In Manila and other parts of the Philippines, street foods are very popular especially among the common people. First, they are easy to find: in every street corner there are vendors selling them. Second, these foods are very cheap: even the poorest Pinoys can afford them. Imagine having a full meal for only 10 pesos (like a banana-que and sa-malamig)?Almost no one needs ever be hungry again. All one has to do is step outside to find hundreds of food vendors waiting.There is a street food to match almost anyone’s budget. In the Philippines, selling street foods has become a huge industry. It is one of the most viable means of livelihood among the common people as it does not require big capital investment. A few hundred pesos and a little knowledge of cooking are all that is required. Most sellers do not even have to invest in permanent shops. Many are ambulant vendors who roam the streets, carrying a bilao (a woven tray), a basket, or a plastic bag filled with their food merchandise. Others push a cart or ride a bicycle. Some vendors carry a folding table – a makeshift stall -- that can be brought home after the day’s business. Although we tend to take these vendors for granted, they nevertheless play an important role in the Philippine economy and in serving the basic needs of Pinoys.
Street food reveals the inventive character of the Filipinos. The poor, after all, are forced to be resourceful. Thus we manage to cook, sell, and eat stuff normally junked as waste. For example, animal blood is usually thrown away after butchering, but we use it for the well-liked dinuguan or betamax (roasted coagulated pig or cow blood). The sex organs of cows are also trashed in other countries, but we use it to make Soup No. 5, considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac.
Street food, despite its popularity, is shunned by some--those who are usually the very health-conscious people who consider street food unclean and not properly prepared. Moreover, because it is sold on the streets, they argued it might be contaminated by bacteria, dust, fuel emissions, and other pollutants.
In television documentaries, many of the less-than-sanitary practices of preparing street food have recently been exposed. These have led many people to turn their backs on street food and many parents to forbid their children to eat it. This may not be a fair judgment of street food, because there are vendors who do prepare and cook street food well. But once on the streets, it is just a guessing game which foods are prepared properly and which are not.
Despite the bad press about it, street food has remained as immensely popular as ever. We Filipinos patronize street food not only because it is convenient and cheap, but also because we truly like it. No matter what happens, street food will be here to stay to satisfy the hunger and craving of the ordinary Pinoy.
Let us take a look at what the various kinds of street food are. Many of these have a cult following, and you will see why after the end of this series.
During the last few days, I scoured the streets of Cubao and Manila to document street food. I have eaten many of them and thus gained a few unwanted pounds doing this documentary. Despite this setback, I have also gained some important knowledge and insights on the culture and eating lifestyle of the Filipino people. Street food may not make it to the pages of upscale cookbooks, but they definitely belong to a 'class of its own.'
One-Day Old Chicks
One-day old chicks are actually “male” newborn birds that have been rejected from the poultry farm. The poultry owners only choose the female chicks for egg productions and thus, the male chicks end up as "One-Day Old Chicks".
The male chicks, not being bred to grow quickly enough for meat production, are useless to the egg industry, so they are killed at birth. They are either suffocated or thrown into what are called as macerators.
The baby birds are deep fried and are eaten whole because the bones, beak and claws are very soft. People usually dip the chicks in vinegar and/or red chili sauce. One-Day Old Chicks are very popular and filling snacks and have gained a cult following from street food aficionados. It has also become a favorite pulutan in drinking gin or beer.
I have tried the One Day Old Chicks many times over and I would say that they are quite delicious and indeed filling. I always favor eating it with rice and having spicy vinegar for sauce.
Balut
I am a big fan of balut, a nearly-developed duck or chicken fetus that is boiled and consumed right out of the egg. Every night, our local balut vendor would make his presence felt in the streets by shouting 'baluuut!!' in a sonorous voice. I’d often get out of bed to call him. At P12 a piece, the balut satisfies my midnight hunger. It is infinitely better than eating cold rice and sardines straight from the fridge. A common food in Southeast Asia, balut is regarded as 'exotic' food in the West. Often served as side dish or appetizer in drinking sessions, this fertilized egg came from the word 'balut' or 'balot' roughly means 'wrapped.'
Although considered street food, the balut has recently entered higher cuisine by being served as appetizers in restaurants: cooked adobo style, fried into omelettes, and even used as filling in baked pastries.
In the Philippines, balut is considered 'pampalakas ng tuhod' (something that makes the limbs strong). When asked why the balut is often sold at nights rather than at other times of day, the old folks say it is a good aphrodisiac and will keep one strong even after sex.
Many Westerners who visit the Philippines consider it an extreme challenge to try to eat the balut, which is considered one of the 'taboo' foods in the world. Apparently, they don’t take to the idea of eating boiled duck fetus in its juices. In the popular American television show Fear Factor, one of the challenges presented to the contestants was to eat balut. Although some contestants managed to eat them, they were all seen to be puking at the end of the challenge.
The Filipinos, however, love balut. It has become one of the foods associated with the Pinoys and we are proud of it. We even developed a "politically-correct" way to eat balut.
First, hold the egg with your hand and strike its pointed portion on a hard surface (such as a wall or a table corner). The strike should be just strong enough to partially crack a small portion of the egg. Then create a small hole out of this crack and suck out the liquid inside while holding it upwards as if kissing or sucking its contents. Afterwards, peel off the eggshell to reveal the embryo inside. Eat the egg yolk first, followed by the duck fetus (with beak and feathers), which should be the best part of the balut. There is a hard part of the balut which is called the bato (stone), which may or may not be eaten as well.
Strike the pointed part of the balut into a hard surface, just strong enough to create a small crack on the shell.
Out of this crack, peel the egg until you create a small opening.
Put a pinch of salt on your tongue and then suck the balut’s liquid inside, holding the balut upwards, like kissing it.
Peel off the shell to half. Eat the contents, the white, the yellow, and the bird fetus. Some people put a small amount of salt on the contents while others put spicy vinegar.
Bituka ng Manok
Bituka ng manok is chicken intestines cleaned, salted, and sun-dried. They are then cut into smaller pieces and broiled until crisp. It is similar to chicharon, a crispy snack popular in the Philippines (more on chicharon later). Bituka ng manok usually comes wrapped in small plastic bags, placed on trays, and sold by ambulant street boys for P5 each. Considered a snack rather than a full meal, it is usually sprinkled with or dipped in spicy vinegar.
It seemed ages ago when, as a high school student, street foods saved me from starving in school. I only had a limited daily allowance, and the school canteen’s foods were either blandly cooked or too expensive. Luckily, in front of our school were numerous vendors and stalls waiting for us students at the end of classes in the afternoons. When the gates had opened and the students came rushing out, many enjoyed a feast of skewered snacks like fishballs, kikiam, tukneneng, kwek kwek, and many other kinds of street foods. I don’t know,but the street food sellers had a magical way to make their foods look and taste appetizing.
I was and still am a big fan of street foods. I still enjoy dipping my tukneneng and kwek kwek in a spicy vinegar sauce, eating my palitaw on a banana leaf, munching on Boy Bawang cornicks while on a road trip, crackling a balut egg at 12 midnight, sipping a hot taho at 6 in the morning, and eating One-Day-Old Chicks as toppings on my rice. I have been eating them for as long as I can remember. In our local neighborhood in Cubao, there are numerous vendors selling street foods at anytime of the day, giving delights to everyone who had spur of the moment hunger for them.
Tukneneng
One of the most ubiquitous street foods in Manila is a strange-looking orange egg known as Tukneneng, a chicken egg wrapped in orange dough. Many love this egg despite its odd appearance, and it has become one of the most popular of all street foods in the Philippines . At 7 pesos a piece, the tukneneng is affordable to common people, even students on a tight budget. The tukneneng is an original Pinoy invention that has become one of the comfort foods of the people in the streets. Lately, however, many people even from the higher status of society have grown a liking for the tukneneng.
The tukneneng is very easy to prepare. I decided to learn how to prepare tukneneng in case I decide to put up a tukneneng stall in our neighborhood one day. So yesterday, I spent a few hours observing and photographing how our local tukneneng vendor prepares his eggs. The vendor agreed to share me his secrets, but only after I bought three of his tukneneng eggs for 20 pesos.
Whole boiled eggs are peeled of their shells and then rolled in powder dough.
Then the eggs are dipped in an orange flour batter, which had become color orange because of the addition of food coloring.
The eggs are then scooped from the batter and then broiled for about 3-5 minutes in boiling cooking oil, or until such time that the dough reach a crackling point.
The eggs are then served on a stick or small cup with a vinegar and garlic sauce. Wow, that’s easy! Now, maybe I can call myself a chef.
I found that there are two varieties of tukneneng. One uses regular boiled eggs, while the other one uses balut eggs.There is a small version of tukneneng and called the kwek kwek. It uses the quail eggs instead. It’s cheaper of course at 2.50 pesos each.
A customer enjoys a tukneneng in Plaza Miranda, Quiapo
Adidas
In many western countries, the chicken plays an important role in their culinary traditions. But many of the people in these countries only eat the meat of chickens. The chicken feet, head, and ass are thrown away in the garbage cans. But these chicken parts are a source of food to many Asian countries. In the Philippines , the chicken feet, blood, head, intestines, body organs, and ass, are very popular street foods. Mostly, they are skewered, roasted and dipped in vinegar sauce.
Chicken feet served as food is called the adidas, aptly named after a popular brand of shoes. The Filipinos have a good sense of humor, and they can name a street food after some popular brand names that match the food’s character.
The chicken feet are marinated and then skewered on a bamboo stick and roasted on hot coals. Again, like all other skewered delights, the adidas is best eaten dipped in a spicy vinegar.
Many people, including me, like adidas. My mother even makes adobo out of it. The technique should be to make the feet thoroughly cleaned by washing them on running water. You can find adidas in any barbecue stall in most street corners. Price? 5 pesos per piece.
Betamax
Say what you will, but Betamax is one of the most popular street foods in the Philippines . Betamax is a coagulated chicken or pork blood that is cut into cubes that resembles the old betamax tape and then skewered and roasted on hot coals and dipped in spicy vinegar. It is one of the Philippines ’ most popular and controversial street foods. It is popular because it is cheap (5 pesos for a skewer with 3 blood cubes), and controversial because there are certain people who do not eat it: the religious groups like Muslims, Seventh-Day Adventists, Iglesia ni Cristo, and Jehovah’s Witnesses; and Catholics who abhor the idea of eating roasted blood.
I never ate a Betamax before, but yesterday, just for the heck of it, I decided to have a sampling. I would say that it is delicious especially when dipped in a spicy vinegar sauce.
Helmet
Chicken heads, complete with the eyeballs and brains (although beaks are removed) are marinated and then skewered in threes and then roasted over hot coals and dipped in spicy vinegar. The chicken head street food has been named helmet for humorous effect, and it is a special favorite of many Filipino street food aficionados. Among drinkers, the helmet is a favored “pulutan”, or finger food during drinking galore. The skin of the chicken is eaten first and then the skulls are cracked and the brains sucked from the inside. 10 pesos for the three chicken heads (price in Quiapo, Manila )
I have not eaten the helmet before, but out of curiosity, I have eaten a few during my research on these street food series. I like the skin of the head but I could not bear to eat the brains. I don’t know about you, but for me, I…I just can’t eat brains…ouch.
Chicken Helmet with Neck
Helmet with necks of chicken. It is marinated, skewered, grilled or fried and dipped in vinegar sauce. As of this writing, the price for each chicken neck sold in those barbecue stalls is 12 pesos each.
Chicken Heart and Lungs
The heart and lungs of chicken are marinated and skewered and grilled or roasted in hot coals, and served with sweet or spicy vinegar. 5 pesos each in Cubao and Quiapo.
Isaw or IUD
Isaw is chicken intestines that have been cleaned, marinated, and then skewered on bamboo sticks so that it looks like an intra-uterine device, hence the name. It is grilled or fried and served dipped in vinegar sauce. Of all the skewered chicken parts for sale in Manila , this has got to be the most popular one. Filipinos just love eating this IUD look-alike street food. It sells for 5 pesos each in Quiapo and Cubao.
After the Siesta
Many of us follow a routine in our eating habits, although we may not be aware of it: breakfast in the morning, lunch at noon, snack in the late afternoon, supper in the evening, and sometimes, midnight snack late at night.
Snack is "merienda" for the Filipinos. Normally, it is the snack that follows the siesta or the afternoon nap. Because the climate is hot, Filipinos often take a break from their daily work in order to cool themselves, which ideally means relaxing under the shade of tree, resting on a hammock, or just dozing off until the afternoon has cooled off somewhat. After the siesta, work is resumed until about three in the afternoon, which is merienda time. The merienda is a favorite time among many of us and is an essential part of our eating lifestyle.
We know it’s merienda time when vendors would be heard out in the streets jingling bells, honking horns, and calling out their wares to attract the attention of buyers. When Filipinos hear these familiar sounds, they know it is time to get up and go out for food to snack on.
Most often, merienda caters to the sweet tooth and thus many street food merienda are laden with sugar.
Here are some of them.
(Due to the numerous merienda foods available in the streets, I will showcase only those that are uniquely Filipino, excluding donuts, pancakes, hamburgers and others of foreign origin.)
So what are you waiting for, gather the cups and spoons because it’s merienda time!
Binatog
You are not a certified street food aficionado if you do not like binatog. To say that binatog is one of the comfort foods of the Pinoy may be an understatement. Most Pinoys love this merienda, and many anxiously wait for the local binatog vendor to pass by on his bike, clanging his bell by three in the afternoon.
Binatog is made from young corn kernels boiled in coconut milk for 15 minutes or until the mixture reaches a thick and creamy consistency. It is then topped with grated coconut, sprinkled with salt and/or sugar, and eaten in a banana leaf, a cup, or a plastic bag.
As a street food fanatic, I favor binatog as merienda, although I eat it at anytime of the day (unfortunately, though, there’s no one selling it at midnight). For best results, I often add gatas na malapot or condensed milk to my binatog, although some may find that doing so makes their food too sweet for their taste.
In Manila the binatog vendor often comes on a bicycle, with a pail strapped behind his bike containing the binatog, and a steel bell attached to his bike handle. I tell you the truth, I love hearing that bell at three in the afternoon as it heralds the arrival of our local binatog!
Our local binatog vendor in New York Street Cubao, is Arnel Sonio, a kindly second year high school student at the nearby Ramon Magsaysay High School . To earn his daily allowance and help his family make ends meet, Arnel, a morning student, vends binatog every afternoon making rounds in Harvard, Stanford, West Point, and Columbia streets. He sells binatog from three to five in the afternoon. One can buy one small cup costs five pesos. Cheap!
The binatog is scooped from the pail strapped in Arnel’s bicycle.
Grated coconut is topped on the binatog
Salt and/or sugar are sprinkled in the binatog, depending on your taste.
After my ration, Arnel was off to sell more of his binatog
Guinataan/Ginatan
A tropical country, the Philippines abounds with coconut trees, making coconut an important ingredient in many Filipino food preparations. Ginatan or Guinataan is food cooked in coconut milk. Ginatan as a merienda comes in many varieties: ginatang mais (sticky rice and corn kernels cooked with coconut milk), ginatang munggo (sticky rice and beans with coconut milk), and ginatang halo-halo (literally, ginatang mix-mix).
Ginatang halo-halo has been my favorite merienda for as long as I can remember (although I also love ginatang mais and ginatang munggo). The ginatang halo-halo is a sweet concoction that is usually made of bilo-bilo (glutinous sticky rice balls—love this!), sago (tapioca balls), saba (banana), kamote, strips of langka (jackfruit), and ube (purple yam) or gabi (taro).
Ginatang halo-halo in a cup. 10 pesos.
My mother usually cooks ginataang halo-halo before, but finding the good ingredients in the Nepa -Q-Mart can sometimes be exhausting, so now, I usually eat ginataang halo-halo in the merienda stall in our local neighborhood in New York Street Cubao, where Aling Nena, our local street food vendor usually sells them in her makeshift folding table.
I would sit on the wooden stool provided and eat one or two bowls of steaming ginataang halo-halo. For me, eating out in the streets is so much better than eating inside the home. This way I could get a second serving easily instead of walking out again to buy and sometimes find that all the ginataan halo-halo has been sold out! I just hate it when I buy and the vendor says “ubos na po!” (ginataan has been sold out)
Banana Cue/Kamote Cue/Turon
It is the most affordable merienda in town, the lowly but deliciously filling Banana Cue, a saba banana that is laden with brown sugar and deep fried until the sugar has caramelized.
It is then skewered in little bamboo sticks. I love Banana Cue. In Cubao, Banana Cue is sold at anytime of the day, so I also eat them at anytime of the day, not only for merienda. Each stick of Banana Cue (with three bananas) in Cubao is 10 pesos.
The Banana Cue has two cousins called Turon and Kamote Cue. Turon is saba banana and strips of jackfruit wrapped in flour wrapper and laden with brown sugar and fried. Kamote Cue is just like Banana Cue but the saba has been replaced with chopped kamote (sweet potato)
Kamote Cue. 5 pesos per serving.
Turon. 5 pesos each
Carioca
Carioca is glutinous rice balls (bilo-bilo) mixed with galapong and sugar and then fried ala banana cue. Crunchy outside and chewy inside (because of the rice and caramelized sugar), carioca costs P10 pesos per stick, which usually has four carioca balls.
Carioca
Fishballs/Squidballs
Fishballs/Squidballs
A most familiar street sight anywhere in the Philippines is that of a vendor pushing a small cart containing a big kawali (wok) of fishballs, kikiam, and squidballs frying in boiling oil. Fishball vendors are on plazas, street corners, schools, churches, or just about anywhere. They roam the streets at any time of day or night.
Fishballs and squidballs are made from the meat of fish and squid, respectively. For my spur-of-the-moment hunger, the fishballs and squidballs are cheap and quickly satisfying. A fishball is fifty centavos, while a squidball is about two pesos. When I was younger, I used to pick the balls myself from the kawali using a barbecue stick,. Then the vendor would count how many I had in my stick and charge me accordingly. I then dip the balls in common jars of sweet chili sauce and spicy vinegar. But now, being more health-conscious, I just place the balls in a carton cup (the vendor has a stock of this) and then add the sauce (the reserved sauce inside the cart). I sometimes miss the fun and recklessness of dipping the balls in jars shared with a hundred other customers, blissfully unaware of whatever health risk it may entail.
WikiPilipinas lists fish and squid balls among the top ten merienda and top ten street food in the Philippines.
Kutsinta
An all-time favorite Pinoy snack is a tiny glutinous rice cake known as kutsinta. Often sold in the streets by ambulant vendors who carry a pingga (bamboo pole), the kutsinta is a filling snack topped with a coating of yema (sweet milk jam) and sprinkled with grated coconut.
While walking the streets for this food series, I chanced to meet a kind kutsinta vendor named Mang Boni, 56 years old. He has been cooking and selling kutsinta for over 20 years. He says that selling kutsinta is fun (he has made lots of friends), and at the same time financially rewarding. He earns an average of P350 a day vending kutsinta in the streets of Manila.
The kutsinta is topped with a coating of yema (cooked condensed milk)
Grated coconut is then added as toppings
Mang Boni, kutsinta vendor
Kakanin: Suman, Bibingka, Kalamay, Biko, Puto
Kakanin is derived from "kanin" or boiled rice, the Pinoy staple food. Rice's variant, the glutinous sticky rice known locally as "malagkit," is often made into a sweet and palatable snack known as kakanin. The kakanin can have many varieties: suman, bibingka, kalamay, palitaw, bilo-bilo, and so on.
A kakanin stall in Quiapo, Manila, with the delicious bibingka, kalamay, tikoy, etc.
Puto is the round rice cake, while the suman is the rice or kamote sweet dish wrapped in coconut or banana leaves
Conclusion
This series has been fun for me to write and photograph. I learned a lot of things about Pinoy food while researching this article. But then I also gained a lot of weight trying all the different foods featured in this article. I know that after reading this you are feeling the craving to go out and have a taste of your favorite street food. So go and enjoy!
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