A Celebration of Filipino Cuisine

To find yourself in a Filipino restaurant transports you to a regular Filipino home where food actually brings people together. Food has been given primary importance to the extent that they say Filipinos don’t eat to live but they live to eat.

With or without an occasion, Filipinos have a knack of preparing a good meal that everyone can enjoy. Eating good food has become a way of life. While most people associate the Filipino cuisine to adobo and sinigang, there is definitely more Filipino food to explore throughout our 7,107 islands.

Let’s have a rundown of some of Philippines most popular historical dishes:

Kare-kare

While some find it time consuming to prepare, it is well worth the wait for this dish. Said to be the Filipino version of the Spanish Callos only this time using peanut butter, soup stock, tenderized beef tripe or ox tail, with vegetables like cabbage, eggplant and string beans cooked in coconut milk.

Lechon

A whole roasted pork famous for its delicious crispy skin matched with the lechon sauce made of pork liver, breadcrumbs, sugar, vinegar and spices. Contrary to popular belief, lechon is the national food of the Philippines and not the famous adobo. In any Filipino restaurant, lechon always find its way to the menu as is or in the form of lechon kawali (pork belly simmered until tender and deep-fried until golden brown and crispy) or lechon paksiw (spit roasted pig cooked and simmered in vinegar).

Caldereta

Derived from the Spanish word caldera, meaning cauldron, Caldereta commonly uses goat meat, beef, chicken or pork stewed with liver paste and tomato sauce. Vegetables like potatoes, bell peppers, olives, tomatoes and hot peppers are also added to the dish.   

Crispy Pata

A dish similar to the German Schweinshaxe, this Filipino dish is made up of deep-fried knuckles or pig trotters with a special soy-vinegar dip. Filipino restaurants often serve boneless pata as a specialty.

There are many more interesting and unique Filipino dishes that can make it to this list. However, the ones mentioned above are what you can readily enjoy as part of Nanam’s Main Menu.