Balut is a popular, although unusual Filipino delicacy, served everywhere from street stalls to upscale restaurants. It is a duck egg that has been hard-boiled, fertilized, and incubated. Traditionally, the cooked embryo is consumed straight from the shell.
It is considered an aphrodisiac that is commonly paired with a cold beer on the side. The dish can be seasoned with chili, garlic, vinegar, salt, lemon juice, ground pepper, and mint leaves. It can also be cooked in omelets or used as a filling for pastries.
Inipit is a popular Filipino dessert consisting of two sponge cakes combined with a creamy, custard-like filling. Although it exists in many versions, the most common combination of flavors is plain vanilla sponge with a mashed potato filling. It originated in the city of Malolos and was invented by Salome P.
De Ramos in the 1940s. Nowadays, it is one of the most famous signature dessert stemming from the Bulacan region, and it is usually sold at traditional Filipino bakeries.
MOST ICONIC Inipit
The sweet bukayo is a traditional delicacy made with strips of young coconut flesh that is cooked in coconut water alongside brown sugar and various seasonings. It is simmered until the texture becomes thick, and it is then served shaped in round or flat shapes.
Either crispy or chewy in consistency, it can be enjoyed on its own or as a complement to other desserts.
MOST ICONIC Bukayo
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Biko is a traditional dessert made with glutinous rice, coconut milk, and sugar. It is known for its rich and sweet flavor — the combination of coconut milk and sugar results in a creamy and luscious taste. Its sticky and chewy texture comes from the glutinous rice.
To make biko, glutinous rice is cooked with coconut milk and sugar until it becomes sticky and fully absorbed. The mixture is then spread in a baking dish or lined with banana leaves for added flavor. It is usually baked in the oven or steamed until it sets and develops a slightly caramelized top.
Otap is a sweet, thin, oval-shaped Filipino treat made with puff pastry. These treats are usually small in size, generously sprinkled with sugar, and have an incredibly crispy and crumbly texture. It is believed that otap originated in Cebu, and today it represents a signature product of the entire region.
The sugary biscuits are available at numerous local markets and stores and are usually enjoyed as a light dessert or a sweet afternoon snack.
Kinalas is a traditional dish originating from the Bicol area. It's made with a combination of noodles, spices, pork or beef brains, and scraped meat from pork or beef head. This noodle soup is served in a shrimpy, garlicky brown gravy consisting of dried shrimps, vinegar, garlic, shallots, soy sauce, and fish sauce.
Kinalas is often garnished with spring onions, fried garlic, or chili peppers, but some people like to add a hard-boiled egg on top. The dish is always served hot, and its name is derived after the Bicolano word kalas, meaning to remove the meat from the bones.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Pochero is a beloved Filipino stew that was created as a variation on the Spanish puchero. It's made with a combination of meat (beef, but it can also be made with chicken or pork), tomatoes, onions, garlic, patis fish sauce, peppercorns, chickpeas, leeks, plantains, potatoes, cabbage, green beans, and bok choy.
The stew is simmered until the vegetables and the meat become tender. Pochero is especially popular on cold or rainy days, when it's customarily served piping hot with rice on the side.
Kilawin is a term which refers to a broad group of Filipino dishes which are similar to the Italian crudo or the Peruvian ceviche. It can employ meat or seafood which is cut or sliced, then blended with vinegar, citrus juices, and a variety of spices and fresh herbs.
Even though the ingredients are sometimes pre-cooked, they are most commonly used raw, allowing the vinegar to act as a cooking agent. Kilawin is typically served as an appetizer or a side dish during traditional Filipino beer-drinking sessions.
MOST ICONIC Kilawin
Spamsilog is a traditional dish originating from the Philippines, consisting of garlic fried rice, fried eggs, and Spam, the canned, trademarked, and square-shaped mixture of pork, water, salt, sugar, potato starch, and sodium nitrate. Spam is boiled in a bit of water, then fried in oil and arranged on a plate with garlic fried rice and sunny-side-up fried eggs.
The dish is traditionally served piping hot for breakfast, and it's accompanied by sliced tomatoes or cucumbers. The name of the dish contains all three components: Spam (Spam), sinagang fried rice (si), and itlog fried eggs (log).
OTHER VARIATIONS OF Silog
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Filipino spaghetti is a dish that has slowly become a national dish in the Philippines, showing up on menus across the country at least once a week. Unlike the Italian version, Filipino spaghetti are sweet, combining the noodles with ground meat, hot dogs, banana ketchup, and sugar.
It is believed that the dish was invented by Filipino mothers who noticed that their children love sugar, so they put a spin on the classic spaghetti dishes. Today, this inexpensive meal is known as the one that unites families, and is consumed by both poor and rich people.
TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “48 Worst Rated Filipino Foods” list until February 16, 2025, 6,478 ratings were recorded, of which 3,984 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.