Regional dishes
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The Philippine islands are home to various ethnic groups resulting in varied regional cuisines.
Luzon[edit]
Further information: Ilocano cuisine, Kapampangan cuisine, and Tagalog cuisineIgado, an Ilocano stew of pork and liver cooked in a vinegar and soy sauce-based sauce.Dinakdakan, a creamy grilled pork dish from Ilocos, mixed with onions and spices.
Ilocano cuisine from the Ilocos Region characterized by a diet rich in boiled or steamed vegetables and freshwater fish, with a preference for salty, garlicky, bitter, and umami flavors. A defining ingredient is bugguóng monamón (fermented anchovies), which is widely used to season dishes such as KBL (kamatis, bugguóng, and lasona) a side dish or relish, pinakbet and dinengdeng, both of which have numerous variations depending on the vegetables used. The sukang Iloko (sugarcane vinegar) also known as suka basi is another essential ingredient, commonly used in dishes such as paksiw and kilawen. Meat dishes include bagnet and Vigan longganisa, and often incorporate offal from pig, goat, carabao, and cattle, as seen in specialties such as pinapaitan, sinanglao, lauya, igado, and dinakdakan.
Ilocos Empanada, known for its orange, crispy dough and savory fillings, originates from Batac City.Patupat or Sinambong, a woven rice cake cooked in sugarcane juice.
Local delicacies also include Ilocos empanada, with regional varieties such as those from Batac, which feature a bright orange dough colored with atsuete, and those from Vigan, which have a paler dough.
Traditional rice cakes include tinubong, made with glutinous rice and coconut milk and cooked in bamboo tubes; dudol, made with rice flour, coconut milk, and sugarcane juice; patupat or sinambong, a woven pouch of glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk and sugarcane juice; royal bibingka, a dense sweet rice cake made with rice flour and sugar; and balikucha, a pulled sugar candy made from sugarcane juice.
In Pangasinan, local cuisine is known for dishes such as kaleskes, a savory soup made from beef or carabao innards; pigar-pigar, consisting of thinly sliced fried beef typically served with cabbage and onions; Alaminos longganisa, a garlicky native sausage from Alaminos; and boneless bangus, a deboned milkfish preparation that originated in Dagupan City, which is widely regarded as the “Bangus Capital of the Philippines.”
Pangasinan delicacies: pigar-pigar (right) and kaleskes (left).Puto Calasiao, a soft and chewy steamed rice cake from Calasiao.
Pangasinan desserts include binungey from Bolinao, a sticky rice cake cooked in bamboo with coconut milk and salt; Puto Calasiao, a soft and chewy steamed rice cake known for flavors such as ube and pandan; deremen, a black glutinous rice cake made from young, roasted, and pounded glutinous rice, cooked with coconut milk and sugar; and tupig, a roasted rice cake wrapped in banana leaves.
Etag, smoked and cured pork from Sagada.Sundot kulangot, a Baguio street snack made from sticky rice balls coated in sweetened peanut or sugar toppings.
In the Cordillera Region, particularly among Igorot ethnolinguistic group, cuisine is characterized by indigenous preservation methods such as smoking and sun-drying, which produce distinctly smoky, salty, and savory flavors. Common staples include etag or kiniing (smoked or cured pork preserved for extended periods), pinuneg (a sausage made from pork blood and meat stuffed into casings), pinikpikan (a traditional chicken stew prepared through a ritual process), and watwat (boiled meat cut into portions and shared communally), which are commonly prepared and served during community gatherings and traditional feasts.
Due to its mild, sub-tropical climate, Baguio, along with the outlying mountainous regions, is renowned for its produce. Temperate-zone fruits and vegetables (strawberries being a notable example) which would otherwise wilt in lower regions are grown there. It is also known for a snack called sundot-kulangot which literally means "poke the booger." It is a sticky kind of sweet made from milled glutinous rice flour mixed with molasses, and served inside pitogo shells, and with a stick to "poke" its sticky substance with.
Pancit Batil Patong, a noodle dish from Tuguegarao topped with sautéed ground meat and egg.Pancit Cabagan, a stir-fried noodle dish from Cabagan, made with egg noodles, vegetables, and meat.
In the Cagayan Valley, noodle dishes are a prominent part of the regional cuisine. The Pancit batil patong from Tuguegarao City features stir-fried miki noodles with ground carabeef, pork liver, onions, carrots, cabbage, and bean sprouts, topped (patong) with a beaten egg (batil) and poached or fried egg with chicharon. Pancit Cabagan from Cabagan, Isabela, uses fresh miki noodles stir-fried in a soy-based sauce with lechon carajay, quail eggs, igado, and vegetables. Sinanta, an Ibanag dish, consists of vermicelli or flat noodles in a rich, annatto-colored pork and chicken broth.
Ivatan cuisine, featuring dishes such as luñis, uved, supas or turmeric rice, and fish.Pawa, a sweet delicacy from Piat, Cagayan made of glutinous rice, ground peanuts, and muscovado.
In Batanes, traditional Ivatan dishes often highlight preserved ingredients such as luñis (or luniz) is slow-cooked pork belly prepared in its own fat with rock salt, served crispy with turmeric rice. Vunes are preserved taro cooked with pork, coconut milk, and ginger, while uved or tabtab in Sabtang, is minced banana corm mixed with meat or fish, shaped into balls, and either fried or served in broth. Supas (or balencyana in Itbayat) is rice cooked with turmeric and garlic.
Desserts include binallay, steamed rice flour wrapped in banana leaves and often topped with caramelized molasses and latik; sinabalu, an Itawes rice cake made from glutinous rice and coconut milk cooked in bamboo tubes; and pawa, chewy rice cakes filled with sweetened peanuts originally from Piat, Cagayan.
Kapampangan dishes featuring a variety of sisig and buro, served at Cabalen.Asadung matua, a pork stew with a savory, tangy, and tender profile.
Kapampangan cuisine originates from the provinces of Pampanga and parts of Tarlac in Central Luzon. It is characterized by its bold and rich flavors and its use of locally available ingredients, including a wide range of meat cuts and offal. Among its most well-known dishes are sisig, made from chopped pork parts with calamansi, onions, and chili; kare-kare, a peanut-based stew with oxtail and vegetables; and tocino, locally known as pindang, a sweet-cured pork dish.
Other Kapampangan traditional dishes include buro, a fermented rice dish with shrimp or fish often paired with blanched vegetables; asadung matua, a marinated stewed pork with sweet and savory flavors; and bringhe, a Kapampangan version of paella made with glutinous rice and coconut milk. Additional dishes such as tid-tad a pork with curdled blood and innards; sipo egg, a creamy dish with quail eggs, ham, and vegetables; kilayin a pork and organ meats cooked in vinegar, and pulutok a minced pork lungs and heart.
Tibok-tibok, a pudding made with carabao and coconut milk, topped with caramel or latik.Moche, a glutinous rice balls filled with sweet bean paste.
Traditional desserts include tibok-tibok, a carabao milk pudding; plantanillas, carabao milk pastillas wrapped in soft egg-yolk crepes; moche, glutinous rice balls with bean paste filling; lelut balatong, toasted mung beans with glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk; kalame ube, a rice cake made with ube; and saniculas, crumbly arrowroot-based cookies traditionally stamped with the image of San Nicolas de Tolentino.
The cuisine of the Tagalog people varies by province. Bulacan is popular for Chicharrón (pork rinds) and steamed rice and tuber cakes like puto. It is a center for panghimagas or desserts, like brown rice cake or kutsinta, sapin-sapin, suman, cassava cake, ube halaya and the king of sweets, in San Miguel, Bulacan, the famous carabao milk candy pastillas de leche, with its pabalat wrapper. Cainta, in Rizal province east of Manila, is known for its Filipino rice cakes and puddings.
Filipino cuisine prepared in Baliuag, Bulacan.Sinaing na tulingan, a Tagalog people dish of mackerel tuna slowly cooked with salt and sometimes wrapped in banana leaves.
These are usually topped with latik, a mixture of coconut milk and brown sugar, reduced to a dry crumbly texture. A more modern, and time saving alternative to latik are coconut flakes toasted in a frying pan. Antipolo, straddled mid-level in the mountainous regions of the Philippine Sierra Madre, is a town known for its suman and cashew products.
Laguna is known for buko pie (coconut pie) and panutsa (peanut brittle). Batangas is home to Taal Lake, a body of water that surrounds Taal Volcano. The lake is home to 75 species of freshwater fish, including landlocked marine species that have since adapted to the Taal lake environment. Eight of these species are of high commercial value. These include a population of giant trevally locally known as maliputo which is distinguished from their marine counterparts which are known as talakitok.
Fried tawilis, a popular dish in Batangas and Tagaytay.Bibingkoy, a glutinous rice dumpling delicacy originating from Cavite City.
Another commercially important species is the tawilis, the only known freshwater sardine and endemic to the lake. Batangas is also known for its special coffee, kapeng barako. Quezon, especially the town of Lucban, is also known for its culinary dishes, with Lucban longganisa, pancit habhab, and hardinera being the most notable. The influence of coconut milk dishes, such as laing (called tinuto in some places in Quezon) and sinantol, is also felt in the province because of its proximity to Bicol.
Suman is also a notable food in the province, especially in the town of Infanta and the city of Tayabas, though having the same ingredients as the one in Antipolo, the things that makes Infanta and Tayabas suman unique is its packaging and size; Infanta's suman is smaller in size and is usually grouped into 20 per pack, while Tayabas' suman is also unique in packaging, with a long tail that makes it look like a lit candle, in connection to its tradition of throwing suman during the feast of the city's patron, Isidore the Laborer.
Sinilihan, popularly known as Bicol express, is a popular dish from Bicol.Kinalas, a noodle soup topped with shredded beef and a rich, flavorful broth.
Bicol Region is noted for its gastronomic appetite for fiery or chili-hot dishes, often combined with coconut milk, with natong (taro leaves) as a common ingredient in dishes such as laing and pinangat. One of the most well-known dishes is Bicol express, a spicy stew made with pork, coconut milk, and chili peppers. Other notable dishes include kinunot, made with shredded fish (commonly stingray or shark) cooked in coconut milk with spices and chili; sinanglay, a dish of fish simmered in coconut milk with vegetables; and kandingga, consisting of chopped pork offal sautéed with garlic, onions, vinegar, and chilies.
Bicolano noodle dishes include kinalas from Naga City, a noodle soup made from meat scraped from pork or beef head and offal, and pancit Bato from Bato, Camarines Sur, a stir-fried dish using sun-dried wheat noodles.
Pili nut candies, sweet confections made from roasted pili nuts from Camarines Sur.Sili ice cream, an ice cream flavored with chili peppers for a spicy-sweet taste.
The region is also known for desserts and delicacies made with pili nuts, such as pili tarts, pili nuts candies, caramelized pili nuts, and pili marzipan, as well as biniribid a twisted rice dough fritters; binutong a glutinous rice with coconut cream wrapped in leaves; carmadelo, a carabao milk candy similar to pastillas from the town of Milagros, Masbate; sili ice cream a chili-flavored ice cream, and pinakro a saba bananas cooked in coconut milk and sugar.
Visayas[edit]
Pusô, a Cebuano delicacy of rice cooked and wrapped in woven coconut leaves.Piaya, a Filipino flat pastry filled with muscovado sugar, popular in Bacolod City.
In Visayas, another souring agent in dishes in the form of batuan (Garcinia binucao) is used. It is a fruit that is greenish, yellowish, somewhat rounded, and four centimeters or more in diameter. They have a firm outer covering and contain a very acid pulp and several seeds.
Tultul, a type of rock salt, is another ingredient made only in Guimaras, where it is sprinkled on cooked rice to serve as a side dish. The salt is an assortment of reeds, twigs and small pieces of bamboo carried to the shore by the sea tide where they have been soaked in seawater for some time and is then burned in large quantities while continually being doused with salt water on a daily basis. The ashes then is strained continuously by kaings and are then cooked in pans.
Bacolod is the capital of Negros Occidental. There are a plethora of restaurants in Bacolod that serve delicious local dishes which are popular with visitors. It is known for inasal which literally translates to "cooked over fire". The "chicken inasal" is a local version of chicken barbecue. It is cooked with red achuete or annatto seeds giving it a reddish color, and brushed with oil and cooked over the fire. The city is also famous for various delicacies such as piaya, napoleones and pinasugbo (deep-fried and caramelled banana sprinkled with sesame seeds).
Chicken inasal, a Filipino grilled chicken dish originating from Bacolod City.Binagol, a delicacy from Leyte made from mashed taro and coconut milk, steamed in coconut shells.
Leyte is home to Binagol, Carabao Milk Pastillas, Suman Latik and Moron (food). Taclobanon cuisine is made unique by the wide use of kinagod (grated coconut) and hatok (coconut milk). It is common to find hinatokan (dishes integrated in coconut milk) dishes in the city. Humba is said to have originated from the province since the taste in the region's cuisine distinctly has a slightly sweeter taste than the rest of the country. Because Leyte borders the sea, it is common to find multiple seafood dishes in the province. Masag (crab), tilang (scallops) and pasayan (shrimp) are common sea food in the region. Waray taste varies, allowing each family/angkan (clan) to create unique recipes. Other native delicacies from the province are Roskas (hard cookies made from lard, anise, flour, sugar, butter and eggs) and Bukayo (coconut strip candies).
Aklan is synonymous with inubarang manok, chicken cooked with ubad (banana pith), as well as binakol na manok, chicken cooked in coconut water with lemongrass. Of particular interest is tamilok (shipworm), which is either eaten raw or dipped in an acidic sauce such as vinegar or calamansi. There is a special prevalence of chicken and coconut milk (gata) in Akeanon cooking.
Batchoy, or "La Paz Batchoy", a Filipino noodle dish native to La Paz district in Iloilo.Pancit molo, a wonton soup from Iloilo, featuring meat-filled dumplings in a savory broth.
Iloilo is home of the batchoy, derived from "ba-chui" meaning pieces of meat in Hokkien Chinese. The authentic batchoy contains fresh egg noodles called miki, buto-buto broth slow-cooked for hours, and beef, pork and bulalo mixed with the local guinamos (shrimp paste). Toppings include generous amounts of fried garlic, crushed chicharon, scallions, slices of pork intestines and liver. Another type of pancit which is found in the said province is pancit Molo, an adaptation of wonton soup and is a specialty of the town of Molo, a well-known district in Iloilo. Unlike other pancit, pancit Molo is not dry but soupy and it does not make use of long, thin noodles but instead wonton wrappers made from rice flour. Iloilo is also famous for its two kadios or pigeon pea-based soups. The first is KBL or kadios baboy langka.
KBL (Kadios, Baboy, Langka), a stew made with pigeon peas, pork, and jackfruit.
As the name implies, the three main ingredients of this dish are kadyos, baboy (pork), and langka (unripe jackfruit is used here). Another one is KMU or kadios manok ubad. This dish is composed mainly of kadyos, manok (preferably free range chicken called Bisaya nga manok in Iloilo), and ubad (thinly cut white core of the banana stalk/trunk). Both of these dishes utilize another Ilonggo ingredient as a souring agent. This ingredient is batwan, or Garcinia binucao, a fruit closely related to mangosteen, which is very popular in Western Visayas and neighbouring Negros Island, but is generally unknown to other parts of the Philippines.
Roxas City is another food destination in Western Visayas aside from Iloilo City and Kalibo. This coastal city, about two to three hours by bus from Iloilo City, prides itself as the "Seafood Capital of the Philippines" due to its bountiful rivers, estuaries and seas. Numerous seafood dishes are served in the city's Baybay area such as mussels, oysters, scallops, prawns, seaweeds, clams, fishes and many more.Bohol kalamay, made from glutinous rice, coconut milk, and brown sugar, traditionally packed in coconut shells.In Bohol, kalamay is popular. In Palawan, crocodile meat is boiled, cured, and turned into tocinos. In Romblon, a specialty dish is pounded and flavored shrimp meat and rice cooked inside banana leaves.
Cebu is known for its lechón variant. Lechon prepared "Cebu style" is characterized by a crisp outer skin and a moist juicy meat with a unique taste given by a blend of spices. Cebu is also known for sweets like dried mangoes and caramel tarts.
Mindanao[edit]
Chicken Pastil, packed rice dish originating from the Maguindanaon people.
In Mindanao, the southern part of Palawan island, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, dishes are richly flavored with the spices common to Southeast Asia: turmeric, coriander, lemon grass, galangal, cumin, zest and/or leaves from varieties of native limes, cinnamon, and chillies—ingredients not commonly used in the rest of Philippine cooking. The cuisine of the indigenous ethnolinguistic nations who are either Christian, Muslim or Lumad peoples of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago has much in common with the rich and spice-paste centric Malay cuisines of Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Indonesian and Thai cuisine, and other Southeast Asian cuisines. Ginanggang, a snack food made of grilled saba banana with margarine and sugar
Mindanaoan cuisine represents the cultural achievements of prehispanic Philippine cuisine in other most parts of the country immediately prior to Spanish colonization between in the late 16th to early 17th centuries. Hints of similar dishes and flavors can also found in the Bicol region and the Cordilleras, which still prefer a coconut and spice-paste rich palate similar to Mindanao.The Southern Philippine dish satti, served with ta'mu rice cakesWell-known Mindanao and Sulu dishes include satti (satay) and ginataang manok (chicken cooked in spiced coconut milk). Certain parts of Mindanao are predominantly Muslim, where pork is rarely consumed, and lamb, mutton, goat and beef are the main red meats of choice.
Rendang is an often-spicy beef curry whose origins derive from the Minangkabau people of Sumatra; biryani, kulma, and kiyoning (pilaf) are dishes originally from the Indian subcontinent , that were given a Mindanaoan touch and served on special occasions.
Piaparan, a Maranao dish of chicken or fish cooked in coconut milk with turmeric and spices.
Piyanggang manok is a Tausug dish made from barbecued chicken marinated in spices, and served with coconut milk infused with toasted coconut meat.
Chupá culo and curacha con gatâ are examples of Zamboangueño dishes made from shells cooked with coconut milk and crab with sauce blended in coconut milk with spices, respectively. There are other known Zamboangueño dishes like estofadong baboy, sicalañg, alfajor, endulzao, tamal, paella, arroz a la Valenciana, rebosao, toron, and more.
Popular crops such as cassava root, sweet potatoes, and yams are grown.
Sambal, a spicy sauce made with belacan, tamarind, aromatic spices and chilies, is a popular base of many dishes in the region.
Palapa, is a popular condiment unique to, and widely used in, Maranao and Maguindanaon cuisines, and consists of a base of shredded old coconut, sakurab (a variant of green onion), ginger, galangal, chillies, salt, pepper, and turmeric.
Another popular dish from this region is tiyula itum, a dark broth of beef or chicken lightly flavored with ginger, galangal, chili, turmeric, and toasted coconut flesh (which gives it its dark color).
Lamaw (Buko salad), is a mixture of young coconut, its juice, milk or orange juice, with ice.
