Tags: Food Products, Street Food, Truly Pinoy Food and Drinks
By Anna Valmero
MANILA CITY, METRO MANILA—Filipinos love street food and if you need more than enough proof, head straight for Quiapo.
The bargain hunter’s paradise is also considered a melting pot of Filipino street food with treats such as traditional suman and palitaw (types of rice cake) made affordable to satisfy hungry stomachs. A budget of P50 can go a long way of satisfying your cravings for street food.
On any given day, the stretch of Carriedo, Hidalgo and Evangelista streets going to Plaza Miranda is filled with vendors of all sorts. And just like malls with their food courts for shoppers, eating is very much part of any Quiapo shopper’s itinerary.
In fact, you can see a food vendor on every corner and shopping on a hot summer afternoon is best done because eating while shopping is not prohibited in the area, unlike in malls. One could just imagine how the ilustrados or the elite of 16th century Manila flocked to Quiapo as this was the center of commerce when it was established 1586.
The numerous variety of Filipinos street food available in Quiapo owes to the fact that vendors came from different provinces and thus, bring their own delicacy right to every Filipino’s shopping haven.
The traditional suman (P10 each) is peddled by Rogelio every day in Carriedo Street from 10a.m. to late in the evening. This Filipino all-time snack, which comes in varieties of ibus made of steamed malagkit na bigas (glutinous rice) or lihia (boiled in lye water) wrapped in banana or coconut leaves.
While Filipino fine dining restaurants have re-introduced suman as a dessert served with chocolate drizzles and mango slices, it is traditionally served during breakfast or afternoon snack dipped in brown sugar or the more unrefined muscovado and partnered with a hot cup of tsokolate-a or kapeng barako of Batangas.
Almost every province has their own version of suman but Rogelio, who hails form Bicol, said the suman he peddles is tastier because of the thick coconut milk added as ingredient. It is widely known that cocnut milk is a staple ingredient in every Bicol dish, he added.
“Masarap talaga ang suman saka nakakabusog pa (Suman is very delicious and filling),” said Rogelio, adding that the ingenious packaging made of leaves is earth-friendly and does not pollute the environment like plastic wrappers.
For me, the best memories of eating suman cooked at home was when I was unwrapping it from banana leaves that twirl around the suman, making it look more appetizing.
Palitaw, a fried rice cake topped with grated coconut, sugar and sesame seeds is also another must-try delicacy here. Aling Nena, from whom I bought two orders of palitaw at P20 each (each order has three pieces and generous serving of sugar with sesame seeds), stays near the LRT Carriedo Station to peddle her goods to commuters and shoppers alike.
Although she is already 70 years old, selling palitaw is Aling Nena’s own soure of income so she comes to Quiapo in the afternoon daily. True enough, the palitaw she sells are still hot when I ate them.
“Kailangan kumita para mabuhay, saka masaya ako pagsinasabi ng bumibili na masarap ang tinda ko (We need to work hard to live and of course, I am happy that people who buy my palitaw said that it’s delicious),” added Aling Nena, who cooks the palitaw at her small home in Manila.
Local fruits served fresh or with condiments like bagoong can also be seen along Quiapo. You can choose from ripe and Indian mangoes, singkamas, watermelon and coconut, which are also sold as juice for thirsty buyers.
Except for Indian mangoes which can be readily eaten when sold, most fruits serve as pasalubong when buyers go home so vendors position themselves near Carriedo Street, which serves as entrance and exit points of Plaza Miranda from the LRT Carriedo Station often used by Quiapo shoppers.
Fruit vendors usually position themselves near bestsellers such as stalls of pirated music CDs and DVD movies or pirated goods to take advantage of the human traffic, said Gerry, a watermelon vendor. Keeping the fruits fresh by shading them from the afternoon sun is a must, or else the fruits will easily dry out, he added.
Don’t forget to buy bayongs from young vendors to avoid carrying too much plastic sando bags home, he said referring to his younger brother Jonathan.
Fried fishballs, squidballs, kikiam and kwek-kwek na balut and penoy, as well as chicharon baka (made from cow meat and innards) are also bestsellers for hungry shoppers and commuters passing by the streets of Carriedo. These fried goods are bestsellers – your stomach would be satisfied with two sticks of kikiam or squidballs for P10 or P5 worth of fishballs, said vendors.
Jun-jun, a vendor of chicharon baka, said his product is more delious than the famous chicharon bulaklak made of pork. This chicharon variety has a darker color and bigger bite than the pork counterpart, owing to cow meat’s darker color.
As the sole vendor of chicharon baka on the street, he said a pan of cooked chicharon is easily sold that he had to refill his pan with fresh meat every 30 minutes. An order costs P20 with spiced vinegar for dip.
Aside from Quiapo, he also sold chicharon along R. Papa St. but he chose to stay in Quiapo due to the huge number of potential customers and less competition for the same product in the area. To keep his food product clean, Jun-jun does not allow customers to double dip their chicharon on the vinegar bottle. Instead, he serves chicharon using wax paper and vinegar is poured on the chicharon.
Kwek-kwek or tokeneneng, balut and penoy are equally satisfying treats in Quiapo for those eying a snack rich in protein (from the egg).
The traditional kwek-kwek or tokneneng is made of boiled chicken or quail egg (smaller version) with deep orange or sometimes yellow breading. It is served with spiced vinegar on a soup bowl for P10. Some vendors even have a sweet and spicy sauce made for those who don’t like vinegar on kwek-kwek.
Blogger Ishmael Fischer Ahab, a graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman, let his visiting Malaysian friend tried the Pinoy delicacies; the latter gobbled them up easily.
For those wanting burgers or hotdog sandwiches, there are buy-one-take-one promos for P20 in the area, the most accessible of which is in the nearby LRT station.
“Sa tingin ko kaya dinarayo ang Quiapo kasi maraming pagpipilian saka dito yung totoong street food na mura at masarap at niluto talaga sa mga kalye, sa harap ng customers (I believe Filipinos go to Quiapo because of the variety of product and food choices. And here, you can find the authentic cheap and yummy streetfood cooked in streets right in front of the customers),” said Jun-jun.
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