Editor Pick
Street Food
- November 20, 2005
- Rated 3 of 5 by
marseilles from Metro Manila, Philippines
Not for the sensitive stomach, but the truly adventurous traveler knows that the best way to experience the local cuisine of a country is by trying their street food. Street vendors on the sidewalks of Manila serve fish balls, squid balls, fried bananas, and barbecue on sticks; sitsaron (deep-friend pork rind eaten with vinegar); and boiled peanuts. Most mornings, you can hear vendors of "taho" (a snack made of bean curd and syrup) calling out "Tahoooo!!!" as they walk through the streets of residential neighborhoods.
The most adventurous travelers can try some of the more exotic local delicacies typical of Asian cuisine: "adidas" (grilled chicken feet), "isaw" (grilled pork intenstines), "IUD" (grilled chicken intestines), "tukneneng" (flour-coated quail eggs) and "balut" (boiled fertilized duck eggs: the almost-fully-developed embryo is visible when you crack open the egg).
Some street food is seasonal. At Christmas, vendors set up stalls outside churches and sell puto bumbong (a snack made with purple ground rice and steamed in bamboo tubes) and bibingka (a pancake made with glutinous rice). Before the summer ushers in the mango season, vendors sell green mango dipped in "bagoong" (fish/shrimp paste).
Some local traditional dishes are available in neighborhood "carinderias" (small eateries that sell home-cooked meals). Most carinderias will sell adobo (pork or chicken cooked in a marinade made of vinegar, soy sauce, and pepper) and arroz caldo (a thick soup with rice, chicken and ginger).
Again, these dishes are only for the most adventurous travelers, as some travelers may have (well-founded) fears about the cleanliness of food sold by sidewalks vendors (not to mention the exotic nature of some of these dishes!). But ask any Filipino who lives abroad what he or she misses most about the Philippines, and at least one of these dishes will probably be high up on that list.
From journal Manila, Gastronomical Wonderland