- Basics of Food from the Philippines
- Filipino Dishes in Luzon
- Filipino Dishes in Visayas
- Filipino Dishes in Mindanao
Influences of Filipino Food
Philippine cuisine has several foreign influences that have successfully melded with local, indigenous cuisine. Indigenous Filipino food is heavily influenced by Chinese cuisine, brought along by the various traders and later on, Chinese immigrants mainly from Fujian region of China and the Cantonese.
Filipino food is also heavily influenced by the cuisine of its different colonizers like the Spanish, who ruled the Philippines for 300 years, the Americans, who ruled the Philippines for a number of decades, the Japanese, who ruled a few years during World War II, and the British for a couple of years (bringing along Indian workers with them).
There are also Mexican influences as workers and traders from the galleon trades brought ingredients and dishes to Philippine shores. Plus, there are native food from the country’s Islamic regions, which were influenced by the neighboring Southeast Asian countries.
By virtue of it being local, regional, seasonal and being influenced by a number of different foreign cuisines, cataloging Filipino dishes is a little bit of challenge, especially for foreigners. This also means that it is difficult to truly define Filipino food in just a few sentences but there are some basics to give you a clearer picture.
Hometown Flavors 