Manila is a national hub of regional cooking and has almost all the regions of the Philippines represented – either in exclusively regional eateries or featured with other cuisines. General restaurants, either catering for the working class or the elite, can offer varied dishes coming from every region and cater for almost everyone’s taste palette. For example, the northern region called Ilocos has its favorite fare called Pinakbet approved by practically everyone but still closely identified as Ilocano fare.

Here are just some of the regional dishes that feature in the restaurants, canteens, and carinderias in Manila:

• Ilocanos, the most affluent of ethnic tribes next to the Tagalogs, are known as industrious and thrifty people who live in the limited cultivable strip of land bounded between China sea and the Cordillera mountain range in northern Luzon island.
• Pinakbet – vegetable dish seasoned with fermented fish
• Papaetan – tripe seasoned with bile secretion
• Dinengdeng –
• Central Luzon Island Region (Kapampangan)
• Pampaguenos lead in the art of combining the best of Spanish and Chinese legacies.
• Relleno – stuffed fish or chicken.
• Pastel –
• Cocido –
• Pansit Palabok – noodle dish.
• Sisig – a dish of chopped meat or seafoof creamed with mayonnaise and spiced with Philippine chili.
• They also excel in fine desserts such as Turon de Casuy, Mazapan, Leche Flan and Biscochos Borrachos.
• Adobo – now considered as National Dish, it’s pork, beef, chicken, or practically anything marinated in soy sauce and vinegar.
• Sinigang – Philippines’ answer to Thailand’s Tom Yam, a meat or seafood boiled in a sour fruit.
• Dinuguan – internal organs of butchered animals and cooked with pork blood. (Note: eating animal organs was introduced by the Spaniards).
• Hipong Halabos – boiled shrimp.
• Kari-Kari – beef parts flavored by vegetables and pounded peanut turned into sauce.
• Biya with Gata – fish cooked in coconut milk.
• Pangat – fish cooked without coconut milk.
• Southern Luzon Peninsula Region (Bicol)
• Pinangat – minced young coconut meat with either shrimps or freshwater fish (mudfish, tilapia, catfish)and hot pepper wrapped in taro leaves then cook boiled in pure coconut milk.
• Tanaguktok – (also called sinanglay) fish stuffed with tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger and the inevitable hot pepper wrapped in banana leaf and then cooked in cocomilk.
• Gulay na Natong – Taro leaves cooked in coconut milk.
• Bicol Express (the local recipe)- a dish comprising of 70% julienned chilli peppers with a mixture of pork fat, salted small shrimps (locally known as balaw)sauteed in onions, garlic, ginger and sometimes tomatoes then cooked in cocomilk.
• Pansit Molo – soup with wanton like dumplings.
• Laswa – vegetables cooked in little water with fermented fish.
• Linagpang – broiled fish.
• Inasal – another fish cooked over charcoal.
• Kadyos – vegetables with fish or meat.
• Cebuanos live on these dry and barren islands and are corn eating rather than rice eating people. They have been influenced by the Mexicans.
• Corn Suman – dessert made from corn meal re-wrapped in the husk.
• Utap or Hojaldres – Cebuano biscuit.
• Eastern Visayas Islands Region or Samar-Leyte
• Warays are coconut milk lovers minus the hot chili pepper.
• Kinilao – raw fish in lime and vinegar.

Restaurants

When it comes to dining, in a nutshell, Filipino food can be described as timid in flavor, not much creativity, as well as care for presentation. Food is trained to have only one dominant flavor – either the bitterness, the sweetness, the sourness, the saltiness, or the umaminess is enhanced. For some reason, the ingredients used don’t have that wide range like those in Malaysia, Vietnam or Thailand, its closest neighbors.

Only half a century of American rule was enough to establish burgers and fried Filipino chicken as daily staples, while tapsilogan are where you need to go for access traditional Filipino cuisine which still has all of the delicious and unique elements that unite the food traditions here.

Filipinos are great lovers of McDonalds and Pizza Hut, their dining style and menus. Hotdogs on sticks, hotdogs on buns, hamburgers or cheeseburgers, pizzas, and spaghettis are all popular. Their pictures proliferate everywhere, be it as street food or sit-in meal. Manilans also love donuts, particularly from Mister Donut whose products are not as sweet as its American counterparts.

Manila has most of the usual American fast food chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Subway, Dairy Queen, Shakey’s Pizza, Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts, TGIF, Italianni’s, Outback, and KFC. Jollibee, the Filipino counterpart of McDonald’s is eclipsing its American-based competitor, who has long held a dominant position in the city.

Coffee shops such as Starbucks and Seattle’s Best have also recently become quite common in malls and commercial centers. Meals could be as low as US$2-3 in most fast food joints. A typical burger meal with fries and a drink would fall under this range.

What to drink

A very localized drinking experience in Manila are beer gardens (or beerhouses as commonly called). They are scattered mostly around the working districts of Sampaloc, Santa Mesa, Quiapo and even the tourist belt areas of Ermita and Malate. Every city in the metropolis has practically its own adult entertainment strip, block, or district where these establishments can be found. These are heavily sexualized. It’s mostly working class men and those working in the military and police establishments who are the clientele with young sexy and provocatively dressed waitresses or euphemistically called GROs or Guest Relations Officers serving the customers. Some beer gardens take it up a level higher and have entertainment on the sides with scantily two-piece suit dancers taking turns on the stage. The kind of food served somewhat resemble the Spanish Tapas style ranging from the simple such as peanuts, corn, and peas – boiled or deep fried to mundane such as fried pork, beef, chicken to the adventurous such as other body parts – ears, gizzards, livers, hearts, intestines, brains, balls, blood, and what have you.

For establishments resembling the western version of a pub, these establishments are concentrated in Remedios Circle in Malate district a very important hub of nightlife, as well as in Bonifacio Global Village in Taguig City, Tomas Morato in Kamuning District in Quezon City, and Eastwood in Libis District, Quezon City. Bohemian Malate, the older Ermita neighborhood and the Baywalk that stretches between them contains a variety of venues serving a combination of food, comedy, alcohol, and live music.