When in Manila...Eat! (Most Loved Filipino Dishes)

This gastronomical experience happened during our 2011 vacation in the Philippines. 

After four years of not coming home, we spent about four weeks in the Philippines in April 2011. Part of the plan was to enjoy the food we love from childhood to present. As we savour each bite of our all-time favourite Filipino dishes, it gave us such happiness to have a taste of home.

Here are a few of our favourite food in the Philippines:

Jollibee, Max's, KFC and Shakey's. We love chickens! And in our books, these are our most-loved fried chickens in the Philippines. I've written about my love for Jollibee here as we've eaten at Jollibee for about four times during our vaycay so I guess it needed a separate entry. I grew up eating Max's Fried Chicken and I've considered it one of our family's go-to chicken whenever we feel like eating out. I love KFC's Hot 'n Spicy Chicken and their gravy is very tasty that you can get away with just that and rice. I've tasted other KFCs from other places and my favourite is still the ones from the Philippines. Shakey's delicious take on fried chicken goes well with their Mojos and thin crust pizzas.

The only pizza from the Philippines I love is Shakey's Pizza and my favourite is their thin-crust Pepperoni Pizza Crunch. 

Goldilocks is well-known for their delicious cakes and pastries but we also love the food they serve in store such as Pork BBQ and Lumpiang Sariwa (Fresh Lumpia) in sweet peanut sauce.

We had a chance to visit my parent's hometown in Quezon Province and I can't leave the place without buying a few kilos of Longganisang Lucban. 

A trip to Tagaytay is never complete without having lunch at Josephine Restaurant. One of their dishes that I love is their meaty Crispy Pata.

The Philippines is known for their streetfood and we're so happy we got to enjoy some Fishballs, Squidballs and Isaw when we hung out at Mercato Centrale and Midnight Mercato.

Cafe Adriatico has a special place in our heart so we're so glad they have a branch in Gateway Cubao. My favourite would always be their flavourful Beef Salpicao.

I'm a sucker for Clubhouse Sandwiches so every chance I got, I make sure I order it. I'm thankful we have a  Tropical Hut branch near our place so I just had to stop over and have their Clubhouse Sandwich for breakfast. This is my favourite and probably the best clubhouse sandwich in the Philippines.

My second best favourite is the Clubhouse Sandwich from Pancake House.

And third best would be from Figaro Coffee Company.

Mann Hann is another family favourite. When I lived with my parents in Manila, we eat here almost every Sunday but we never get tired of their salty and spicy Spareribs and Taosi Clams. 

A standard drink of mine whenever I'm in the Philippines includes Coconut Juice, Calamansi Juice and Green Mango Juice.Those three are my favourite fruit drinks from the Phils. I sometimes ask the restaurant staff though whether their juices are fresh or bottled as I only want fresh juice.

Now let's move to desserts, shall we?

On a very hot day, it's always nice to cool down with Chowking's Halo-Halo.

Red Ribbon cakes are the cakes and pastries I grew up eating at home other than Goldilocks. We love their Coffee Crunch cake and Chocolate Mousse plus their Taisan roll/cake.

For doughnuts, we love Dunkin' Donuts and Mister Donut.  My favourite from DD is the Bavarian Filled donut, while we love the Choco Butternut from MD.

Once we were able to sit down for afternoon tea so we had some Churros from Dulcinea.

Bibingka Souffle is another favourite of ours which we get from C2.

*Sigh*....such a long list I know. And actually, that wasn't all of it. I just had to pick the ones that we love the most.  For balikbayans like us, it's important that the food we've loved (and still loving) since childhood is still there and consistently delicious. Being home in the Philippines will never be complete without these.

If you chance upon this entry and you're planning to travel to the Philippines, I hope you get to try some of the food we love.