1. Most Filipino dishes are named for cooking techniques and not specific ingredients or dishes.
2. Unlike the rest of Southeast Asia, Filipino food is rarely spicy. Instead, most Filipino dishes are a combination of salty, sour, sweet and bitter. Most of the spicy dishes are found in just 2 main regions, the province of Bicol and in the Muslim areas of Mindanao.
3. Among the flavors, sourness is the most prevalent in Filipino food. Filipinos draw sour flavors from 3 main sources, fruits, leaves and fermentation.
4. The Philippines has one of the most varied selections of vinegar in the world. Varieties include coconut sap, pineapple, sugar cane, palm, and banana among others.
5. The cuisine is best enjoyed with rice. Filipinos enjoy each and every meal with one form of rice or another, even snacks and breakfast.
6. Filipinos could eat as much as 5-7 times a day. Early breakfast, breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and pulutan (small bites while drinking beer or hard liquor).
7. Filipino cuisine encourages the use of “sawsawan” or dipping sauces. This is usually a combination of calamansi (Philippine lime), soy sauce, vinegar, fish sauce, onions, garlic and chilies.
8. Traditionally, Filipino food is best enjoyed using hands in place of utensils. This practice is called kamayan.
9. Filipino cuisine employs some unique condiments, including banana catsup, bagoong or guinamos and buro. Banana catsup was developed in light of the unavailability of tomatoes and is used to enhance a lot of fried dishes.
Bagoong is fermented shrimp or fish paste and its strong pungent flavors are used to complement some of the milder tasting dishes like grilled squid or Kare Kare (ox tail peanut stew).
Buro, meanwhile, is rice fermented with shrimp or fish and is a great complement to fried fish or raw greens like mustard leaves.
10. Food is such a big part of Filipino culture that you are usually greeted with, “Kumain ka na ba?”(Have you eaten?) and regardless of your answer, the host will usually still bring you food, especially if you visit someone’s home.
Hometown Flavors 