My Verbal Diarrhea: Filipino Streetfood 101

CNNgo dubbed Manila's streetfoods albeit the rest of the Philippines as one of Asia's best in an article titled" Asia's 10 Greatest Street Foods" written by Lina Goldberg.
The foods featured in this article are:

1. Tsitsaron

2.Taho

3. Balut

4. Kwek kwek

5. Silog

6. Isaw

7. Kikiam

8. Sago't Gulaman

9. Banana Cue

10. Fish balls

Some streetfoods are eaten at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Some are for merienda and as pulutan or finger foods during drinking sessions.

BREAKFAST

TAHO
This is a combination of bean curd, caramelized sugar and sago best sipped warm through a straw in the wee hours of the morning!

TAPSILOG
(TApa, SIningag at itLOG)
This is a heavy typical Filipino breakfast consisting of tapa or fried beef jerky heavily seasoned with banana ketchup, sinigang or garlic fried rice and itlog or egg cooked sunny side up.
TAPSILOG is just one of the many variations of SILOGS.
Examples are:
TOSILOG (tocino, siningag, itlog)
ADOBOSILOG (adobo, siningag, itlog)
SPAMSILOG (spam, siningag, itlog)
LITSILOG (litson, siningag, itlog)
FRIEDCHXSILOG (fried chicken, siningag, itlog)
LONGSILOG (longanisa, siningag, itlog)
BANGSILOG (bangus, siningag, itlog)
and the list goes on and on....

PULUTAN (to be eaten while drinking beer, tuba, lambanog etc.)

CHICHARON - Bite size pieces of deep fried pork fat dipped in vinegar! Yum! There is also CHICHARON NA MAY LAMAN and CHICHARON BULAKLAK from deep fried pig's small intestine!

CHICHARON BULAKLAK - Deep fried pig's small intestine served with vinegar.

MERIENDA (snacktime)

KIKIAM
A Chinese dish (Que-kiam) adapted to fit our Filipino palate. It is ground pork and vegetables wrapped in bean curd. You can have your choice of sauce- either hot and spicy, sweet and spicy or just plain sweet.

BANANA CUE
It's plantain usually deep fried with either/or kalamay or brown sugar. Once the sugar caramelizes it is skewered with bamboo sticks. I love it when you could still crunch the caramelized sugar or when you can see the kalamay forming a spider web!

KAMOTE CUE

TURON
This is plantain wrapped in lumpia wrapper and deep fried with caramelized brown sugar or kalamay. You can also add langka and sesame seeds. Some restaurants even add ice cream to this delicious desert.

DIRTY ICE CREAM
Peddled on the street this ice cream usually comes in three flavors: cheese, mango and ube. Yum!

ICE CANDY
Comes in different colors and the flavor depends on what fruit is in season. Some popular flavors are mango and milo+red beans.

ICE DROP

NIGHT TIME FARE
Anything sold at night is good for pulutan!
Almost every part of the chicken is barbecued and almost every street corner in the country is filled with smoke from the barbecues at night time.