FILIPINO FOOD!
Here are some of the most popular Filipino dishes and some pictures and descriptions.
If you would like the recipe for any of these dishes, email Lisa Hardin,
our cultural chair, and she can get it to you!
Dishes
ADOBO - Comes in chicken or pork varieties. In this dish, the meat is cooked in
soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves, lots of garlic, and whole peppercorns.
PANCIT - Sauteed noodles with fresh vegetables with bits and slices of meat. Has
many different varieties:
Palabok - steamed white noodles in achuete sauce
Bihon - fine rice noodles, soy sauce and calamansi sauce, with shrimp, fish
balls, and Chinese sausage
Sotanghon - Uses sotanghon noodles with chicken, has a sour taste from lemons,
and has a distinctly red look from achuete (looks more like a soup).
LUMPIA - Ground pork with veggies. Lumpiang Shangai are the finger-sized lumpias.
Lumpiang Togue are bigger but only has vegetables in it (especially bean
sprouts). Lumpiang Sariwa is very very similar to Vietnamese Spring Rolls.
SINIGANG - Pork, chicken, or fish with spinach in tamarind stock soup. Slightly
sour.
DINUGUAN- Cooked pork blood with pork meat, known to children as
'chocolate pork'.
TORTA- Ground pork, sauteed tomatoes/eggplant, onions, and egg sauteed together to form a
flat omelette
KARE-KARE - Oxtail with vegetables in rich peanut
(butter) sauce. Great with bagoong.
LECHON - Roasted whole pig!
LONGANISA - Filipino sausage, sometimes a little sweet and has slight red color
from seasoning
BEEF STEAK (bistek) - beef marinated in kalamansi juice and vinegar, then
sauteed with onions
ATAPA - beef marinated in vinegar and garlic, then fried
SPAGHETTI - Haha! No lies. What makes Filipino spaghetti distinctive than the
other kinds out there is the sweetness. Yes, spaghetti Filipino-style is sweet,
from either the sauce or longanisa (sometimes hot dogs).
Condiments
TOYO - soy sauce
PATIS - fish sauce
BAGOONG - shrimp paste
KALAMANSI - Or Calamondin, small globular citrus fruits used for flavoring (also
makes a good juice) - similiar looking to key limes, but has a distinct, tart
flavor.
Miscellaneous Foods/Snacks
ACHARA - pickled vegetables, Filipino style. Usually used as an appetizer or
side dish.
SAMPALOK - tamarind, usually found in candy form or used as flavoring (in
sinigang)
SIOPAO - Steamed bun with meat inside (usually asado, meatball, or chicken...and
actually, it has Chinese origin)
BALUUT - boiled duck egg (usually dyed purple) with duck
embryo inside.
CORN NIC - roasted corn kernals seasoned with salt and dried garlic. Also comes
in different flavors.
TURON - large, sweet-filled eggroll. filled with mango, jackfruit or
plantains rolled in and deep fried!
Drinks
SARSI - Sarsasparilla soda, pretty good stuff
SAN MIGUEL - Filipino beer
