No Pinoy is ever too old for a sweet tooth, especially after a meal of greasy, tasty, and (sometimes) artery-clogging meal in the tune of Krispy Pata, Lechon or Sisig.
Sweet snacks and desserts have fueled the Filipino culture, disregarding powerful discriminations like class and status. From simple home-made iced candy sold by vendors on the sidewalk, to a range of sugar-laced desserts in posh restaurants, sweets complete a Filipino meal. And as a plus, our native sweets are as friendly to the wallet as they are to the palate.
- Sago’t Gulaman
This is a famous thirst-quencher available both in restaurants and sidewalks. It is a mixture of Sago (tapioca balls), derived from dried cassava root; and gulaman, also called agar-agar, known as the Asian counterpart of jelly.
Sago’t gulaman is usually served in a tall glass with the combination of panutsa (brown sugar), vanilla syrup and crushed ice.
Photo by Let’s Go Pinas
Cost and Preparation: A glass usually costs Php5-10 \in the local market, and from Php25-30 pesos in more commercialized stalls. Click here for recipe
- Halo-Halo
The ultimate summer sedative that both kids and adults enjoy. This colorful concoction of sweet beans, fruits, and ice cream is the Filipinos’ collective answer to a number of foreign desserts. If ice cream comes in various individual flavors, halo-halo, literally translated as “mixture”, presents a rainbow of them, in a single serving.
Halo-halo is a creamy smorgasbord of layers and layers of a variety of sweet options, including preserved red and chick beans, gulaman, langka (jackfruit), ube (sweet yam), leche flan, saging saba (sweetened plantain), macapuno (coconut meat), and pinipig (pounded dried rice) thrown together with crushed ice and with evaporated milk. The wide range of ingredient options encourage some Filipinos to be more creative and customize their halo-halos by adding other ingredients to please their more discerning palates. Other popular add-ons are corn, sago, and ice cream.
Photo by Kalye Speak
Cost and Preparation: A regular-sized halo-halo costs Php15-25 in local markets, and Php40-80 pesos in commercialized stalls. The more ingredients added, the more it costs.
Click here for recipe
Famous Halo-Halo stores: Chowking, Digman’s and Razon’s
- Ginataan
Similar to halo-halo, without the ice. Ginataan instead uses glutinous sweet rice flour, and comes with other ingredients such as saba (plantain), langka (jackfruit), sago , kamote (sweet potato), and gabi (taro root). And instead of evaporated milk, coconut milk is poured all over the mixture. Because of the heavy filling of rice, ginataan is served as a full-sized snack, instead of an end-of-meal dessert.
Cost and Preparation: Php100-150 can serve 4-5 people.
Click here for recipe
- Leche Flan
One of the culinary residues of the Spanish era. Originally from Europe, specifically the Spanish-speaking territories, leche flan is today known as one of the most delicious (and stylish) dessert in the Philippines. The word ‘flan’ actually refers to a custard tart made from egg yolk, milk and sugar. The Filipino counterpart of the French crème brulee, leche flan is a serving of rich, decadent custard cushioned with a flowing caramel bottom.
Photo from Pinoy Exchange
Cost and Preparation: Each flan normally costs Php70-120 pesos on average, whether bought on local stalls or commercial outlets.
Click here for recipe.
Famous Leche Flan: Salcedo Village Market at the Velasquez Car Park, Leviste & Tordesillas Sts, Salcedo Village, Makati; delicacy stores in Naga and the Bicol Region
- Puto Bumbong or Putubumbong
One of the Filipino emblems of Christmas, always available during the the nine-daysimbang gabi (midnight mass) period. Peddled by manned carts sprouting out in various places, puto bumbong is almost a staple part of the simbang gabi experience: people rush to the nearest putubumbong stalls before or after hearing the novena mass. Eating it during this part of the season is almost a part of the uniquely Filipino way of celebrating the coming Christmas.
But what some people may not be aware of is that despite putubumbong‘s reputation as a Christmas treat, this delicacy is actually available all year round.
The ingredients are anything but seasonal: the key ingredient is the rice flour derived from the sticky purple rice called pirurutong (giving putubumbong its signature, unmistakable purple color. Some putubumbong makers go artificial by mixing glutinous rice or malagkit with violet food coloring.
Although the aforementioned ingredients are readily available in the market, preparing putubumbong requires steaming the ingredients specially-designed tubes made of bamboo or metal (the more commercialized option). The cooked putubumbong is then brushed with melted butter or margarine and topped with shredded coconut and sugar. The usual presentation involves this sweet treat neatly wrapped in bamboo leaves to keep it warm.
Photo taken from Click The City
Cost and Preparation: Each putubumbong wrap costs Php15-20 in sidewalk carts, and Php30-60 in the more commercialized stalls.
Click here for the recipe.
Famous Putubumbong: Gloria Maris, Dad’s (eat all you can)
- Bibingka
This Filipino rice cake is made from galapong (soaked glutinous rice), butter, baking powder, egg and coconut milk. Upon mixing the ingredients, the batter poured into either a native clay or a modern baking pan, with flamed native banana leaves. The baked product is brushed with butter and grated with coconut and sometimes with cheese. “Special” bibingkas usually come topped with slices of salted egg. Just like putubumbong, the bibingka carries a reputation as a Christmas treat. Likewise, they are readily available in local markets and stalls all year round.
Photo by Filipina Soul
Cost and Preparation: Sold in provincial areas for around Php80-120 per box of 6; in metropolitan areas, around Php200-250 per box.
Click here for recipe.
Famous Bibingka: Mer’s Foods at Digos City, Davao; Recy’s Special Bibingka Barrio in Cainta, Rizal; Nena’s Special Bibingka at General Romulo Avenue, Cubao
- Yema or yema balls
A favorite Filipino candy, a yema ball is approximately the size of a regular gum ball. These sugary treats have appeased sweet cravings for years.
The basic ingredients are condensed milk and sugar. But this simple formula has evolved with the addition of other ingredients like butter, powdered milk, egg yolks and peanuts. Yema also comes sold as three-inch tall pyramids; whether in this shape or in the usual sphere, yemas are almost always wrapped in tinted transparent plastic covering. It is also often glazed with syrup to polish and enhance its golden brown look.
Photo from How Sabaw, Carabao
Cost and Preparation: Costs Php200-250 for 30 regular-sized balls. The pyramid-shaped kind, usually sold by street vendors, usually costs about P2-4 apiece.
To make using the basic ingredients, cook a canful of condensed milk over boiling water to produce a thick tanned cream. Scoop up a small amount of the mixture, roll it into a ball and sprinkle with sugar.
Click here for an alternative recipe.
Famous Yema Balls: Davaoenos have produced different variations of yema flavors (pine-yema, coco-yema, durian-yema)
- Maja Blanca
Also known as coconut rice cake, maja blanca is made from coconut milk and corn starch. Other ingredients include corn kernels, and buko shreds. This dessert has for decades been a popular snack served to guests in Filipino homes – a practice that is part and parcel of the Filipino tradition of giving only the best to houseguests. Considering this, maja blanca is considered one of the most “hospitable” foods as it requires approximately an hour and a half of preparation.
Photo by Felisha Lindell
Cost and Preparation: One pan costs about Php150-200.
Click here for recipe
- Other Rice Desserts (Kakanin)
Another rice-based Filipino sweet treat is sapin-sapin, made from rice flour. The name (translated as “sheet-upon-sheet”) actually explains the colorful, layered appearance of this traditional delicacy. Each layer is made of rice flour soaked in coconut, sugar and yam, resulting in the multiple colors (purple, white and golden yellow).
Another delicacy, kutsinta is usually paired with sapin-sapin since it is also made from rice flour. It has a signature brown color, and a more gelatinous consistency. It is usually served topped with shredded coconut.
Photo from Pinoy Exchange
Cost and Preparation:sapin-sapin or 3 pieces of kutsinta costs Php20-30 pesos.
Click here for recipe of sapin-sapin, andhere for kutsinta.
- The Banana Wonders
Aside from merely peeling off the skin and just eating it, there are different ways to make delightful desserts out of an ordinary banana, as Filipinos have come to find out.
Turon – Elongated fried crepes made of ripe bananas in rice wraps, rolled in sugar, and glazed with brown sugar syrup.
Langka (jackfruit) may be used as a banana alternative.
Banana Cue – fried sweetened plantains on barbeque sticks
Maruya – Similar to turon, but instead of rice wrapping, the ripe bananas are simply covered in flour and sugar.
Minatamis na Saging – Translated as “sweetened banana”, this is made of sweetened boiled plantains swimming in luscious brown sugar syrup.
Photo by Filipinofoodstore
Cost and Preparation: For banana cue, each stick with 2-3 banana halves usually costs Php5-10; for maruya and turon, Php5-15 pesos apiece; minatamis na saging comes at Php15-20 per bowl with 2-4 plantains.
Click here for recipe on banana cue
- Buko-Loco
Just like bananas, one can make variations on how to make buko desserts.
Buko Pie – A common pastry made of young coconut called malauhog, sugar, evaporated milk and flour. The pie can be topped with grated cheese. Some variations come with coconut alternatives including macapuno (made from thick and sticky coconut).
Buko juice – A popular thirst quencher like sago’t gulaman, but with health benefits. Most buko juices nowadays are processed and preserved. Fresh buko juice, however, is still available, but comes as part of a whole coconut chopped, shaped, and punctured upon serving. A more accessible type of serving involves pouring the buko juice in a tall glass, throwing in grated coconut meat, and served either naturally warm, or with ice.
Buko salad – This version of fruit salad presents the buko usually mixed with nata de coco (gelatinous derivation of fermented coconut water), mabong (palm/attap seeds), and pineapple.
Photo by Pinaypie
Cost and Preparation: A whole buko pie costs around Php100-120.
Click here for recipe.
Famous Buko delicacies: San Pablo City and Los Banos in Laguna area such as The Original Buko Pie, Colettes, Lety’s and El Mare
- Champorado
The Filipino version of the breakfast cereal. A friend to chocolate lovers everywhere, champorado is made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder. Just like ginataan, champorados are not considered desserts because of their heavier consistency. Filipinos usually find themselves with a steaming bowl of champorado during breakfast, or anytime during the rainy season.
Best eaten with tuyo or dilis (versions of salty dried fish), champorado these days, also comes processed and packed as quick-mix, and is available in local markets. However, many attest that home-made champorado beats any “Just Add Water” version any day.
Photo by Love Alm
Cost and Preparation: Home-made champorado sold to the public costs around Php50-100 pesos for a serving for 4-6 people.
Click here for recipe.
The Sweet Deal
0Photo from Pinoy Exchange
No Pinoy is ever too old for a sweet tooth, especially after a meal of greasy, tasty, and (sometimes) artery-clogging meal in the tune of Krispy Pata, Lechon or Sisig.
Sweet snacks and desserts have fueled the Filipino culture, disregarding powerful discriminations like class and status. From simple home-made iced candy sold by vendors on the sidewalk, to a range of sugar-laced desserts in posh restaurants, sweets complete a Filipino meal. And as a plus, our native sweets are as friendly to the wallet as they are to the palate.
This is a famous thirst-quencher available both in restaurants and sidewalks. It is a mixture of Sago (tapioca balls), derived from dried cassava root; and gulaman, also called agar-agar, known as the Asian counterpart of jelly.
Sago’t gulaman is usually served in a tall glass with the combination of panutsa (brown sugar), vanilla syrup and crushed ice.
Photo by Let’s Go Pinas
Cost and Preparation: A glass usually costs Php5-10 \in the local market, and from Php25-30 pesos in more commercialized stalls. Click here for recipe
The ultimate summer sedative that both kids and adults enjoy. This colorful concoction of sweet beans, fruits, and ice cream is the Filipinos’ collective answer to a number of foreign desserts. If ice cream comes in various individual flavors, halo-halo, literally translated as “mixture”, presents a rainbow of them, in a single serving.
Halo-halo is a creamy smorgasbord of layers and layers of a variety of sweet options, including preserved red and chick beans, gulaman, langka (jackfruit), ube (sweet yam), leche flan, saging saba (sweetened plantain), macapuno (coconut meat), and pinipig (pounded dried rice) thrown together with crushed ice and with evaporated milk. The wide range of ingredient options encourage some Filipinos to be more creative and customize their halo-halos by adding other ingredients to please their more discerning palates. Other popular add-ons are corn, sago, and ice cream.
Photo by Kalye Speak
Cost and Preparation: A regular-sized halo-halo costs Php15-25 in local markets, and Php40-80 pesos in commercialized stalls. The more ingredients added, the more it costs.
Click here for recipe
Famous Halo-Halo stores: Chowking, Digman’s and Razon’s
Similar to halo-halo, without the ice. Ginataan instead uses glutinous sweet rice flour, and comes with other ingredients such as saba (plantain), langka (jackfruit), sago , kamote (sweet potato), and gabi (taro root). And instead of evaporated milk, coconut milk is poured all over the mixture. Because of the heavy filling of rice, ginataan is served as a full-sized snack, instead of an end-of-meal dessert.
Cost and Preparation: Php100-150 can serve 4-5 people.
Click here for recipe
One of the culinary residues of the Spanish era. Originally from Europe, specifically the Spanish-speaking territories, leche flan is today known as one of the most delicious (and stylish) dessert in the Philippines. The word ‘flan’ actually refers to a custard tart made from egg yolk, milk and sugar. The Filipino counterpart of the French crème brulee, leche flan is a serving of rich, decadent custard cushioned with a flowing caramel bottom.
Photo from Pinoy Exchange
Cost and Preparation: Each flan normally costs Php70-120 pesos on average, whether bought on local stalls or commercial outlets.
Click here for recipe.
Famous Leche Flan: Salcedo Village Market at the Velasquez Car Park, Leviste & Tordesillas Sts, Salcedo Village, Makati; delicacy stores in Naga and the Bicol Region
One of the Filipino emblems of Christmas, always available during the the nine-daysimbang gabi (midnight mass) period. Peddled by manned carts sprouting out in various places, puto bumbong is almost a staple part of the simbang gabi experience: people rush to the nearest putubumbong stalls before or after hearing the novena mass. Eating it during this part of the season is almost a part of the uniquely Filipino way of celebrating the coming Christmas.
But what some people may not be aware of is that despite putubumbong‘s reputation as a Christmas treat, this delicacy is actually available all year round.
The ingredients are anything but seasonal: the key ingredient is the rice flour derived from the sticky purple rice called pirurutong (giving putubumbong its signature, unmistakable purple color. Some putubumbong makers go artificial by mixing glutinous rice or malagkit with violet food coloring.
Although the aforementioned ingredients are readily available in the market, preparing putubumbong requires steaming the ingredients specially-designed tubes made of bamboo or metal (the more commercialized option). The cooked putubumbong is then brushed with melted butter or margarine and topped with shredded coconut and sugar. The usual presentation involves this sweet treat neatly wrapped in bamboo leaves to keep it warm.
Photo taken from Click The City
Cost and Preparation: Each putubumbong wrap costs Php15-20 in sidewalk carts, and Php30-60 in the more commercialized stalls.
Click here for the recipe.
Famous Putubumbong: Gloria Maris, Dad’s (eat all you can)
This Filipino rice cake is made from galapong (soaked glutinous rice), butter, baking powder, egg and coconut milk. Upon mixing the ingredients, the batter poured into either a native clay or a modern baking pan, with flamed native banana leaves. The baked product is brushed with butter and grated with coconut and sometimes with cheese. “Special” bibingkas usually come topped with slices of salted egg. Just like putubumbong, the bibingka carries a reputation as a Christmas treat. Likewise, they are readily available in local markets and stalls all year round.
Photo by Filipina Soul
Cost and Preparation: Sold in provincial areas for around Php80-120 per box of 6; in metropolitan areas, around Php200-250 per box.
Click here for recipe.
Famous Bibingka: Mer’s Foods at Digos City, Davao; Recy’s Special Bibingka Barrio in Cainta, Rizal; Nena’s Special Bibingka at General Romulo Avenue, Cubao
A favorite Filipino candy, a yema ball is approximately the size of a regular gum ball. These sugary treats have appeased sweet cravings for years.
The basic ingredients are condensed milk and sugar. But this simple formula has evolved with the addition of other ingredients like butter, powdered milk, egg yolks and peanuts. Yema also comes sold as three-inch tall pyramids; whether in this shape or in the usual sphere, yemas are almost always wrapped in tinted transparent plastic covering. It is also often glazed with syrup to polish and enhance its golden brown look.
Photo from How Sabaw, Carabao
Cost and Preparation: Costs Php200-250 for 30 regular-sized balls. The pyramid-shaped kind, usually sold by street vendors, usually costs about P2-4 apiece.
To make using the basic ingredients, cook a canful of condensed milk over boiling water to produce a thick tanned cream. Scoop up a small amount of the mixture, roll it into a ball and sprinkle with sugar.
Click here for an alternative recipe.
Famous Yema Balls: Davaoenos have produced different variations of yema flavors (pine-yema, coco-yema, durian-yema)
Also known as coconut rice cake, maja blanca is made from coconut milk and corn starch. Other ingredients include corn kernels, and buko shreds. This dessert has for decades been a popular snack served to guests in Filipino homes – a practice that is part and parcel of the Filipino tradition of giving only the best to houseguests. Considering this, maja blanca is considered one of the most “hospitable” foods as it requires approximately an hour and a half of preparation.
Photo by Felisha Lindell
Cost and Preparation: One pan costs about Php150-200.
Click here for recipe
Another rice-based Filipino sweet treat is sapin-sapin, made from rice flour. The name (translated as “sheet-upon-sheet”) actually explains the colorful, layered appearance of this traditional delicacy. Each layer is made of rice flour soaked in coconut, sugar and yam, resulting in the multiple colors (purple, white and golden yellow).
Another delicacy, kutsinta is usually paired with sapin-sapin since it is also made from rice flour. It has a signature brown color, and a more gelatinous consistency. It is usually served topped with shredded coconut.
Photo from Pinoy Exchange
Cost and Preparation:sapin-sapin or 3 pieces of kutsinta costs Php20-30 pesos.
Click here for recipe of sapin-sapin, andhere for kutsinta.
Aside from merely peeling off the skin and just eating it, there are different ways to make delightful desserts out of an ordinary banana, as Filipinos have come to find out.
Turon – Elongated fried crepes made of ripe bananas in rice wraps, rolled in sugar, and glazed with brown sugar syrup.
Langka (jackfruit) may be used as a banana alternative.
Banana Cue – fried sweetened plantains on barbeque sticks
Maruya – Similar to turon, but instead of rice wrapping, the ripe bananas are simply covered in flour and sugar.
Minatamis na Saging – Translated as “sweetened banana”, this is made of sweetened boiled plantains swimming in luscious brown sugar syrup.
Photo by Filipinofoodstore
Cost and Preparation: For banana cue, each stick with 2-3 banana halves usually costs Php5-10; for maruya and turon, Php5-15 pesos apiece; minatamis na saging comes at Php15-20 per bowl with 2-4 plantains.
Click here for recipe on banana cue
Just like bananas, one can make variations on how to make buko desserts.
Buko Pie – A common pastry made of young coconut called malauhog, sugar, evaporated milk and flour. The pie can be topped with grated cheese. Some variations come with coconut alternatives including macapuno (made from thick and sticky coconut).
Buko juice – A popular thirst quencher like sago’t gulaman, but with health benefits. Most buko juices nowadays are processed and preserved. Fresh buko juice, however, is still available, but comes as part of a whole coconut chopped, shaped, and punctured upon serving. A more accessible type of serving involves pouring the buko juice in a tall glass, throwing in grated coconut meat, and served either naturally warm, or with ice.
Buko salad – This version of fruit salad presents the buko usually mixed with nata de coco (gelatinous derivation of fermented coconut water), mabong (palm/attap seeds), and pineapple.
Photo by Pinaypie
Cost and Preparation: A whole buko pie costs around Php100-120.
Click here for recipe.
Famous Buko delicacies: San Pablo City and Los Banos in Laguna area such as The Original Buko Pie, Colettes, Lety’s and El Mare
The Filipino version of the breakfast cereal. A friend to chocolate lovers everywhere, champorado is made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder. Just like ginataan, champorados are not considered desserts because of their heavier consistency. Filipinos usually find themselves with a steaming bowl of champorado during breakfast, or anytime during the rainy season.
Best eaten with tuyo or dilis (versions of salty dried fish), champorado these days, also comes processed and packed as quick-mix, and is available in local markets. However, many attest that home-made champorado beats any “Just Add Water” version any day.
Photo by Love Alm
Cost and Preparation: Home-made champorado sold to the public costs around Php50-100 pesos for a serving for 4-6 people.
Click here for recipe.
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About the Author
Born on the 14th of December 1983. Desperate to change her name to Elinia. Thought to be a child prodigy. Prefers cats to dogs. Non-coffee drinker. Loves to try extreme theme park rides. Sings rock songs in videoke. Can read and write Korean characters. Has a strong affinity for isopropyl alcohol. Poetry and music addict. Can draw stick people. Lousy handwriting. Values silence above anything else.
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