ABOUT FILIPINO FOOD

Featured photo by Jinkee Pacquiao: Lumpiang Hubad with Pandan Sauce 🙂

Puso ng saging literally means “heart of banana” in the Tagalog language. It has been called “banana bell” in English.

As you can see in the photo, a banana heart is reddish-purple on the outside.

Ginisang Munggo by Jeric Travis… Sauteed mung beans is a popular dish in the Philippines. It can be flavored with pork or shrimp, and topped or mixed with some crushed chicharon.

Photo of Ensaladang Pako by Kaycel Corral

A salad of fiddlehead ferns.

After lato, pokpoklo is arguably the next most popular edible seaweed in the Philippines. Also spelled sa pok-pok-lo or pokpok lo, it is very popular in the Ilocos region of northern Luzon.

Kuhol is an edible species of snail that’s often cooked in gata (coconut cream).

A visual tool developed by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute to help Filipinos acquire healthy eating habits.

Kabuting kidlat is the name given to a type of mushroom that appears only after thunderstorms.

Kamatis ligaw are wild tomatoes the size of berries which are occaionally found even in city markets. Small, red and sour, they are the coveted component of a sawsawan in partnership with fresh paho.

tinapa + sinangag + itlog

Tarambulo are round hairy eggplants. Scientific name: Solanum ferox L. Also known as tabanburo or talong-buru. The Tagalog word for the regular “eggplant” happens to be talong. Tarambulo has also been referred to in English as Thai hairy-fruited eggplant. It is not that common a vegetable in the Philippines.

Photo by Mayette Garcia of Chicharon Bulaklak & Crispy Pata

The phrase “putok batok” (sometimes hyphenated as “putok-batok”) refers to meals that can cause the eater to have a heart attack or stroke due to its very unhealthy nature.