Filipinos’ addiction to sidewalk delicacies isn’t a wonder — they are accessible, quickly satisfying, and (perhaps most importantly) affordable.
Much to our pleasure, these gastronomic delights are just about everywhere: outside markets, churches, parks, office buildings, schools, or any other place with a sidewalk. Lining the crowded or even obscure roads in the country are makeshift stalls peddling foods of different shapes and colors. Nowadays, it’s not surprising to see yuppies in corporate attires lining up for taho or fishballs along the sidewalks of Makati’s commercial district. And at prices ranging from P3 to P20, street foods are a lifesaver on days when a few coins are all that’s left in your purse.
Street foods are often linked to health risks – thereby making eating them a guilty, irresistible pleasure. These foods also reflect Filipinos’ culinary creativity and passion for eclectic yet laid-back cuisine.
If you’re in for some exotic food adventure, then these 10 most popular Pinoy street delicacies should make it on your list.
- Balut
Photo courtesy of Top Ten List
The sight of that poor hairy little duckling may gross some people out, but the boiled fertilized duck egg is still an all-time favorite street snack in the Philippines. Such love for the balut many Filipinos are willing to spread by recommending it to almost every foreign tourist they meet. True enough, eating balut is tasting Filipino culture regardless of where you come from.
Aside from the Philippines, balut is also common in our Southeast Asian neighbors like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. This unique egg delicacy is so popular it has been featured a lot of times in a number of reality TV shows including Fear Factor.
For the uninitiated, the typical way to enjoy balut is to crack open the shell, sip the soup from the egg, peel the shell, and eat the yolk and chick. Best served warm, balut tastes excellent when paired with a mix of some salt, chili, and vinegar. Some people use it as pulutan (colloquial term for “finger food”) with chicharon (“pork cracklings”) during beer drinking sessions.
If you’re a Filipino and you haven’t tried balut, save yourself the shame and try it now. It’ll cost you just 10 to 20 bucks.
- Isaw and other ihaw-ihaws
Photo by Icqgirl under CC by 3.0
In the local eating scene, chicken and pork innards from head to foot don’t usually go straight to the trash bin. They are meant to be savored in the streets. Talk about Pinoy ingenuity when it comes to creating exotic cuisines out of seemingly useless internal organs.
Take isaw, or chicken intestines as an example. They are cleaned, boiled, marinated, skewered, and grilled or deep-fried. From this comes the most popular of all the grilled delicacies offered in the streets. It’s a bit crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The smell of smoke coming from the isaw being grilled is enough to make any true blue Filipino salivate.
Besides isaw, other barbequed delicacies are also blockbuster hits along the sidewalks. Filipinos have baptized some of these street foods with strange yet funny names. For instance: helmet (chicken head), walkman (pork ears; named from a music player), betamax (chicken blood shaped to form a rectangle), and adidas (chicken feet; named after a popular shoe brand).
- Fishballs
Among the best-sellers and most familiar in the local streets, fishballs are a cheap filling snack at only 50 cents apiece. They are deep-fried in a large wok, along with other similarly popular seafood-based treats such as squidballs and kikiam (vegetable and pork coated with bean curd sheets). The sauce enhances their flavor. Typically, you have three choices: sweet, spicy, and spiced vinegar.
Eating this delicacy is an experience in itself, as the customer has the option of skewering the pieces from the wok onto the barbecue stick themselves. If you’re conscious about cleanliness, avoid dipping your skewered fishballs straight into the jar of sauce. In lieu of sharing bodily fluids, simply pour the sauce into an individual container. Don’t forget to ask the vendor (who’s fondly nicknamed Manong Fishball) a piece of carton, onto which the fishball stick is laid out, to be poured on with as much sauce as you want.
- Palamig/Samalamig
Photo by Mark Joseph Lopez under CC by 2.0
In a tropical country like the Philippines, ice-cold beverages are a must in the streets. For just P10, you can have a refreshing palamig or samalamig to quench your growing thirst while under the sweltering summer heat. These cold drinks come in a variety of flavors; the most popular ones include buko juice (young coconut drink) and sago at gulaman (caramel-flavored drink with gelatin and tapioca balls).
- Sorbetes
Photo by ironchefbalara under CC by 2.0
Considered an icon of Filipino culture, sorbetes is a homemade version of ice cream peddled in multi-colored pushcarts. It’s also known as “dirty ice cream”, though it’s not really as dirty as it sounds. Some say the name is used to tell it apart from commercial ice cream. Others think it got that nickname from its daily exposure to pollution, as Manong Sorbetero (yes, that’s what he’s called) pushes his cart alongside the polluted streets. Regardless, it’s hard to resist a cone with a colorful tower of scoops of different flavors like ube, cheese, mango, mocha, avocado, and vanilla. No doubt, this sweet treat is a hit among kids and adults alike.
- Iskrambol/Scramble
Photo courtesy of GiantCrush
Iskrambol is a crowd favorite among students, as it is typically sold just outside school premises. A combination of the words “ice” and “crumble,” iskrambol is a pink or yellow frostee-type of drink made of ice shavings and artificial food coloring topped with powdered milk, tapioca balls, and chocolate syrup.
- Tokneneng/Kwek-kwek
Photo courtesy of Top Ten List
Tokneneng, kwek-kwek, hepalog, buknoy – whatever you call them, those round orange things are sure to satisfy your craving. These deep-fried egg delicacies are made from duck, chicken, or quail eggs and coated with a mixture of flour and food coloring. People love to drench the tokneneng in vinegar or sweet sauce before eating them.
- Banana cue/Kamote cue
Photo courtesy of Yummy
Banana
These sweet and filling afternoon treats are deep-fried saba banana or sweet potato (kamote) covered with caramelized sugar and skewered on barbeque sticks – hence their names. Lesser known but equally delicious varieties of these snacks include turon (fried banana spring rolls), maruya (banana fritters), and kamote fries.
- Taho
Photo courtesy of Top Ten List
Eating taho for breakfast is a delicious routine for many busy Pinoys. It’s a quick morning fix that fills your stomach without emptying your pocket. What’s more, taho is a good source of protein since it’s made up of soya bean curd mixed with tapioca balls and arnibal (caramel-flavored syrup). Taho is originally a Chinese delicacy adapted by Filipinos.
- Manggang Hilaw
Green mango, known locally as manggang hilaw, is a sour and unripe mango that’s cut in thirds (including the middle part which holds the seed) and skewered on a little stick. It comes in two varieties: the bigger and succulent manggang kalabaw and the smaller and sweeter Indian mango. When eaten with bagoong (shrimp paste), manggang hilaw is sure to tickle your taste buds. Green mangoes peddled in the streets typically cost P10 each.
Top 10 All-Time Favorite Pinoy Street Foods
0Photo courtesy of Forum Philboxing
Filipinos’ addiction to sidewalk delicacies isn’t a wonder — they are accessible, quickly satisfying, and (perhaps most importantly) affordable.
Much to our pleasure, these gastronomic delights are just about everywhere: outside markets, churches, parks, office buildings, schools, or any other place with a sidewalk. Lining the crowded or even obscure roads in the country are makeshift stalls peddling foods of different shapes and colors. Nowadays, it’s not surprising to see yuppies in corporate attires lining up for taho or fishballs along the sidewalks of Makati’s commercial district. And at prices ranging from P3 to P20, street foods are a lifesaver on days when a few coins are all that’s left in your purse.
Street foods are often linked to health risks – thereby making eating them a guilty, irresistible pleasure. These foods also reflect Filipinos’ culinary creativity and passion for eclectic yet laid-back cuisine.
If you’re in for some exotic food adventure, then these 10 most popular Pinoy street delicacies should make it on your list.
Photo courtesy of Top Ten List
The sight of that poor hairy little duckling may gross some people out, but the boiled fertilized duck egg is still an all-time favorite street snack in the Philippines. Such love for the balut many Filipinos are willing to spread by recommending it to almost every foreign tourist they meet. True enough, eating balut is tasting Filipino culture regardless of where you come from.
Aside from the Philippines, balut is also common in our Southeast Asian neighbors like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. This unique egg delicacy is so popular it has been featured a lot of times in a number of reality TV shows including Fear Factor.
For the uninitiated, the typical way to enjoy balut is to crack open the shell, sip the soup from the egg, peel the shell, and eat the yolk and chick. Best served warm, balut tastes excellent when paired with a mix of some salt, chili, and vinegar. Some people use it as pulutan (colloquial term for “finger food”) with chicharon (“pork cracklings”) during beer drinking sessions.
If you’re a Filipino and you haven’t tried balut, save yourself the shame and try it now. It’ll cost you just 10 to 20 bucks.
Photo by Icqgirl under CC by 3.0
In the local eating scene, chicken and pork innards from head to foot don’t usually go straight to the trash bin. They are meant to be savored in the streets. Talk about Pinoy ingenuity when it comes to creating exotic cuisines out of seemingly useless internal organs.
Take isaw, or chicken intestines as an example. They are cleaned, boiled, marinated, skewered, and grilled or deep-fried. From this comes the most popular of all the grilled delicacies offered in the streets. It’s a bit crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The smell of smoke coming from the isaw being grilled is enough to make any true blue Filipino salivate.
Besides isaw, other barbequed delicacies are also blockbuster hits along the sidewalks. Filipinos have baptized some of these street foods with strange yet funny names. For instance: helmet (chicken head), walkman (pork ears; named from a music player), betamax (chicken blood shaped to form a rectangle), and adidas (chicken feet; named after a popular shoe brand).
Among the best-sellers and most familiar in the local streets, fishballs are a cheap filling snack at only 50 cents apiece. They are deep-fried in a large wok, along with other similarly popular seafood-based treats such as squidballs and kikiam (vegetable and pork coated with bean curd sheets). The sauce enhances their flavor. Typically, you have three choices: sweet, spicy, and spiced vinegar.
Eating this delicacy is an experience in itself, as the customer has the option of skewering the pieces from the wok onto the barbecue stick themselves. If you’re conscious about cleanliness, avoid dipping your skewered fishballs straight into the jar of sauce. In lieu of sharing bodily fluids, simply pour the sauce into an individual container. Don’t forget to ask the vendor (who’s fondly nicknamed Manong Fishball) a piece of carton, onto which the fishball stick is laid out, to be poured on with as much sauce as you want.
Photo by Mark Joseph Lopez under CC by 2.0
In a tropical country like the Philippines, ice-cold beverages are a must in the streets. For just P10, you can have a refreshing palamig or samalamig to quench your growing thirst while under the sweltering summer heat. These cold drinks come in a variety of flavors; the most popular ones include buko juice (young coconut drink) and sago at gulaman (caramel-flavored drink with gelatin and tapioca balls).
Photo by ironchefbalara under CC by 2.0
Considered an icon of Filipino culture, sorbetes is a homemade version of ice cream peddled in multi-colored pushcarts. It’s also known as “dirty ice cream”, though it’s not really as dirty as it sounds. Some say the name is used to tell it apart from commercial ice cream. Others think it got that nickname from its daily exposure to pollution, as Manong Sorbetero (yes, that’s what he’s called) pushes his cart alongside the polluted streets. Regardless, it’s hard to resist a cone with a colorful tower of scoops of different flavors like ube, cheese, mango, mocha, avocado, and vanilla. No doubt, this sweet treat is a hit among kids and adults alike.
Photo courtesy of GiantCrush
Iskrambol is a crowd favorite among students, as it is typically sold just outside school premises. A combination of the words “ice” and “crumble,” iskrambol is a pink or yellow frostee-type of drink made of ice shavings and artificial food coloring topped with powdered milk, tapioca balls, and chocolate syrup.
Photo courtesy of Top Ten List
Tokneneng, kwek-kwek, hepalog, buknoy – whatever you call them, those round orange things are sure to satisfy your craving. These deep-fried egg delicacies are made from duck, chicken, or quail eggs and coated with a mixture of flour and food coloring. People love to drench the tokneneng in vinegar or sweet sauce before eating them.
Photo courtesy of Yummy
Banana
These sweet and filling afternoon treats are deep-fried saba banana or sweet potato (kamote) covered with caramelized sugar and skewered on barbeque sticks – hence their names. Lesser known but equally delicious varieties of these snacks include turon (fried banana spring rolls), maruya (banana fritters), and kamote fries.
Photo courtesy of Top Ten List
Eating taho for breakfast is a delicious routine for many busy Pinoys. It’s a quick morning fix that fills your stomach without emptying your pocket. What’s more, taho is a good source of protein since it’s made up of soya bean curd mixed with tapioca balls and arnibal (caramel-flavored syrup). Taho is originally a Chinese delicacy adapted by Filipinos.
Green mango, known locally as manggang hilaw, is a sour and unripe mango that’s cut in thirds (including the middle part which holds the seed) and skewered on a little stick. It comes in two varieties: the bigger and succulent manggang kalabaw and the smaller and sweeter Indian mango. When eaten with bagoong (shrimp paste), manggang hilaw is sure to tickle your taste buds. Green mangoes peddled in the streets typically cost P10 each.
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