Filipinos usually serve at least one main course accompanied by rice for lunch and dinner. At times you would have two with a vegetable dish accompanying a meat dish. On special occasions such as fiestas, several main dishes would be served. Soups are also often the main course apart from being a starter. It is not uncommon for Filipinos to douse their rice with the soup and eat the meat that came with the soup alongside.
Here is a list of popular Philippine dishes:
Adobo: pork or chicken marinated in garlic, soy sauce and vinegar
Afritada: meat stew with green peppers, onions, tomatoes, and potatoes
Bagoong: fermented paste made from small fish, sometimes shrimp
Kare-kare: ox tail stew with banana blossoms cooked in a peanut sauce
Escabeche: sweet and sour fish dish
Lumpia: spring roll
Menudo: ox tail stew with chickpeas
Pansit: noodles
Pinakbet: vegetable dish cooked with bagoong
Arroz Caldo: rice porridge with chicken
Kaldereta: goat stew
Kilawin: raw fish
Daing: dried fish
Dinengdeng: boiled vegetables with bagoong
Dinuguan: blood pudding with internal organs
Embutido: porkloaf sausage
Estofado: beef stew with beans, carrots and tomatoes
Ginataan: cooked with gata (coconut milk)
Inihaw: barbecued
Laing: taro leaves cooked in gata
Longaniza: sweet-and-sour pork sausage
Mechado: beef and onions cooked with tomato sauce
Paksiw: stew of fish marinated in vinegar
Pinakbet: vegetable dish cooked with bagoong
Pochero: chicken and pork stew with bananas and vegetables
Relyenong bangus: stuffed milkfish
Sinaing: boiled rice
Sinangag: fried rice
Sinigang: sour stew (the souring ingredient usually tamarind or kamias)
Tapa: seasoned dried meat
Tinola: chicken stew with papaya
Tokwa: tofu
Torta: omelet
Ukoy: fried shrimp cakes
Drinks in the Philippines are not only a necessary complement to meals, but also help beat the tropical heat. As with their food, Filipinos often incorporate local produce into beverages to create tasty and refreshing concoctions.
Tropical fruits usually made into shakes are mango, dalandan, pomelo, pineapple, banana, and guyabano. This variety makes it possible to produce different tastes; from sweet, tangy, citrusy, along with many other unique flavors.
Filipinos also enjoy the coconut-infused hard liquor known as lambing and gin cocktails mixed with pineapple juice or citrus fruit juice.
