Philippine Cuisine
History
Philippine cuisine consists of the food,
preparation methods and eating customs
found in the Philippines. The style of
cooking and the food associated with it
have evolved over many centuries from
its Austronesian origins to a mixed cuisine
with
many Malay, Chinese, Spanish, American,
and other Asian and Latin influences
adapted to indigenous ingredients and the
local palate.
History
During the pre-spanish era in the Philippines,
the preferred Austronesian methods for food
preparation were boiling, steaming and
roasting. The ingredients for common dishes
were obtained from locally raised livestock.
In 3200 BCE, Austronesians from the southern
China Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and Taiwan
settled in the region that is now called the
Philippines. They brought with them
knowledge of rice cultivation and other
farming practices which increased the number
and variety of edible dish ingredients
available for cooking
History
Direct trade and cultural exchange
with Hokkien China in the Philippines in
the Song dynasty (960–1279 BC) with
porcelain, ceramics, and silk being traded for
spices and trepang in Luzon.
This early cultural contact with China
introduced a number of staple food into
Philippine cuisine, most notably toyo (soy
sauce; Chinese), tokwa;
(tofu; Chinese), tawge (bean
sprout; Chinese), and patis (fish sauce), as
well as the method of stir frying and making
savory soup bases.
History
Spanish settlers in the 16th century
brought with them produce from the
Americas like chili peppers, tomatoes,
corn, potatoes, and the method
of sautéing with garlic and onions.
Today, Philippine cuisine continues to
evolve as new techniques, styles of
cooking, and ingredients find their way
into the country.
Characteristic of Philippine Cuisine
Filipinocuisine is distinguished by its bold combination of
sweet (tamis), sour (asim), and salty (alat) flavors. While
other Asian cuisines may be known for a more subtle delivery
and presentation, Filipino cuisine is often delivered all at
once in a single presentation.
Counterpoint is a feature in Philippine cuisine which normally
comes in a pairing of something sweet with something salty,
and results in surprisingly pleasing combinations.
Examples include: champorado (a sweet cocoa rice porridge),
being paired with tuyo (salted, sun-dried fish); dinuguan (a
savory stew made of pig's blood and innards), paired
with puto (sweet, steamed rice cakes); unripe fruits such
as mangoes (which are only slightly sweet but very sour), are
eaten dipped in salt or bagoong; the use of cheese (which is
salty) in sweetcakes (such as bibingka and puto).
Characteristic of Philippine
Cuisine
Vinegar is a common ingredient. Adobo is popular
not solely for its simplicity and ease of
preparation, but also for its ability to be stored for
days without spoiling, and even improve in flavor
with a day or two of storage. Tinapa is a smoke-
cured fish while tuyo, daing, and dangit are
corned, sun-dried fish popular because they can
last for weeks without spoiling, even without
refrigeration.
The traditional way of eating is with the hands,
especially dry dishes such as inihaw or prito. The
diner will take a bite of the main dish, then eat
rice pressed together with his fingers. This
practice, known as kamayan, is rarely seen in
urbanized areas.
Common Dishes
As with most Asian countries, the staple food in
the Philippines is rice.
Leftover rice is often fried with garlic to
make sinangag, which is usually served at
breakfast together with a fried egg and cured
meat or sausages.
Rice is often enjoyed with the sauce or broth from
the main dishes.
A variety of fruits and vegetables are often used in
cooking. Bananas (the saba variety in
particular), kalamansi, guavas (bayabas), mangoes,
papayas, and pineapples lend a distinctly tropical
flair in many dishes.
Common Dishes
Meat staples include chicken, pork, beef,
and fish. Seafood is popular as a result of the
bodies of water surrounding the archipelago.
The most common way of having fish is to
have it salted, pan-fried or deep-fried, and
then eaten as a simple meal with rice and
vegetables. It may also be cooked in a sour
broth of tomatoes or tamarind as in pangat,
prepared with vegetables and a souring agent
to make sinigang, simmered in vinegar and
peppers to make paksiw, or roasted over hot
charcoal or wood (inihaw).
Common Dishes
Food is often served with various dipping sauces. Fried
food is often dipped in vinegar, soy sauce, juice
squeezed from Kalamansi (Philippine lime orcalamansi),
or a combination of two or all.
Patis (fish sauce) may be mixed with kalamansi as
dipping sauce for most seafood. Fish sauce, fish paste
(bagoong), shrimp paste (bagoong alamang) and
crushed ginger root (luya) are condiments that are often
added to dishes during the cooking process or when
served.
Regional Specialties
Northern Philippine cuisine
Ilocanos, from the rugged Ilocos region, boast of a diet
heavy in boiled or steamed vegetables and freshwater
fish, but they are particularly fond of dishes flavored
with bagoong, fermented fish that is often used instead
of salt. Ilocanos often season boiled vegetables
with bagoong monamon (fermented anchovy paste) to
produce pinakbet. Local specialties include the soft
white larvae of ants and "jumping salad" of tiny live
shrimp.
The Igorots prefer roasted meats,
particularly carabao meat, goat meat, and venison.
Northern Philippine cuisine
Baguio, known for a snack called sundot-
kulangot which literally means "poke the booger."
It's actually a sticky kind of sweet made from
milled glutinous rice flour mixed with molasses,
and served inside pitogo shells, and with a stick to
"poke" its sticky substance with.
The town of Calasiao in Pangasinan is known for
its puto, a type of steamed rice cake.
Pampanga, longganisa (original sweet and spicy
sausages), calderetang kambing (savory goat
stew), and tocino (sweetened cured pork).
Combining pork cheeks and offal, Kapampangans
make sisig.
Northern Philippine cuisine
Bulacan is popular for chicharon (pork rinds)
and steamed rice and tuber cakes like puto. It
is a center for panghimagas or desserts, like
brown rice cake or kutsinta, sapin-
sapin, suman, cassava cake, halaya ube and
the king of sweets.
San Miguel, Bulacan,
famous carabao milk candy pastillas de leche,
with its pabalatwrapper.
Cagayan is known for Pancit
Cabagan(Cabagan, Isabela) and Carabao Milk
Candy and Tuguegarao for Pancit Batil Patung
and Buko Roll.
Northern Philippine cuisine
Laguna is known for buko pie (coconut
pie) and panutsa (peanut brittle).
Batangas is home to Taal Lake, a body of
water that surrounds Taal Volcano. The
lake is home to 75 species of freshwater
fish. Among these,
the maliputo and tawilis are two not
commonly found elsewhere. These fish
are delicious native
delicacies. Batangas is also known for its
special coffee, kapeng barako.
Central Philippine cuisine
Bicol is known for its very spicy Bicol express. The
region is also the well-known home of natong also
known as laing or pinangat (a pork or fish stew in taro
leaves).
Bacolod is known for chicken "inasal" which is a kind
of roast chicken served on skewers.
Iloilo is known for La Paz
batchoy, pancit molo, dinuguan, puto, biscocho and p
iyaya.
Cebu is known for its lechón variant. Lechon prepared
"Cebu style" is characterized by a crisp outer skin and
a moist juicy meat with a unique taste given by a
blend of spices. Cebu is also known for sweets like
dried mangoes and caramel tarts.
Southern Philippine cuisine
In Mindanao, the southern part of Palawan island, Sulu
and Tawi-Tawi, dishes are richly flavored with the spices
common to Southeast Asia: turmeric, coriander, lemon
grass, cumin, and chillies — ingredients not commonly used
in the rest of Filipino cooking.
Well-known dishes from the region include Satti (satay)
and ginataang manok (chicken cooked in spiced coconut
milk). Certain parts of Mindanao are predominantly Muslim,
where pork is rarely consumed.
Rendang, a ofspicy beef curry with its origins among
the Minangkabau people
of Sumatra; biryani and kiyoning(pilaf), dishes originally
from the Middle East, are given a Mindanaoan touch and
served at special occasions.
Southern Philippine cuisine
Pyanggang is a Tausug dish made from barbecued
chicken marinaded in spices, and is served with coconut
milk infused with toasted coconut meat.
Popular crops such as cassava root, sweet potatoes,
and yams are grown.
Sambal, a spicy sauce made with belacan, tamarind,
aromatic spices and chillies, is a popular base to many
dishes in the region.
Another popular dish from this region is tiyula itum, a
dark broth of beef or chicken lightly flavored with
ginger, chili, turmeric, and toasted coconut flesh
(which gives it its dark color).
Filipino Dish
Crispy Pata
Crispy pata is a Filipino dish consisting of deep fried
pig trotters or knuckles served with a soy-vinegar
dip. It can be served as party fare or an everyday
dish. Many restaurants serve boneless pata as a
specialty. The dish is quite similar to the German
How to cook Crispy Pata?
Instructions
• Pour water in a cooking pot then let boil.
• Put-in dried bay leaves, whole peppercorn, star anise, and 4 teaspoons of salt.
• Add the whole pig’s legs in the cooking pot then simmer until the leg becomes
tender (about 45 to 60 minutes).
• Remove the tender leg from the cooking pot and set aside until the
temperature goes down.
• Rub the leg with garlic powder, ground black pepper, and remaining salt. Let
stand for 15 minutes to absorb the rub.
• Heat a clean large cooking pot (preferably with cover) and pour-in cooking oil.
• When the oil becomes hot, deep fry the rubbed pork leg. Continue cooking in
medium heat until one side becomes crispy, and then cautiously flip the leg to
crisp the other side. Note: Be extra careful in doing this procedure.
• Turn-off the heat; remove the crispy pork leg; and transfer it to a wide serving
plate.
• Serve with atcharang papaya and soy sauce – vinegar dipping sauce.
• Share and enjoy!
Ingredients of Crispy Pata
Ingredients
• 1 piece whole pig leg cleaned
• 6 pieces dried bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons whole peppercorn
• 4 pieces star anise optional
• 6 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 12 cups water
• 6 cups cooking oil
Pinakbet
Pinakbet is an indigenous Filipino dish from the
northern regions of the Philippines. Pinakbet is made
from mixed vegetables sautéed in fish or shrimp
sauce. The word is the contracted form of the Ilokano
word pinakebbet, meaning "shrunk" or "shriveled."
How to cook Pinakbet?
Cooking Procedures:
1. In a large pan, place water let boil
2. Put in the anchovy sauce and wait for the mixture to boil once
more
3. Add-in the vegetables starting with the ginger, then the sweet
potatoes, okra, bitter melon, eggplant, string beans, tomato,
and onion and simmer for 15 minutes
4. Add the bagnet or lechon kawali (cooking procedure available
in the recipe section) and simmer for 5 minutes
5. Serve hot.
Ingredients of Pinakbet
• 4 pcs round eggplant, cut in half
• 2 pcs small bitter melon (ampalaya), quartered
• 1/2 bundle string beans, cut into 2 inch length
• 1 small sweet potato (kamote), quartered
• 8 pcs small okra
• 2 thumbs ginger, thinly sliced
• 1 large tomato, cubed
• 1 large onion, cubed
• 11/2 cup water
• 1 lb bagnet or lechon kawali
• 1/2 cup Anchovy sauce (bagoong isda)
Kare-kare
Kare-kareis a Philippine stew that features a
thick savory peanut sauce. It is generally
made from a base of stewed oxtail, beef
tripe, pork hocks, calves feet, pig's feet or
trotters, various cuts of pork, beef stew
meat, and occasionally offal.
How to cook Kare-kare?
Instructions
• In a large pot, bring the water to a boil
• Put in the oxtail followed by the onions and simmer for 2.5 to 3 hrs or
until tender (35 minutes if using a pressure cooker)
• Once the meat is tender, add the ground peanuts, peanut butter, and
coloring (water from the annatto seed mixture) and simmer for 5 to 7
minutes
• Add the toasted ground rice and simmer for 5 minutes
• On a separate pan, saute the garlic then add the banana flower,
eggplant, and string beans and cook for 5 minutes
• Transfer the cooked vegetables to the large pot (where the rest of the
ingredients are)
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Serve hot with shrimp paste. Enjoy!
Ingredients of Kare-kare
Ingredients
• 3 lbs oxtail cut in 2 inch slices you an also use tripe or beef slices
• 1 piece small banana flower bud sliced
• 1 bundle pechay or bok choy
• 1 bundle string beans cut into 2 inch slices
• 4 pieces eggplants sliced
• 1 cup ground peanuts
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup shrimp paste
• 34 Ounces water about 1 Liter
• 1/2 cup annatto seeds soaked in a cup of water
• 1/2 cup toasted ground rice
• 1 tbsp garlic minced
• 1 piece onion chopped
• salt and pepper
Adobo
Philippine adobo is a popular Filipino dish and
cooking process in Philippine cuisine that involves
meat, seafood, or vegetables marinated in vinegar,
soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, and black
peppercorns, which is browned in oil, and simmered
in the marinade.
How to cook Adobo?
Instructions
• Combine the pork belly or chicken meat, soy sauce, and garlic then
marinade for at least 1 hour
• Heat the pot and put-in the marinated pork belly then cook for a few
minutes
• Pour remaining marinade including garlic.
• Add water, whole pepper corn, and dried bay leaves then bring to a
boil. Simmer for 40 minutes to 1 hour
• Put-in the vinegar and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes
• Add salt to taste
• Serve hot. Share and enjoy!
Ingredients of Adobo
Ingredients
• 2 lbs pork belly/Chicken Meat
• 2 tablespoons garlic minced or crushed
• 5 pieces dried bay leaves
• 4 tablespoons vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon peppercorn
• 2 cups water
• Salt to taste
Sinigang Baboy
Sinigang is a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its
sour and savoury taste. It is most often associated
with tamarind, although it can use other sour fruits
and leaves as the souring agent. It is one of the more
popular dishes in Filipino cuisine.
How to cook Sinigang?
Instructions
• Pour water into a cooking pot. Let boil
• Add onion and tomato. Boil for 5 to 8 minutes.
• Put the pork in the cooking pot. Boil for 25 minutes.
• Add the taro. Cover and continue to boil for 30 minutes.
• Add Knorr Sinigang sa Sampaloc mix, fish sauce, and ground black
pepper; stir.
• Put the daikon radish in. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the chili peppers, okra, and snake beans. Cook for 7 minutes.
• Add the kangkong. Cover the cooking pot and turn off the heat. Let it
stay covered for 5 minutes.
• Transfer to as serving bowl. Serve with a small bowl with patis and
spicy chili.
• Share and enjoy!
Ingredients of Sinigang Baboy
Ingredients
• 2 lbs. pork belly sliced into cubes
• 2 to 3 cups kangkong leaves
• 3 pieces long green chili pepper siling pansigang
• 2 pieces tomato quartered
• 1 cup sliced daikon radish labanos
• 10 to 12 pieces snake beans cut in 2 inch length pieces
• 1 piece onion quartered
• 15 pieces okra
• 2 pieces taro peeled and cut in half (gabi)
• 8 cups water
• 2 packs Knorr Sinigang sa Sampaloc Mix Original (20 gram pack)
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce patis
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Bibingkang Malagkit, rice cakes
made from glutinous rice flour.
Bibingka Galapong, rice cakes
with salted duck eggs.
Nilupak, a dessert made from mashed
cassava. sweet potatoes, or saba bananas
with butter or margarine.
Filipino Dish
Kutchinta (also known as Puto Cuchinta)
Maja de ube (or "halaya") a dessert made
from mashed purple yam and coconut milk.
Fusion Cuisine
FILIPINO-CHINESE FUSION
CUISINE
Siopao Asado is the Philippine indigenized version of
the Cantonese steamed bun called cha siu bao. In Chinese,
it is called baozi. It is popular to both Chinese and Filipino
restaurants and it is commonly part of dim sum cuisine.
There are various varieties based on the
filling: pork asado or bola-bola (a combination of
pork, chicken, beef, shrimp or salted duck egg).
Lumpiang Shanghai known for being the fried Filipino
spring roll dish that clears out almost instantly at any
party, Lumpiang Shanghai requires only two base
ingredients of ground pork and spring roll pastry. The
dish is also eaten with a variety of sauces, making it
super versatile for food-dip pairing choices.
Chop Suey is a stir-fried vegetable dish that is
cooked with meats such as chicken and pork. Shrimp
and seafood can also be added. This chop suey
recipe is special because it has almost every
ingredient present. Chicken, pork, shrimp, and
boiled quail eggs were all included in the recipe,
along with fresh veggies.
Thank you!
Prepared by:
Evonee Kate E. Agustin
Razel Christine Bayona
