Manila Travel Forum

hi
i believe philippines has a varied and exotic cuisine scene. any recommendations for the different type of good and the popular restaurants for the dishes. i am not thinking of the international chains of western food in this context.
regards
smusaphir

hi omarables
tks for the prompt response.
appreciate if you can explain the specialities of the various items suggested by you.
regards
musaphir

Whenever we have foreign guests who are adventurous enough to try local cuisine, we bring them to Gerry's Grill, Pugad ni Dencio, Cabalen, Kamayan, Via Mare, Aristocrat, Max or Pier Uno. These restos are found in almost all major malls. Since you are going to be based in Pasig, you might want to try the local cuisine at Cafe Juanita (#2 United St, West Capitol Drive, Barrio Kapitolyo, Pasig).

Aside from grilled/bbq fish or meat, some local cuisine you might want to try:

Kare-kare: ox tail (sometimes pork legs or tripe are used) stewed in peanut sauce with vegetables (usually banana heart, eggplants, string beans, cabbage or pechay), eaten with shrimp paste as condiment;

Sinigang: Fish/pork/beef in sour broth (tamarind makes the broth sour) with vegetables (usually radish, okra, kangkong or swamp cabbage, mustard leaves);

Lechon: Roast Pig/suckling stuffed with lemon grass for aroma;

Adobo: Chicken/Pork/combination of both stewed in mixture of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, peppercorns, laurel leaves;

Pinakbet: Mixture of vegetables (usually ampalaya/bitter gourd, okra, eggplants, and squash) cooked with some diced pork and shrimp paste, sometimes made spicy hot with finger-chili;

Sizzling Sisig: Diced pig’s cheek & ears, and liver flavored with chili, spices and souring ingredients such as kalamansi (sometimes mixed mayonnaise and/or topped with raw egg that eventually gets cooked on the sizzling plate)

I could add more, but these are the ones my guests liked :-)

You can try DAMPA. This experience was really unique for me, and when I take friends there, they are astonished.

What is Dampa ? Filipino small restaurants just next to a fish-market. You can buy any kind of fish and seafood in the fish-market and you give it to the restaurant of your choice for cooking it. They add the rest of the ingredients. Alternatively, the restaurant staff can buy the fish for you. You pay for cooking and service.

I experienced the Dampa in Paranaque, on the Sucat road, on your right hand while driving from NAIA to SM-Paranaque (There is a gate with the inscription DAMPA, opposite to Pizza Hut, if I remember well). There are many different restaurants of this kind on both sides of the short drive leading to the fish-market.

That's really something to remember from Philippines !!! (Wow!!! I am already hungry by writing this !!!)

I found that same dishes varied quite a lot in different restaurants but we got the main idea what they were from trying them several times. My favourite has to be Sinigang Soup...absolutely delicious! Adobo was good too, but wasn't 'brave' enough to try Kare Kare...

I have a friend in Beijing who is about to start a Filipino food delivery service, so I'm looking forward to trying her dishes to get a better understanding of the cuisine!

But I loved the list you gave Cyndy...very useful!

You can also try Aristocrat Restaurant (along Roxas Blvd, near the US Embassy) for it's barbecue chicken and halo-halo for dessert.

Halo-halo - shaved ice with milk, custard, red mung beans, jackfruit, coconut shreds, banana

Here's my restaurant page of Manila.

Definitely try Dampa or if you can't find it, just go behind the Mall of Asia for the same dining experience - shop for fresh sea food in the market and then they'll grill, bake, fry, whatever you tell them too with the fish, shrimps, mussels,crabs, etc.

Try sisig and down it with San Miguel Beer at Gerry's Grill. I will not describe it lest you won't try it :-)

Here are other things to do around Manila http://www.ehow.com/how_4861843_beat-heat-manila.html

Enjoy!

Oops, forgot the link of my restaurant page in previous post. Here it is http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/7f095/705/2/