakeshops but they function as native ice cream parlors, serving more or less the following which are authentically or adaptively Filipino:

§  Ice Cream- mostly serving never heard flavors at least in the western world such as purple yam, avocado, carabao cheese, coconut, or pandan.

§  Sago Parfait - tapioca balls parfait.

§  Creamed Coconut and Pandan flavored Jellies

§  Almond Jellies Lychees - also with shaved ice.

§  Sweetened Sport Coconut Flesh - also with shaved ice.

§  Frozen Fruit Salad

§  Halo-Halo - the queen of Philippine Snacks/Desserts, a Japanese invention of a salad of sweet beans and peas, jellies, and fruits and shaved ice found everywhere in the Far East. The Philippine version always has these ingredients - young sweetened coconut shreddings called Macapuno, nipa palm nut flesh orKaong, Pinipig or toasted sweet rice, Ube or purple yam paste, Leche Flan or egg custard, and ice cream.

§  Guinomis - Pinipig or toasted sweet rice and sago in coconut syrup and shaved ice.

§  Mango Jam

§  Mais Con Yelo (Hielo) - iced sweet corn porridge in syrup

§  Saba Con Yelo (Hielo) - iced stewed plantain in syrup

§  Langka Con Yelo (Hielo)- fresh jackfruit in syrup

§  Mangga at Sumang Malagkit – Philippine version of the Thai mango and glutinous sweet rice. In this case the rice is steamed while wrapped in banana or palm leaf.

§  Banana and Young Coconut Pies

§  Leche Flan or Custard

§  Mango Pudding

§  Crema de Fruta - layered fruit cocktail cake.

§  Cashew Tart

§  Egg Bonbon

§  Silvana

§  Polvoron - some foreigners call this volcano candy because it inevitably spews the powdery concoction once the mouth is opened while chewing it, a Spanish shortbread from flour, sugar, carabao's milk, and nuts.