Street foods are food available from a street side vendor, often from a makeshift or portable stall. While some street foods are regional, many are not, having spread beyond their region of origin. The food and green groceries sold in farmers’ markets may also fall into this category, including the food exhibited and sold in gathering fairs, such as agricultural show and state fair. Most street food is finger. Food and green groceries are available on the street for a fraction of the cost of a restaurant meal and a supermarket. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 2.5 billion people eat street food every day.
Street Foods Known In The Philippines
- Ice Candy
Ice Candy known internationally as Popsicle, It is just frozen juice in a plastic, the end of which you nibble on to suck the ice candy. You can find them in different flavors. The most famous flavor are mango, ube (purple yum), buko (coconut) and Chocolate. - Dirty Ice Cream
Sorbetes is the native name of the dirty ice cream. Sorbetes is homemade ice cream and sold by the vendor to their colorful push carts. It was called dirty ice cream because it is sold to streets. The Filipino ice cream is less creamy due to less use of cream and milk and more water. - Fish Balls
Fish balls are somewhat flat in shape and most often made from the meat of cuttlefish or pollock. It is usually served in skewers with a sweet and spicy sauce or with a thick black sweet and sour sauce. - Squid Balls
Squid balls are made with squid or cuttlefish meat, deep fried and served in skewers with a sweet, sour or spicy sauce. - One Day Old Chick
One day old chicks are actually rejects from poultry farms. They only choose the female chicks for egg productions and the male chicks ends up as “One-Day Old Chicks”. The baby birds are eaten batter-fried. You eat the whole chick because the bones are so soft. A person usually dips the chicks in vinegar and/or red chili sauce. - Kikiam
Kikiam ground pork/fish and vegetables wrapped in bean curd sheets, deep-fried and served with sweet, sour or spicy sauce. Those in the street are seafood-based, usually made of fish meat and cuttlefish - Inihaw Na Daing Na Pusit
Inihaw na daing na pusit is a dried squid put to skewers and grilled. - Chicharon baboy
Chicharon baboy made of pork skin and some fat boiled, seasoned, sun dried and deep-fried. - Chicharon manok
Chicharon manok made of chicken skin and some fat boiled, seasoned, sun dried and deep fried. - Chicharon bituka
Chicharon bituka are made from pork or chicken intestines. - Chicharon bulaklak
Chicharon bulaklak are also made from pork or chicken omentum. The omentum seems to be a fat-filled sac covering the small intestines. Bulaklak means flower, it is called chicharon bulaklak because it looks like a flower. - Balat Ng Baboy
Balat Ng Baboy means Pig’s Skin which are marinated and put to skewers and grilled. - Isaw/IUD
Grilled Isaw pig’s/Chicken large intestine boiled until tender then grilled. This is probably the most sought and most popular street food in the Philippines. - Walkman
Walkman is pig’s ear marinated, put to skewers and grilled. - Baga
Baga is grilled or deep fried pig’s lung. - Barbeque
Barbeque is marinated pork or chicken pieces grilled on skewers. - Leeg ng manok
Leeg ng manok is a grilled chicken neck. - Ulo ng manok
Ulo ng manok is the grilled head of the chicken also Known as helmet. - Pwet ng manok
Pwet ng manok grilled chicken’s ass. - Balun-balunan
Balun-balunan grilled chicken gizzards. In Visayan region this is called Batikolon. - Atay ng manok
Atay ng manok is chicken liver marinated, put to skewers and grilled. - Butse
Butse is deep fried crop of a chicken. The crop is a kind of bag in a bird’s neck where food goes before it is completely digested. - Abnoy
Abnoy is an unhatched incubated duck egg or bugok which is mixed with flour and water and cooked like pancakes. - Adidas
Adidas is chicken feet, marinated and grilled or cooked adobo style. - Balut
Balut is hard-boiled duck egg with fetus. - Banana cue
Banana cue is deep-fried saba (banana) covered with caramelized brown sugar. - Batchoy
Batchoy is miki noodle soup garnished with pork innards (liver, kidney and heart), chicharon (pork skin cracklings), chicken breast, vegetables and topped with a raw egg; origin traced to La Paz, Iloilo. - Betamax
Betamax is curdled chicken or pork blood, cubed and grilled. - Binatog
Binatog is boiled white corn kernels, sugar, grated coconut and milk. - Bopis
Bopis is minced pig’s heart and lungs sauteed with garlic and onion and seasoned with laurel, oregano, bell pepper and vinegar. - Calamares
Calamares or squid ring is deep-fried squid in batter. - Calamay
Calamay is glutinous rice cakes; varieties all over the country. - Camote cue
Camote cue is deep-fried camote (sweet potato) covered with caramelized brown sugar. - Carioca
Carioca is deep-fried glutinous rice flour cakes served on skewers. - Cheese sticks
Cheese sticks is deep-fried cheese wrapped in lumpia (spring roll) wrapper. - Chicken balls
Chicken balls is balls made with chicken meat, deep fried and served in skewers with a sweet, sour or spicy sauce. - Balat Ng Manok
Balat ng manok chicken skin battered and deep fried. - Empanada
Empanada or Batac is pork longganiza, egg and grated green papaya in a rice flour shell, deep-fried and served with vinegar. - Goto
Goto is rice porridge or congee cooked with beef tripe. - Halo-halo
Halo-halo is translated as “a mix of many things” or “an assortment,” it is a dessert topped with shaved ice that may contain sweetened saba (banana), camote, macapuno (young coconut), kaong, nata de coco, pinipig (rice crispies), gulaman (agar), sago (tapioca balls), brown and white beans, garbanzos, ube (purple yam), and leche flan (creme brulee), with milk and sugar; Pampanga has three popular versions in Guagua, Arayat and Angeles which may include pastillas, crushed white beans and corn. - Hepalog
Hepalog is hard-boiled duck eggs dipped in orange batter and deep-fried. - skrambol
Iskrambol or scramble is frostiest; shaved ice, diced gulaman, sago and condensed milk. - Kudil
Kudil is deep-fried pork skin. - Kutsinta
Kutsinta is steamed bahaw (boiled rice) with lye and brown sugar; has a gelatinous consistency. - Kwek-kwek
Kwek-kwek is hard boiled chicken eggs dipped in orange batter and deep-fried; also used for quail eggs but some say the correct term for the quail egg version is tokneneng. - Lomi
Lomi is noodle soup made with thick fresh egg noodles or lomi. - Longganiza
Longganiza is pork sausage grilled or fried on a skewer. - Lugaw
Lugaw is rice porridge or congee; varieties include arroz caldo (with chicken and kasubha) and goto (with beef tripe). - Lumpia
Lumpia is spring rolls; varieties include lumpiang basa; lumpiang hubad – fresh spring rolls wothout the wrapper; lumpiang prito; lumpiang sariwa – fresh srping rolls; lumpiang shanghai; lumpiang ubod; and turon. Vegetables and some meat wrap inside a lumpia wrapper and then deep fry. - Mais
Mais is boiled sweet corn seasoned with salt, butter or margarine. - Mais con yelo
Mais con yeloi s sweet corn, milk and sugar topped with shaved ice. - Manggang hilaw
Manggang hilaw is green mango served with bagoong (shrimp paste). - Mani
Mani is peanuts either boiled, roasted or deep-fried and seasoned with garlic and salt. - Nilupak
Nilupak is mashed kamoteng kahoy (cassava) or kamote (sweet potato) with brown sugar and served with butter or margarine. - Palitaw
Palitaw is glutinous rice flour pancakes topped with grated young coconut, sugar and roasted sesame seeds. - Panara
Panara is deep-fried crab and grated green papaya empanda sold in Pampanga during Christmas season. - Pares
Pares is translated as “pair,” means the pairing of rice with beef; beef pares is characterized by very tender meat, usually with a lot of litid (ligaments). - Penoy
Penoy is hard-boiled duck egg without fetus. - Proven
Proven is hard portion of chicken entrails that is marinated and grilled, battered and fried or cooked adobo style. - Inihaw Na Pusit
Inihaw Na Pusit is squid grilled on skewer. - Puto
Puto is steamed rice cake. - Puto bumbong
Puto bumbong is purple glutinous rice snack cooked in a special steamer. - Sapin-sapin
Sapin-sapin is layered glutinous rice and coconut milk cake usually topped with grated coconut and latik (residue from coconut oil extraction); different flavor per layer such as ube (purple yam) and macapuno (young coconut). - Siomai
Siomai is steamed pork dumplings. - Siopao
Siopao is steamed pork buns. - Suman
Suman is glutinous rice snack steamed in banana or coconut leaves; varieties include binagol (Leyte) made with glutinous rice, gabi (taro), coconut milk and chocolate; budbod sa kabog (Tanjay, Negros Oriental) which uses millet instead of glutinous rice. - Tokneneng
Tokneneng is hard boiled quail eggs dipped in orange batter and deep-fried; also called kwek kwek by others. - Tupig
Tupig also known as Itemtem is glutinous rice, grated mature coconut, coconut milk and molasses rolled in banana leaves and grilled; varieties in Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte (Batac) and Isabela. - Turon
Turon is saba (banana) with with sugar and sometimes langka (jackfruit) wrapped in lumpia (spring roll) wrapper and deep-fried.