Filipino Food Must-Try List: 12 Signature Dishes, Regional Specialties, Snacks and What to Take Home

What Does Filipino Food Taste Like? Sour, Salty, Sweet, and Always Rice

Filipino food rests on three flavours: sour, salty and sweet. Sourness comes from vinegar and tart fruits such as tamarind, saltiness from fish sauce (patis) and fermented shrimp paste (bagoong), and sweetness from sugar and a local fondness for sweet seasonings. Whatever the dish, it is eaten with rice.

Keep those 3 threads in mind and a Filipino menu stops being confusing:

• Sour. Vinegar is the backbone of the Filipino kitchen, used for braising, curing and dipping, and it also helps food keep in the heat. Other sour notes come from tamarind, green mango and calamansi, the small local lime, which go into bright, tangy soups.
• Salty. Fish sauce and shrimp paste often arrive on the side for you to add yourself. If a dish tastes mild, that is frequently deliberate: the seasoning is waiting on the table.
• Sweet. Sweet-style spaghetti, sweet sausages and sweet cured meats are common, and this is the adjustment many visitors find hardest.

Filipinos call the table condiments sawsawan: soy sauce, vinegar, calamansi, chillies, fish sauce and shrimp paste, mixed to taste. The same piece of grilled pork tastes different with each dip, and the sawsawan is also the most useful "flavour switch" for visitors, as section 5 explains.

Culinary tradition is treated as heritage at the national level. Proclamation No. 469, signed in April 2018, declared the whole of April, from the 1st to the 30th, every year as "Buwan ng Kalutong Pilipino," or Filipino Food Month, with the Department of Agriculture and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts leading the celebration. The proclamation, published in the Official Gazette, cites the implementing rules of Republic Act No. 10066, the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, which recognise culinary tradition as part of the country's cultural heritage. If you visit in April, look out for food events around the country.

If you are moving here and your real question is where to buy groceries or how supermarkets and wet markets differ, that is covered in our guide to food and groceries in the Philippines; for how eating out breaks down by type of venue, see what a meal costs in the Philippines. This guide sticks to what to eat, how to order and what you can take home.

12 Filipino Dishes to Try First

For a first taste of Filipino food, order from this list of 12: numbers 1 to 4 are the accepted national favourites, 5 to 8 are hearty rice dishes, and 9 to 12 cover seafood, grills and breakfast.

• 1. Adobo. Chicken or pork braised in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves until the sauce reduces. Tangy, salty and made for rice, it is often called the unofficial national dish. Every family has its own version, some with coconut milk, some cooked until almost dry.
• 2. Sinigang. A sour soup based on tamarind or other tart fruit, with pork, prawns or fish, water spinach, radish and long beans.
• 3. Lechon. A whole pig roasted over charcoal, with crackling skin and juicy meat, the centrepiece of any celebration. The Visayan style stuffs the belly with lemongrass, spring onions and garlic, so it needs no dipping sauce.
• 4. Kare-kare. Oxtail and tripe stewed in a peanut sauce. It is mild on its own and only complete with shrimp paste on the side.
• 5. Sisig. Chopped pig's face and ears seared on a sizzling plate with onions, chillies and calamansi, the classic beer companion.
• 6. Bulalo. Beef shank and marrow bone soup with corn and vegetables, the safest pick when richer flavours feel like too much.
• 7. Pinakbet. Bitter gourd, aubergine, okra and squash braised with shrimp paste, a northern Luzon dish that is savoury with a gentle bitterness.
• 8. Bicol Express. Pork simmered with chillies and coconut milk, one of the few genuinely spicy Filipino dishes, from the Bicol Region.
• 9. Kinilaw. Raw fish "cooked" in vinegar and calamansi with ginger, onion and chilli, common in coastal cities.
• 10. Inihaw. Grilled fish, squid or pork belly, dipped in vinegar and soy sauce, found everywhere from roadside stalls to restaurants.
• 11. Chicken inasal. Chicken marinated in calamansi, lemongrass and annatto oil, then grilled, a Western Visayas classic often served with rice drizzled with chicken oil.
• 12. Silog breakfasts. Cured meat plus garlic fried rice (sinangag) plus a fried egg (itlog), as in tapsilog with beef tapa; the name is literally 3 words fused, and many small eateries serve it all day.

The dishes most likely to put newcomers off are number 4, kare-kare, without its shrimp paste, and the sweet cured meats in number 12. The safest bets are number 6, bulalo, number 10, inihaw, and number 2, sinigang. For group meals you may meet the boodle fight, a spread laid out on banana leaves and eaten by hand; see how to eat with your hands in the Philippines.

Want a proper Filipino meal built into your trip without hunting for the place yourself? → Yixing island and city routes

Filipino Regional Food: What to Eat in the North, Around Manila, Bicol, the Visayas and Mindanao

Signature dishes change a lot from region to region: the north is about crispy pork belly and vegetables, the provinces around Manila about sisig and beef soup, Bicol about chilli and coconut milk, the Visayas about roast pork, grilled chicken and noodle soups, and Mindanao about fruit, grilled fish and Muslim cuisine. The 5 regions below are a starting map; eating the local dish where it comes from beats trying to "eat the whole country" in Manila.

• 1. Northern Luzon (Ilocos and around). Bagnet, pork belly boiled and then deep-fried until crackling; pinakbet; the Vigan-style empanada with its orange rice-flour shell; and garlicky local longganisa sausage. Each province has its own sausage, some sweet, some heavy on garlic.
• 2. Around Manila. Pampanga, with its deep culinary tradition, is known for sisig and sweet cured tocino. Batangas offers bulalo, the noodle soup lomi and strong barako coffee. Up on the cool Tagaytay ridge, a hot soup is exactly right; see our Tagaytay day trip guide.
• 3. Bicol. Bicol Express, laing (taro leaves slow-cooked in coconut milk) and snacks made from pili nuts. Pair them with a visit to Mayon Volcano.
• 4. The Visayas (Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu and Bohol). In the west, Iloilo's La Paz batchoy is pork broth with offal, noodles and crushed pork crackling, and pancit molo is a dumpling soup. Bacolod is known for chicken inasal and the flaky pastry piaya. In the central Visayas, Cebu's lechon is a national benchmark, and its take-home staples are dried mangoes, the pastry otap and the dried fish danggit. Bohol has calamay, a coconut and sticky-rice sweet you can pick up on the way to the Chocolate Hills.
• 5. Mindanao. Davao's durian and tropical fruit, and grilled fish and kinilaw in coastal cities. Muslim communities have their own cuisines, such as the Tausug black soup tiyula itum, coloured with charred coconut, and Maguindanaon pastil, rice wrapped in banana leaf; both are halal. See Davao tourist spots and our guide to Muslim life in the Philippines.

A practical note: the most authentic version of a regional dish is often found in family-run eateries and market canteens rather than chains, but hygiene varies. If your stomach is sensitive, choose busy places with fast turnover where food is cooked to order, and read our guide to water, ice and hygiene before you go.

Want a route built around one signature dish per stop? → Yixing custom itineraries · all routes

Filipino Street Food, Snacks and Desserts

Filipino snacks fall into 3 groups: fried and grilled street food, rice-and-coconut cakes known as kakanin, and cold desserts and sweets. The ones most worth trying are halo-halo, turon and taho, plus bibingka and puto bumbong, which appear outside churches at Christmas.

• Halo-halo. The name means "mix-mix": shaved ice with evaporated milk, sweet beans, coconut gel, ube jam and leche flan, stirred together before eating. It is the definitive tropical cooler.
• Turon. Banana, often with jackfruit, wrapped in spring roll pastry and fried with a caramel coating. Its cousin, banana cue, is a whole banana coated in sugar and grilled on a stick.
• Taho. Warm silken tofu with dark sugar syrup and sago pearls, sold by morning vendors carrying it door to door.
• Kakanin. Sticky rice and coconut cakes such as biko, leaf-wrapped suman and steamed puto, staples of festivals and afternoon snacks.
• Bibingka and puto bumbong. The first is a rice cake baked in a clay pot with coals above and below; the second is purple sticky rice steamed in bamboo tubes and topped with grated coconut and dark sugar. From December 16 to 24, Catholics attend 9 consecutive dawn Masses (Simbang Gabi), and buying these outside the church afterwards is one of the most festive tastes in the country.
• Ube everything. Purple yam jam, ice cream, bread and cakes. How to tell the real thing from colouring is covered in what ube is and how it is eaten.
• Street skewers. Fish balls, kwek-kwek (quail eggs in orange batter) and isaw (grilled chicken intestine), dipped in sweet or spicy vinegar.
• Balut. A developing duck egg, boiled and eaten with salt or vinegar, the most famous "dare" snack. If you would rather not, just say no; nobody minds.

The biggest risk with snacks is hygiene, not flavour. Cold desserts, fried food that has sat out and ice of unknown origin are common causes of stomach trouble for visitors. Choose stalls with a queue and food fresh from the pan, and carry wet wipes. If you do get sick, our guide to diarrhoea in the Philippines explains when to see a doctor.

Timing helps too: taho is mostly a morning thing, grill stalls tend to open towards evening, and bibingka and puto bumbong are easiest to find in December.

How to Order If You Like Milder, Less Sweet Food: Start with Chinese-Filipino Dishes

If Filipino flavours feel unfamiliar, the easiest way in is through the dishes of Chinese, mostly Hokkien, origin (pancit noodles, lumpia spring rolls, siopao buns and siomai dumplings), paired with one soup and one grilled dish. Leave the "too sweet" or "too fishy" problem to the condiments on the table.

Filipino and Hokkien cooking are closely linked, and these 5 groups of dish names are generally traced back to Hokkien:

• Pancit. Noodles are a must at birthday parties, where they stand for long life. Pancit canton uses egg noodles; bihon uses rice vermicelli.
• Lumpia. Either fried, as in the small meat-filled lumpiang shanghai, or fresh, as in lumpiang sariwa, a vegetable roll close to the Hokkien popiah.
• Siopao and siomai. Steamed buns and dumplings, sold in convenience stores and at street stalls.
• Hopia and tikoy. Flaky pastries filled with mung bean or ube, and sticky rice cake, both most common around Lunar New Year.
• Lomi, mami and kikiam. Thick noodle soup, meat broth noodles and five-spice meat rolls, still recognisably Hokkien in style.

Four ordering tips:

• Say it if you want less sugar. "Less sweet, please" works in many places, and you can simply skip sweet spaghetti and sweet cured meats.
• Build your own dip. Ask for vinegar with calamansi and chilli, or soy sauce with calamansi. It rescues most dishes that seem too sweet or too salty.
• Keep the shrimp paste on the side. If strong fermented flavours worry you, ask for bagoong separately and try a little first.
• One soup, one grill, one noodle. Sinigang or bulalo, a plate of inihaw and a pancit is the least risky order for 3 or 4 people, with rice per person.

When hosting Filipino colleagues or clients, check dietary restrictions first: Muslims do not eat pork, some churches have their own rules, and Lent carries customs of its own. See what Filipinos do not eat and what meat Filipinos avoid; for who pays, how much to order and toasting, see hosting a meal in the Philippines. And if you are craving home cooking, see Chinese restaurants in Manila.

Bringing older relatives or clients to the Philippines and want the meals sorted too? → Yixing routes · custom itineraries

Philippine Delicacies to Bring Home, and What Customs Will Stop

The best Philippine delicacies to pack are dried mangoes, processed pili nut products, pastries such as otap and piaya, and roasted coffee. Meat products (cooked ones included), egg products and fresh fruit should not go into mainland China at all, because the national prohibited list names them explicitly, and many other countries restrict them too.

Common take-home items from 5 sources:

• Cebu. Dried mangoes, the pastry otap and dried danggit fish.
• Bicol. Pili nut candies and roasted nuts.
• Bacolod. The flaky pastry piaya.
• Bohol. Calamay; see what to buy in Bohol.
• Nationwide. Ube halaya (purple yam jam), polvoron (milk-powder shortbread), local coffee such as barako, and coconut products.

For travellers heading to mainland China, check the list published on October 20, 2021 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the General Administration of Customs as Announcement No. 470, the catalogue of animals, plants and products prohibited from being carried or mailed into China. The list has 17 items in 3 groups (animals and animal products, plants and plant products, other quarantine objects), and these 5 matter most for Philippine food:

• Item 2: meat and meat products, raw or cooked. Lechon, longganisa, tocino, meat floss and pork crackling all fall here.
• Item 5: eggs and egg products. The list names fresh, preserved and salted eggs, so Philippine salted duck eggs and balut are out.
• Item 4: animal milk and dairy products. The list names condensed milk and cheese among others. Milk-based sweets such as pastillas, polvoron and ube jam made with condensed milk may be caught by this entry, so check before packing.
• Item 9: fresh fruit and vegetables. Mangoes, durian, mangosteen and other fresh fruit are all prohibited.
• Item 3: aquatic animal products. The list exempts aquatic products that are dried, cooked or fermented into edible sauces; whether a given dried fish or shrimp paste qualifies is decided by customs at the border.

Note 1 to the list says items approved by the authorities and accompanied by an official quarantine certificate from the exporting country are not restricted, but that rarely applies to ordinary travellers. Other destinations have their own biosecurity rules, so check yours before you fly. Packaged, processed foods such as dried mango and pastries are the least trouble; keep them in their original packaging with labels intact. For what makes a good gift and what to avoid, see gift etiquette and pasalubong in the Philippines, and for practical errands after landing, such as currency exchange or a SIM card, use our settling-in services.