As a proud member of the crazy Asian community, I will be introducing you to my top 10 favorite Filipino foods. This week's entry is inspired by the Jollibee incident of 2021. Context: the Westfield mall in Wheaton recently opened a Jollibee, which is a popular Filipino restaurant. We immediately picked up the phone to order, and we were put on hold, forced to listen to a song worse than Baby Shark (yes, it was that bad), for 45 minutes. Finally, when we were able to order, I asked for halo halo, only to discover THEY DON'T SERVE HALO HALO AT THAT LOCATION. In conclusion, we have yet to find some good Filipino food in Maryland.
Note II: Click on this link to hear the song I had to suffer through for an hour
Note: Almost every Filipino dish is eaten with rice. Not the tiny sticky rice dome they serve at Outback Steakhouse, but a lot of rice.
10. Adobo
Adobo is the unofficial national dish of the Philippines. It is usually chicken or pork cooked in a sauce with vinegar, bay leaves, and soy sauce.
9. Spaghetti
The Filipino version of spaghetti has an interesting twist I'm not very fond of. Unlike the typical Italian pasta, Filipinos like to make their spaghetti sweet and often put pieces of hotdog in it. Jollibee serves this spaghetti, if you're interested in trying it!
8. Puto
Puto is basically a sweet rice cake usually topped with cheese and eaten as a dessert. My brother devours these in seconds.
7. Sinigang
When I was younger, sinigang was the only soup I knew of. You can imagine how surprised I was after eating chicken noodle soup for the first time, as it wasn't at all sour like sinigang. Sinigang gets its sour flavor from a fruit called tamarind, or sampalok.
6. Arroz caldo
Arroz caldo is a thick rice porridge. My mom makes it by frying uncooked rice in sautéed garlic and ginger. She then boils the rice until it becomes a mushy texture and adds cooked pulled chicken.
5. Pancit
There are many different types of pancit, but the most common versions use canton noodles or rice noodles. Some recipes even combine both. Personally, I prefer rice noodles, which are much thinner than canton noodles. When I was younger, I would pick all the vegetables, chicken, and canton noodles out of my pancit just because I liked the texture of the rice noodles by itself. (I guess you could call me a picky kid, wink).
4. Lumpia
Lumpia is a type of egg roll filled with a meat and vegetables. At nearly all of the Filipino house parties I've ever experienced, the lumpia is always the first to disappear. I could probably live off chicken lumpia and rice.
3. Halo Halo
The literal meaning of halo halo is "mix mix." It is a drink-like dessert made with shaved ice, ice cream, condensed milk, and a variety of different toppings such as sweetened beans, coconut flakes, and cubed fruits. It is usually served in a clear container to display all of its colorful layers. My mom likes to mix her halo halo until it turns brown. I just eat the ube flavored ice cream sitting on the top of the drink.
2. Ube
Ube is simply a purple sweet potato. It is used in many Filipino desserts, from candies, to cakes, to ice cream. I am drooling just thinking about ube ice cream. Yum.
1. Turon
Finally, my favorite Filipino dessert. Turon is simply a plantain fried in lumpia wrapper covered in caramel sauce. Some recipes make the caramel sauce with white sugar. However, I usually use brown sugar. Jackfruit is often added with the plantain, but be sure to cut it into small pieces because it is a tough fruit.
Where I usually put my honorable mention, I've decided to include a very exotic, unpopular Filipino food that may look a little scary. Viewer discretion advised!
Balut is a boiled duck egg. "What's so bad about that?" you may be wondering. Well, balut has also been fertilized and incubated from 14 to 21 days. In simpler words, the baby duck is pretty much developed in the egg. Yes, with bones, a few feathers, eyeballs, and a crunchy beak. I have to admit, it's a little unnerving, and my crazy mother loves it. Scroll down to see a video of her dabbing the dead duck with salt and then slurping it up.
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