Food I Ate in the Philippines

During my recent stay in Cebu and Manila, I had a fabulous time trying out the different types of food, some of which I had never tried before. Let me share some with you here.

For my first meal, my friend brought me to this restaurant called Chika-an sa Cebu Restaurant for authentic Cebuano cooking. I enjoyed the meal very much.

 Pinakbet with Chicharon

 Garlic Rice

Fresh Buko 

Sizzling Squid Ala Pobre 

 Nangka Salad

 Baked Scallop

And all that only cost 633 pesos, which converts to about 18 Singapore dollars. I especially liked the Nangka Salad and the Pinakbet which is various vegetables cooked together in a stew and sprinkled with bits of roasted pig skin called chicharon.

In Manila, we went to MetroWalk and tried this restaurant called Jay-J's Chicken Inasal which has several outlets all around town. The food was good too, and the environment quite enjoyable, though it was abit pricy.

 Garlic Rice

 Sisig Pork

 Lumpia Shanghai

Bulalo

Another smaller restaurant that we tried was the Ermita Cafe located just opposite the Manila Pavilion Hotel in Orosa Street. The food there was good too and very reasonably priced.

 Pinakbet

 Lechon Kawali

Pancit Solo

I especially liked the Lechon Kawali which is pan-roasted pork. It was crispy and not oily at all and the sauce dip was very tasty.

 Chick-Boy

 Pork BBQ                                           Inasal Paa

Jollibee

 ChowKing

 Halo-Halo

We also visited several different fast-food restaurants, viz. Chick-Boy which serves barbecue chicken and pork dishes, Jollibee which serves burgers and pasta, and ChowKing which serves roast chicken Chinese style, stir-fry vegetables and Chinese dim-sum. We also tried the famous Filipino dessert Halo-Halo which is fresh fruits, caramel and jelly mixed with shaved ice and coconut cream and syrup and topped with yam ice-cream. Absolutely delicious.

 Cebu hotel breakfast                          Manila hotel buffet breakfast

Then, of course, there are the hotel breakfasts. The hotel in Cebu served set meals which you can choose from a menu. Of special mention is the fried fish, so fresh and crispy, but I have forgotten the name of the fish. In Manila, we had buffet breakfast. I especially loved the corned beef and cabbage, the cheese and the fresh papaya and pineapple which were so sweet.

And now for the street food, which can be found almost everywhere. I simply love trying street food, they are cheap and tasty and cannot be found back home.

Tempura and Fishballs is quite a favourite with the locals. This is actually fish paste dipped in batter and deep fried and then skewered with a stick. You can eat it with different sauces, some spicy, some sweet. Although deep fried, it is not crispy but slightly chewy.

Pork and Chicken Barbecue stalls can be easily found on the roadside. They serve marinated meats on bamboo sticks cooked over an open charcoal grill. You can also find sausages, pig intestines and chicken innards. Quite tasty if you don't mind the dirty surroundings.

                                                         Puso

Then there are the bigger stalls that sell barbecue meats to be eaten with rice packed into a woven palm leaf pouch and boiled like a dumpling, Sugba and Puso. You can create your own sauce to dip the meat and rice in, using salt, soya sauce, lime and chilli padi. The chicken feet was quite a treat.

In downtown Cebu City, I chanced upon this stall selling Puso and fried meats, instead of the usual BBQ. Here you can choose various fried items such as sausages, spring rolls, stuffed crab shells, octopus, chicken etc and eat it with the Puso. As usual you get a dip of soya sauce, onions, chilli and salt. Quite popular with students during their lunch break. Another new experience for me to eat with a plastic bag turned inside out as a glove.

Ginanggang

At a street market in Lapu-Lapu, I found a stall selling Ginanggang, which is banana on a stick grilled over charcoal and brushed with margarine and sprinkled with sugar. Very nice indeed. Then another stall sold sliced young papaya in a spicy sauce. The papaya being unripen was crunchy and the spicy sauce brought out the sweetness. Very enjoyable.

And finally, my all-time favourite, the Lechon Baboy. Actually I tried very hard to find this popular favourite, and when I saw an entire pig being roasted, I was travelling on the bus and could not stop to try it. So the next best thing was to eat this version.

 Lechon Baboy and Lechon Manok

The roast pork (lechon baboy) we absolutely fantastic, especially when eaten hot off the grill. The roast chicken (lechon manok) was also tasty but not as crispy as the pork skin. We had a great time eating the lechon with puso on the roadside. Undoubtedly the best meal I had in the Philippines.