50 Fun Facts About Filipino Food

Adobo, often called the national dish, is a stew based on soy sauce and what?

It keeps for days without spoiling and improves with time.

What is the fiesta centrepiece known as lechon?

It is the centrepiece of fiesta tables, served with a sauce made from the pig's liver.

Kare-kare is an oxtail stew cooked in which kind of sauce?

It is served with bagoong, a fermented shrimp paste.

Sinigang is traditionally soured with which fruit?

Guava or miso are used in some seafood versions; it rivals adobo as the national dish.

What does the word pancit refer to?

The Chinese introduced rice noodles to the islands.

Fresh lumpia, or lumpiang sariwa, derives from which Chinese dish?

It is served with a sweet peanut and garlic sauce.

Pinakbet, the Ilocano vegetable stew, is flavoured with what?

Squash, eggplant, okra and bitter melon go into it.

Dinuguan is a savoury stew made from what?

It is often paired with puto, a sweet steamed rice cake, for contrast.

Champorado, the sweet chocolate rice porridge, is traditionally eaten with what?

Sweet and salty pairings are a guiding principle of the cuisine.

Remains of which tuber, about 11,000 years old, were found in Palawan's Ille Cave?

The purple yam is native to Island Southeast Asia.

Which people built the Banaue Rice Terraces?

They used only basic tools, stone and mud walls on the mountain slopes.

The Manila galleon trade linked the Philippines with which port?

It brought maize, chilli, tomatoes, chocolate and pineapples from the Americas.

How much did the United States pay Spain for the Philippines in 1898?

The islands remained a colony until 1946.

Which Manila restaurant popularised American-style fried chicken?

Americans also introduced Spam, corned beef and evaporated milk.

In 2022, TasteAtlas ranked Filipino cuisine where in the world?

Chicken inasal and sisig were singled out among the best dishes globally.

The Philippines is the only known exporter of edible varieties of which nut?

It melts in the mouth with a milky texture and goes into desserts.

What is kamayan?

Dry dishes like inihaw are eaten with rice pressed together in the fingers.

A "boodle fight" feast is served on what?

The style was popularised by the Philippine Army.

Why did the spoon and fork, not the knife, become the standard Filipino utensils?

Diners cut food with the side of the spoon instead.

In breakfast names like tapsilog and longsilog, "si" stands for sinangag, which is what?

Tapa, longganisa and tocino supply the tap-, long- and toci- parts.

Kapeng barako, a strong coffee variety, is grown in the mountains of which province?

It is a breakfast staple alongside pandesal.

Kesong puti, the fresh white cheese, is traditionally made from the milk of which animal?

Most commercial versions now use cow's milk.

Pulutan, the word for finger food eaten with drinks, comes from a word meaning what?

It is roughly equivalent to tapas.

How many times is chicharon fried to get its crunch?

The pork rinds are boiled first; the second frying gives the golden colour.

Sisig is made mainly from which parts of the pig?

It is boiled, grilled, then minced with onions and chillies; a Kapampangan classic.

Sisig and kare-kare are signature dishes of which regional cuisine?

It comes from Pampanga and parts of Tarlac in Central Luzon.

What cheese stars on the Noche Buena Christmas table alongside ham?

Queso de bola is a popular corporate giveaway in the season.

Puto bumbong, the purple Christmas rice cake, is steamed in what?

It is sold outside churches along with bibingka.

Ukoy are fried patties of small shrimp and shredded what?

They are dipped in garlic vinegar and often served with fresh lumpia at parties.

Bicol express is a spicy stew of pork, chilli and what?

Bicol is the region with the hottest appetite for chilli.

Laing, the Bicol speciality, is made with the leaves of which plant?

They are simmered in coconut milk; pinangat uses them too.

Kaldereta is often associated with which meat besides beef?

It is a tomato stew with peas, carrots, peppers, potatoes and sometimes liver.

La Paz batchoy, the Iloilo noodle soup, is topped with what?

Pork innards and crushed cracklings go in too.

Filipino-style spaghetti is often made with which sauce and topped with hot dog slices?

It is sweetened with sugar.

Kinilaw, raw seafood "cooked" only by steeping in a sour marinade, is comparable to which dish?

Pre-colonial cooks used the tabon-tabon fruit as an antibacterial ingredient.

Atchara is a side dish of pickled what?

It is served with fried dishes like tapa and daing, much like sauerkraut.

Sukang Iloko, the essential Ilocano souring agent, is made from what?

It is essential in paksiw and kilawen.

Dagupan City, home of the boneless bangus, is the capital of which fish?

Bangus is the Filipino name for milkfish.

What does the name of the Baguio snack sundot-kulangot literally mean?

The sticky rice-and-molasses sweet is served in pitogo shells with a stick.

Pastillas de leche, the famous milk candy, comes from San Miguel in which province?

It is wrapped in an elaborate cut-paper pabalat.

Tawilis, found only in Taal Lake, is the world's only freshwater what?

The lake holds 75 species of freshwater fish, including landlocked marine species.

Besides its roast pig, Cebu is known for a preserved form of which fruit?

Cebu-style lechon is prized for its crisp skin and spiced, juicy meat.

Halo-halo is often attributed to migrants from which country in 1920s Manila?

The ancestor dish, mongo-ya, was mung beans in syrup over crushed ice.

Leche flan differs from Spanish flan by using more egg yolks and what?

It is usually steamed rather than baked.

Tuba is a toddy tapped from what?

It is gathered by a climber called a mananguete and sours within hours.

Turon is a fried lumpia wrapper filled with what?

Jackfruit is sometimes added and it is sprinkled with sugar.

Taho, the warm street snack, is made of soft beancurd, tapioca pearls and a syrup called what?

It descends from the Chinese douhua and is hawked with a shout of "taho!"

What is balut?

It is eaten with vinegar and salt; penoy is the unfertilised version.

The street food nicknamed "adidas" is grilled what?

"Betamax" is coagulated chicken blood and isaw is intestines.

Davao City is known for whole-roasting which unusual animal?

Similar dishes are found in Palawan and Tanay.