Local Dishes

1. Adobo

   Adobo (meat braised in vinegar and soy sauce)

   Usage

   The best-known Filipino home dish. A dish cooked in vinegar and salt, usually seasoned with pepper, garlic and bay leaf. Chicken (adobong manok) and pork (adobong baboy) versions are on almost every menu

   Grammar Note

   To name the meat, the linker -ng attaches to the dish name: adobong manok (chicken adobo), adobong baboy (pork adobo)

2. Sinigang

   Sinigang (sour soup)

   Usage

   A soup dish of meat, fish or shrimp soured with tamarind (sampalok), guava or kamias. Menus specify the main ingredient: sinigang na baboy (pork), sinigang na hipon (shrimp)

3. Kare-kare

   Kare-kare (oxtail stew in peanut sauce)

   Usage

   Oxtail, trotters and pork knuckle stewed in thick roasted-peanut sauce with eggplant, pechay, radish, string beans and okra, coloured with atsuwete. Not curry or spicy; avoid with peanut allergy. Served with fermented shrimp paste bagoong.

4. Sisig

   Sisig (chopped grilled pig's head on a sizzling plate)

   Usage

   A dish of pork meat, brain and head seasoned with onion and pepper. It comes from Pampanga (Kapampangan cuisine) on Luzon; Angeles City declared sizzling pork sisig part of its intangible heritage in 2017. A standard beer companion

5. Litson

   Litson (whole roast pig)

   Usage

   Whole pig roasted over charcoal, a celebration centrepiece. Spellings letsón, variant litsón and Spanish lechon; signs mostly use lechon. Crisp skin balat is prized. litsong baboy is pork, litsong manok chicken, litsong kawali deep-fried pork belly.

6. Crispy pata

   Crispy pata (deep-fried pork knuckle)

   Usage

   crispy pata is pork knuckle deep-fried golden and crisp. English crispy plus Spanish-derived pata; menus use this spelling. A large platter for sharing.

7. Lumpiya

   Lumpiya (spring roll)

   Usage

   Sautéed shrimp, meat and vegetables in a thin flour wrapper. Filipino spelling lumpiya; lumpia is another spelling. Common forms are thin fried lumpiyang Shanghai and fresh unfried lumpiyang sariwa.

8. Pansit bihon

   Pansit bihon (stir-fried rice vermicelli)

   Usage

   bihon is thin white rice-flour noodles. Pansit is served at birthdays for long life. Filipino spelling pansit, also pancit. Thick yellow noodles are pansit kanton; glass noodles pansit sotanghon.

9. Pansit palabok

   Pansit palabok (rice noodles with shrimp sauce)

   Usage

   palabok in pansit palabok is thick sauce of pounded shrimp and smoked fish, mixed into noodles. No broth; topped with boiled egg, chicharon and spring onion, with calamansi. Avoid with shellfish allergy.

10. Bulalo

    Bulalo (beef shank and marrow soup)

    Usage

    bulalô means marrow and soup of beef or carabao shank. A cool-highland speciality such as Tagaytay, with clear broth, corn, cabbage and spring onion. Differently stressed bulaló is a medical term for intestinal blockage.

11. Tinola

    Tinola (chicken and green papaya ginger soup)

    Usage

    A soup dish, usually chicken with unripe papaya, chayote or bottle gourd, flavoured with ginger and garlic. Mild and warming — the dish Filipinos recommend when you are unwell. Chilli leaves (dahon ng sili) are stirred in at the end

12. Kaldereta

    Kaldereta (goat or beef stew in tomato sauce)

    Usage

    kalderéta, from Spanish caldereta, is goat, beef or mutton stew. Filipino spelling kaldereta; menus also use caldereta. Goat version: kalderetang kambing.

13. Menudo

    Menudo (diced pork and potato in tomato sauce)

    Usage

    A dish of finely chopped meat sautéed with potatoes, bell pepper and tomato sauce. ⚠ Unrelated to Mexican menudo (tripe soup) — the Filipino dish is a mildly sweet tomato stew, normally with pork and pork liver

14. Apritada

    Apritada (meat braised with tomato, potato and bell pepper)

    Usage

    apritáda, from Spanish afritáda, is meat sautéed with onion and tomato, with potato and bell pepper in sauce. Filipino f becomes p: apritada. Menus often use afritada.

15. Bistek

    Bistek (beef marinated in soy sauce with onions)

    Usage

    bisték, from English beefsteak, is sliced meat marinated in soy and onion, seasoned with calamansi and soy and covered in onion rings. Menus also say bistek Tagalog.

16. Dinuguan

    Dinuguan (pork blood stew)

    Usage

    A dish of meat and offal combined with pork or beef blood, garlic and other ingredients. ⚠ The dark colour is blood. Avoid it if your diet or faith excludes blood or offal. Usually served with puto (steamed rice cake). English menus sometimes euphemise it as "chocolate meat" — it is not sweet

    Grammar Note

    Formed from the root dugo ("blood") with the infix -in- and suffix -an, giving "the thing treated with blood". The same pattern produces sinigang, sinangag and kinilaw

17. Paksiw

    Paksiw (fish or meat simmered in vinegar)

    Usage

    Fish or meat boiled in water, vinegar, garlic and ginger. Unlike adobo, no soy sauce. paksiw na isda is fish; paksiw na lechon is leftover roast pork re-simmered.

18. Inasal

    Inasal (Visayan-style grilled chicken)

    Usage

    inasál, in- + Spanish asar, means grilled or roasted over embers. A regional Visayan style, especially associated with Bacolod on Negros. Menus nearly always mean manok na inasal, chicken, marinated with calamansi, annatto and lemongrass.

19. Pinakbet

    Pinakbet (mixed vegetables with fermented fish paste)

    Usage

    An Ilocos dish from northern Luzon, from Ilokano pinakebbet, to shrink or wilt. Tomato, onion, garlic, eggplant, okra, bitter gourd, squash and pork seasoned with bagoong. Understood nationwide; the Ilocano original uses fermented monamon fish bagoong.

20. Laing

    Laing (dried taro leaves in coconut milk)

    Usage

    A Bicol dish from southeastern Luzon: dried taro gabi leaves cooked in coconut milk with meat or seafood, locally called pinangat. Often very spicy; eaten with rice.

21. Bikol Ekspres

    Bikol Ekspres (pork and chillies in coconut milk)

    Usage

    Among the spiciest Filipino dishes: long or bird’s-eye chillies, coconut milk, bagoong, onion, pork, ginger and garlic. Bicolano style, popularised in Malate, Manila; named by Cely Kalaw at a 1970s cooking contest after the Bicol Express train. Bikol calls it sinilihan. Spelling Bikol Ekspres; menus usually Bicol Express.

22. Tapa

    Tapa (cured dried meat)

    Usage

    tápa is thinly sliced sun-dried meat. Breakfast tapsilog = tapa + sinangag, garlic fried rice, + itlog, egg. The same pattern gives tosilog with tosino and longsilog with longganisa. Differently stressed tapá means smoked fish.

23. Longganisa

    Longganisa (Filipino sausage)

    Usage

    longganísa, from Spanish longaniza, is minced beef and pork with spices in dried pork casing. Strong regional variation: sweet hamonado or garlicky-sour de recado. Breakfast longsilog = longganisa + sinangag + itlog.

24. Sinangag

    Sinangag (garlic fried rice)

    Usage

    sinangág derives from sangág, to toast or fry dry. Day-old rice fried with garlic, the breakfast base. It supplies si- in -silog names: tapsilog = tapa + sinangag + itlog.

25. Daing na bangus

    Daing na bangus (split, vinegar-cured milkfish)

    Usage

    dáeng, variant dáing, is fish split, salted and sun-dried. Menus normally write daing. bangús is the Philippine national fish Chanos chanos. Breakfast bangsilog includes sinangag and egg. Very bony.

    Grammar Note

    Na is the linker between a modifier and a noun. After a vowel or -n it contracts to -ng (adobong manok); daing ends in -g, so the free form na is used

26. Balut

    Balut (boiled fertilised duck egg)

    Usage

    A duck egg with an embryo, boiled. Contains a partly developed embryo; declining is fine. Mostly sold at night, eaten with salt, vinegar and chilli. Pateros in Metro Manila is a noted producer. An unfertilised egg is the different item penoy.

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