This is a list of selected dishes found in the Philippines. While the names of some dishes may be the same as those found in other cuisines, many of them have evolved to mean something distinctly different in the context of Filipino cuisine.
Typically pork or chicken, or a combination of both, is slowly cooked in vinegar, cooking oil, crushed garlic, bay leaf, black peppercorns, and soy sauce, and often browned in the oven or pan-fried afterward to get the desirable crisped edges.
Philippine English term for Inihaw. Grilled or skewered meat (mainly pork or chicken) marinated in a sweet soy-garlic mixture, grilled, basted with the marinade and then served with either a soy-vinegar dip or a sweet brown sauce. Variants also use offal, such as isaw.
Deep fried portions of pork legs including knuckles often served with a chili and calamansi flavored dipping soy sauce or chili flavored vinegar for dipping.
Referring to both a dish of poached or fried fish that is marinated in an acidic mixture before serving, and to the marinade itself. Can refer broadly to sweet and sour dishes.
Also called endulsado in Zamboanga City. Pork cooked in a sweet sauce with pineapple juice and sugar. Tomato sauce is also sometimes added. It is named after the Spanish glazedham (jamón and endulzado mean "ham" and "glazed" in Spanish, respectively). It is also the name of a type of sweet Philippine sausage noted for its ham-like taste.
A Visayan slow-cooked sweet pork dish based on the Chinese dish Hong-ba (red-braised pork belly). It is similar to pork adobo and hamonado except that it characteristically uses fermented black soybeans (tausi).
Visayan variant of fish paksiw. Fish cooked in a broth of vinegar, ginger, and other spices. Unlike northern paksiw na isda, it does not include vegetables.
The name refers to the three main ingredients used in the dish: kadyos (pigeon peas), baboy (pork) and langka (jackfruit). The broth is soured with batwan, a fruit native to Southeast Asia.
The name refers to the three main ingredients used in the dish: kadyos (pigeon peas), manok (chicken) and ubad (the edible inner layers of a banana stalk).
A dish made with cuts of pork, beef or goat simmered in tomato paste or tomato sauce, with liver spread added to it.
Kinunot
Bicol
Seafood
From the word kunot which literally means shred. A dish made up of either shredded meat of pagi (stingray) or baby shark cooked in coconut milk with malunggay (moringa) leaves.
A cooking process that relies on vinegar to denature the ingredients, similar to ceviche. Usually used to prepare raw seafood. It can also be used to prepare lightly cooked meat or vegetables.
A dish made by roasting a whole pig over charcoal. It is often cooked during special occasions. A simpler version has chopped pieces of pork fried in a pan or wok (lechon kawali). A variant that is popular in the Visayas region is lechon de leche, which is a whole roasted suckling pig.
Also refers to the manner of cooking, i.e., spitted and charcoal-roasted, for example, lechon manok (roasted chicken).
A variant of spring rolls, either deep or pan fried (prito), or fresh (sariwa). Popular versions include lumpiang shanghai, a fairly narrow fried roll usually with a meat filling, often accompanied by a sweet chili dipping sauce, and lumpiang ubod, a wider, fresh spring roll filled with raw vegetables local to the area.
Name derived from mitsa meaning "wick" which is what the pork fat inserted into a slab of beef looks like before the larded beef is cooked, sliced, and served in the seasoned tomato sauce it is cooked in.
A beef roulade often prepared for special occasions it consists of thin sheets of cooked eggs and marinated beef layered one on top of the other, then wrapped and tied around carrots, celery, cheese, pork fat, and sausage. This is then cooked in seasoned tomato sauce.
Generally means to cook and simmer in vinegar. Common dishes bearing the term, however, can vary substantially depending on what is being cooked. Paksiw na isda is fish poached in a vinegar broth usually seasoned with fish sauce and spiced with siling mahaba and possibly containing vegetables. Paksiw na baboy is pork, usually hock or shank, cooked in ingredients similar to those in adobo but with the addition of sugar and banana blossoms to make it sweeter and water to keep the meat moist and to yield a rich sauce. Paksiw na lechon is roasted pork lechon meat cooked in lechon sauce or its component ingredients of vinegar, garlic, onions, black pepper and ground liver or liver spread and some water. The cooking reduces the sauce so that by the end the meat is almost being fried.
A popular spicy Maranao condinment also served as an ulam with rice. Made of pounded sakurab, ginger, chillies and salt. After pounding into a rough mix the palapa is briefly fried to release its rich and spicy flavor. A variant mixed with grated coconut and turmeric is also made. Palapa is mostly used as a condiment alongside meat, chicken or fish, or is used in the main dish Piaparan, a famous dish of the Lanao region of Mindanao.
Braised pork leg dish similar to Paksiw na Pata, Chinese style. Simmered in a sweet soy sauce flavored by Chinese herbs such as star anise, banana blossoms, etc.
A popular spicy Maranao main dish made of palapa, grated coconut, bell peppers, poultry or fish, turmeric, chilli, and vegetables. Served with a soup made of the same ingredients and served over white rice.
In Bicol refers to a dish of taro leaves, chili, meat, and coconut milk tied securely with coconut leaf. In Manila the dish is known more commonly as laing. Pinangat or pangat also refers to a dish or method of cooking involving poaching fish in salted water and tomatoes.
Relleno
Stuffed meat, seafood, or vegetable dishes like rellenong bangus (stuffed milkfish), rellenong manok (stuffed chicken), and rellenong talong (stuffed eggplant) also known as tortang talong (see below).
Fried and sizzled chopped bits of pig's head and liver, other versions using tuna or milkfish, usually seasoned with calamansi and chili peppers and sometimes topped with an egg.
A variation on an omelette, often referring to one made out of ground beef and potatoes. Other common variations include tortang alimasag, made with crab meat, and tortang talong, made with whole long eggplants roasted prior to adding the eggs.
Ukoy
Vegetable dish
Shrimp fritters often accompanied by vinegar as dipping sauce.
Food cooked with gata (coconut milk), with the literal translation of the word being, "cooked with coconut milk." It can refer to a number of different dishes, each called ginataan, but distinct from one another depending on their originating districts as well as the main protein. Ginataang hipon, for example, refers to shrimp cooked in coconut milk, ginataang gulay to an assortment of vegetables cooked in coconut milk, ginataang alimango is crabs cooked in coconut milk, while ginataang manok is chickens cooked in coconut milk . Coconut milk can also be added to existing dishes, as in ginataang adobo
A beef stew with cabbages, potatoes, and onion seasoned with fish sauce and black peppercorns usually using beef chuck or brisket. When using beef shank including the bone and marrow it is called nilagang bulalo.
A sour soup/stew made with pork meat, beef or seafood, mixed with a variety of vegetables. Any sour fruit such as tamarind, unripe mango and pineapple is usually used as the souring agent.
Macaroni chicken soup. Usually contains chicken strips in broth, onions, vegetables (mainly carrots, cabbage and celery), in addition to macaroni noodles. It is cooked with evaporated milk to give it richer flavor.
A dish often made of chicken, although pork and fish can also be used, wedges of green papaya, and chili pepper leaves, in broth flavoured with ginger, onions and fish sauce served as a soup or main entrée.
Tinolang isda goes well with kangkong (water spinach).
Another variant of Pancit Palabok which uses shrimp, squid, and other seafoods as toppings. The noodles are thicker than that of the Palabok and Luglug.
This is a type of pancit, or stir-fried rice noodle dish, which originated in Tanza, Cavite. Its main ingredient is mung bean sprouts (used as a substitute for rice noodles). Its sauce includes corn starch, atsuete, tinapa and kamias.
Filipino version of spaghetti with a tomato (or sometimes banana ketchup) and meat sauce characterized by its sweetness and use of hotdogs or sausages.
An Ilocano salad made with leaves, shoots, blossoms, or the other parts of the plant are boiled and drained and dressed with bagoong (preferably) or patis, and sometimes souring agents like calamansi or cherry tomatoes are added as well as freshly ground ginger.
A hearty, glutinous rice dish that incorporates various ingredients, such as chorizo de bilbao, carrots, raisins, pork, chicken, bell peppers, garlic and onions. Turmeric is used to give the bright yellow colour characteristic of the dish. It is often garnished with sliced hard boiled eggs.
Arroz Caldo is a hearty simple meal, commonly eaten when sick for better digestion or when the weather is quite cold. It is composed of various ingredients, including uncooked rice or leftover rice, garlic, onion, ginger, and boiled eggs. It's key difference from other porridge is the use of ginger slices, which gives that distinct aroma and kick of spice.
A sweet chocolate rice porridge. It can be served hot or cold and with milk and sugar to taste. It is served usually at breakfast and sometimes together with dried fish locally known as tuyo.
A complex rice dish frequently involving seafood such as shrimps (hipon) and mussels (tahong) taken from Spanish cuisine that is mostly prepared during special occasions.
Refers to the combination of sinangag (fried rice), itlog (egg) and meats. The name of the meats are then suffixed to the word silog, turning meats such as tapa and longganisa into tapsilog and longsilog, It is also served with other viands such as Tocino (Tocilog), Hotdog (Hotsilog), and Bangus (milkfish) (bangsilog).
A pork sausage similar to a chorizo. It has its own regional variants such as Longganisang Ilocano and Longganisang Lucban of the Ilocos Province and of the City of Lucban, Quezon, respectively, that is made with much garlic, and Sweet Chorizo of Cebu which is similar to sausages but with a sweeter flavor.
A cured meat product native to the Philippines. It is usually made out of pork although beef is also used and is cured using sugar which gives it its "ham-like" glaze.
A food made by mixing sugar, salt, and water to unripened mangoes that have previously been salted.
Ensaladang talong
Salad
A salad with boiled/grilled eggplant as the primary ingredient. It can be served as is, in a pickling solution of vinegar and garlic or with tomatoes, onions and bagoong alamang.
Literally "wrapped". Food wrapped in banana leaves. Usually a meal consisting of a smoked or fried viand and rice sometimes accompanied by a salted egg, tomatoes, or atchara.
A common street food most often made from the meat of cuttlefish or pollock and served with a sweet and spicy sauce or with a thick dark brown sweet and sour sauce.
A chicken dish wherein the chicken is beaten to death, dressed and roasted whole on a spit. Pinikpik means "beaten (with a hard object)", which is done to infuse the chicken meat with blood.
Steamed filled bun. Common versions are asado, shredded meat in a sweet sauce similar to a Chinese barbecued pork filling, and bola-bola, a packed ground pork filling.
A tempura-like Filipino street food of duck or quail eggs covered in an orange-dyed batter and then deep-fried. Tokneneng uses duck eggs while the smaller kwek kwek use quail eggs.
A bean curd (tokwa is Filipino for tofu, from Lan-nang) and pork dish. Usually serving as an appetizer or for pulutan. Also served with Lugaw. It is a type of kinilaw.
A local version of the Chinese sesame seed balls (jin deui). Variants can range from almost exactly the same as the Chinese version, to versions which do not use sesame seeds and are filled with local fillings like ube or bukayo. Also spelled butsi.
A pastry or a brioche made with butter (instead of lard) and topped with grated cheese (usually queso de bola, the local name for aged Edam) and sugar.
Or simply pastel, is a Filipino soft bun with yema (custard) filling originating from the province of Camiguin. The name is derived from Spanish pastel ("cake"). In addition to the original yema filling, pastel also feature other fillings, including ube, mocha, macapuno, cheese, chocolate, durian, jackfruit, and mango, among others. Pastel is regarded as a pasalubong (regional specialty gifts) of Camiguin Island and nearby Cagayan de Oro City.
A pastry made from compressed toasted flour, milk, and sugar. Sometimes made with ground peanuts, cashews or pinipig. May be coated with milk or milk chocolate.
Filipino cookies made from flour, eggs, shortening, sugar, and baking powder. Its name comes from the Spanish word rosca (ringlet).[1][2] Not to be confused with Spanish rosquillos or roscos which are more akin to small doughnuts.
A rich custard made of egg yolks with a layer of soft caramel on top (as opposed to crème brûlée, which has a hard caramel top). Sometimes sliced and added to other desserts such as halo-halo.
A toffee-like food delicacy made with coconut milk, jaggery, and rice flour. Sticky, thick and sweet, it is served mostly during festivals such as Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha.
A popular dessert that is a mixture of shaved ice and milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans and fruits, and served cold in a tall glass or bowl.
Latík in the northern Philippines refers to coconut milk curds used as toppings. In the Visayan regions, it refers to a thick, sweet syrup made from coconut milk and sugar.
Like most suman, the morón is made from glutinous rice, but is smoothened and then either striped or divided into two flavor parts, one part being flavored with chocolate from the local cacao and the other part with coconut milk
It is a kind of gelatinous and translucent dessert typical of Philippine cuisine. This dessert is very typical in the provinces of La Laguna and Quezon. It is a food fermented by the action of a bacterium (Leuconostoc mesenteroides) that feeds on the existing disaccharides in certain fruits: mainly coconut in conjunction with carrageenan. The name of this dessert is literally what it sounds like in Spanish.
They are made from malagkít (sticky rice) washed, soaked, and then ground. Scoops of the batter are dropped into boiling water where they float to the surface as flat discs which are then dipped in grated coconut and presented with a separate dip of sugar and toasted sesame seeds.
A flat pastry filled with a jam made of muscovado sugar and sometimes sprinkled with sesame seeds, grilled on a pan. Different flavours include ube (purple yam), mango and chocolate.
Small white buns baked from rice flour. Variations include ube and pandan flavours, as well as toppings like cheese and salted duck egg. Sometimes used to accompany other dishes, usually dinuguan (black pudding stew).
A combination of local hot chocolate and steamed glutinous rice usually served with "muscovado" sugar and ripe mango. Isa Sweet Tooth, a well known dessert specialist, is one of the well known maker of this unique sweet in the region.
Traditional Filipino ice cream. Usually peddled by a sorbetero from a brightly coloured pushcart, it is sometimes made with coconut milk or rarely carabao milk. Typical flavours include ube, cheese, cookies and cream, avocado, strawberry, Chocnut (a popular crumbly chocolate and peanut sweet), and melon. Sorbetes is can be served on a cone, in a cup, or on bread such as pan de sal or hotdog buns.
Made with fresh tofu, arnibal (a brown sugar and vanilla syrup), and sago pearls. Usually sold in the morning by a hawker known as a magtatahô and can be eaten as a breakfast. May be served either hot (straight from the magtatahô) or sometimes it can be purchased chilled. Probably developed from the Chinese treat douhua.
A typical Philippine snack consisting of a banana or plaintain and maybe jackfruit wrapped in a springroll wrapper then deep fried and sprinkled with sugar.
Ube jam, made from boiled and mashed purple yam. Ube halaya (Or halayang ube; variant spellings halea, haleya; from the Spanishjalea, "jam") is also used in pastries and other desserts such as halo-halo and ice cream.
It is made by salting and fermenting the bonnet mouth fish. This bagoong is coarser than Bagoong monamon, and contains fragments of the salted and fermented fish.
Also known as liver sauce or breadcrumb sauce made out of ground liver or liver pâté, vinegar, sugar, and spices. A sweet, tangy light-brown sauce used in roasts and the pork dish called lechon
Describes a number of sauces made by cooking oysters. The most common in modern use is a viscous dark brown condiment made from oyster extracts, sugar, salt and water thickened with corn starch. Some versions may be darkened with caramel, though high-quality oyster sauce is naturally dark
Peanut sauce is used with meat and vegetables, adding flavor to grilled skewered meat, such as satays, poured over vegetables as salad dressing such as in gado-gado, or as a dipping sauce.
This is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to ethanol using yeast, and ethanol to acetic acid by acetic acid bacteria.
This is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds. It is considered to contain a strong umami flavor.
An alcoholic rice drink made of glutinous rice. It is a clear full-bodied wine with a strong alcoholic flavor, moderately sweet and often leaves a lingering taste.
Generally considered the national fruit of the Philippines. Frequently eaten ripe as it is or when unripe with bagoong or used as an ingredient in dishes.
A short wide plaintain that is often used in cooking. The other two kinds of saging (bananas) common in local markets are the dessert cultivars latundan and lakatan.
A type of fruit used as souring agent and antiseptic in local dishes especially Kinilaw. Records show that ancient Filipinos used this already as an ingredient predating Spanish colonization.
Usually dried tofu or tokwa. Sometimes added as an optional ingredient in some vegetable dishes. Silken tofu is usually associated with the snack or dessert taho (see above) which sees it mixed with a sweet syrup.