Four Filipino Foods a Kid Should Try

Okay, so I've been living in the Philippines for my whole life, so you can expect that I usually eat a lot of Filipino foods. (Well duh -.-) Philippine cuisine is actually interesting because it's a mix of Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish foods. However, food critics claim that Filipino cuisine can be summed up in three words: brown, sour, and oily.

So MAYBE most of our food IS brown, sour, and oily, but that doesn't mean that it isn't worth trying. Seriously. Take a break from the pizza and ice cream (lol, I don't know what country you're from so I had to guess) and just try some of our food. JUST ONCE D:

I thought about four of the most kid-friendly Filipino dishes and here they are!

1. Champorado (champ-or-ah-doe)

Champorado is a chocolate rice porridge that Filipinos often have for breakfast. (Any country that has chocolate for breakfast sounds awesome, doesn't it? :P)  To cook it, all you basically have to do is boil rice and cocoa powder, but you better be safe and check out this simple recipe.

Okay, this doesn't taste good on its own, so you have to swirl condensed milk (or evaporated milk and sugar) on it to make it sweeter. Most people also eat champorado with salted fish to balance out the sweetness, but I have a sweet tooth so I barely do that :D

2. Sinigang (see-nee-gang)

This isn't really the first vegetable soup you should try if you weren't born in the Philippines, for one obvious reason: it's sour. LOL, it's tamarind-based, so it's naturally sour. I'm recommending this, though, because it's a comfort food for me. My grandma keeps making this for us because its ingredients are so cheap.


The basic vegetables in sinigang are string beans, kangkong (river spinach), horse radishes, okra (though the sinigang my grandma cooks often doesn't have it), and sometimes mustard leaves. The protein part (lol, i'm talking nutrients now XD) could be fish, pork, or shrimps, which means the soup alone can already be a main dish I guess. The sinigang picture above has pork in it, but my favorite is sinigang with pink salmon in it. :)

I admit it doesn't SOUND very delicious, but if you're up to it, here is the basic recipe.

3. Taho (tah-ho)

Taho is often for merienda (snack) or even breakfast! It's made mostly of silken tofu, caramel syrup/juice/lolican'tdecidewhuttheheckitis, and sago (tapioca pearls). One of the reasons this is a Filipino favorite is because, just like balut (I'd rather not tell you whut this is O___O) and balut vendors, you're probably not a Filipino if you haven't heard the beloved taho vendor shouting out "TAHOOOOOO".

For simple, homemade recipe for taho, click here.

4. Pancit (pan-sit)

Basically the term for "noodles (that aren't in soup)" in the Philippines, so you can expect that there are many types of pancit and pancit recipes in the country. I'm not posting a single recipe because there are so many good ones XP.This can be served for lunch and dinner, though some also eat it as a snack as long as they keep the portions small (or they'll get fat :D).

My favorite recipe, though, is a mixture of vermicelli noodles, a bit of soy sauce, and tengang daga (literally translates to "rat's ear", but it's actually a mushroom that uncannily looks like rat ears XD). I'm a big fan of mushrooms and pancit without carrots--I hate carrots x.x--so it's not much of a surprise I'm a big fan of this really simple recipe. We actually had this for New Year instead of our traditional spaghetti.


Well, that's it. I hope you'll try all of these out, as well as the other pretty delicious Philippine dishes. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna beg my mom to have taho for breakfast tommorow. :P Peace out!