How to Eat Like a True

Filipino

Seafood Lunch | © Shubert Ciencia / Flickr

Katrina Escalona
17 August 2017
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Anyone who’s been to the Philippines knows how much Filipinos love
to eat. Food is more than just physical nourishment. It is a huge part of
culture, community, and celebration that they very much enjoy sharing
with anyone willing to partake. Read on and learn how to immerse
yourself through this vital component of Filipino life.

Eating is treated as a social affair

Rarely will people see members of a Filipino family eating at different times of the
day or eating while fixated solely on the TV screen. This is because mealtime in
Filipino households is supposed to bring the family together. It is the time to talk, tell
each other about their days, and really just interact with one another. Food in the
Philippines brings people together. This is also the reason a feast is always at the
center of any Filipino celebration.
Eat three big meals and several smaller ones in
between
Many people are surprised at just how much Filipinos eat in a day. Breakfast, lunch,
and dinner are all typically big meals (a Filipino breakfast, for example, consists of
rice, eggs, and meat). But don’t think these are enough to satisfy the Filipino appetite.
Several snacks, what Filipinos call merienda, are also eaten in between these big
meals. These snacks are basically anything that isn’t eaten with rice (i.e., sweets,
pastries, sandwiches, noodles, etc.).

Tocilog plate © mabelleaf / Flickr

It isn’t a meal without rice

Filipino meals are usually served with a big bowl of rice and several viands in the
middle of the dining table. Rice will always be present. This is also why viands
or ulam (anything eaten with rice) in the Philippines are always very rich in flavor
because the rice’s neutrality will balance it out.

Typical Filipino Meal © Gautsch / Flickr

Eat with a fork and spoon
Eating with a spoon instead of a knife is much easier for Filipinos as there is more
room for the rice to rest. Although knives are usually placed on the table
at restaurants, most Filipinos have mastered how to cut meat using only the edges of
their spoon, leaving little use for the sharper utensil unless bigger cuts of meat, like
steak, are served.

Know proper food formation on the plate

Funnily enough, Filipinos also have a default way of how the food on their plate is
arranged. The rice is centered at the bottom of the plate, close to the eater, and the
viands are arranged around it. This is the most convenient way since Filipinos will
normally take a bit of the viand, pushing it onto their spoon with the fork, and then
portion off a a bigger amount of rice and pushing it towards their spoon. Such
arrangement requires little utensil movement, mostly needing to only go across the
middle area of the plate.

Know how (and when) to eat with your hands

A common Filipino joke is that food tastes better “‘pag kinakamay” (when eaten with
the hands). Though this probably doesn’t alter the taste of the food (if you have clean
hands, that is), what it does is that it makes the eating experience much more
immersive and fun. It also makes things easier when eating seafood and meats with a
lot of bone. While peeling things like shrimp normally requires both hands, the actual
eating part only really calls for the use of one.

The viand and rice are first portioned off on the plate and then brought together by the
four tallest fingers. The thumb further pushes the food towards these fingers to make
them more compact, and supports it as the hand is brought up to the mouth. And
finally, the thumb moves from supporting the food to pushing it from behind, and into
the mouth.

Although nowadays, eating with your hands is usually done in the comforts of your
own home, at community fiestas, or when amidst comfortable company. Rarely do
people eat with their hands in restaurants unless it’s a special seafood or “boodle
fight” style restaurant.

Boodle Fight © Artran / Shutterstock

Get creative with sawsawan or condiments

Filipinos are very fond of eating their ulam with sawsawan (condiments) since they
enrich the flavor of the dish. Among the most famous kinds are fermented shrimp
paste, banana (yes, banana) ketchup, and combinations of soy sauce
and kalamansi (lime), fish sauce and kalamansi, and vinegar and chilli. Different
people have different preferences but the ulam + sawsawan pairings will depend on
their tastes, based on how well one complements the other. So a sweet meat will most
likely be paired with vinegar (sour), and a plain tasting kind of fish might be paired
with soy sauce (salty) and kalamansi (sour).

Left to right: kalamansi, soy sauce with vinegar and chilli, bagoong © Den Asuncioner / Flickr

No animal part goes to waste

Filipinos don’t like wasting food and are ingenious when it comes to making sure no
animal body part goes to waste when cooking up a dish. In fact, the nationally-loved
dish sisig, made mostly of the parts of a pig’s face, was first created in an attempt to
make use of the unwanted cuts thrown away by what was then a US Air Force Base in
the country. So don’t be surprised to find entrails mixed into several Filipino dishes.
And do you think that lechon (whole roasted pig) is kept whole for aesthetic
purposes? No way! Go pinch off that ear!

Sizzling Pork Sisig © Bonchan / Shutterstock

Be an adventurous eater
Sure, many Filipino delicacies can appear unusual to some — not everybody eats
developing bird embryo or skewered chicken intestines. But to be able to truly
immerse yourself in the rich food culture in the Philippines, it’s very important to be a
fearless eater, willing to try everything at least once. It’s easy to turn things away
when you’ve already given it a chance and decided that it’s not for you. But
otherwise, don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.

Balut (developing bird embryo) © Charles Haynes / Flickr

Invite people to eat with you — whether you mean it

or not
In the country where instead of “how are you”, people greet each other with “have
you eaten?”, it is also common courtesy to invite someone to eat when you’re eating.
So for example, if someone were having lunch in the office pantry, and his colleague
happened to walk in for a glass of water, the guy eating would normally say, “Tara,
kain (Let’s eat),” simply out of courtesy. To which, the other person would reply
something along the lines of “Later, thanks,” or “Thanks, but I just ate.”
Avoid taking the last piece of food on a serving plate
While doing otherwise isn’t exactly offensive, the practice of not taking the last pieces
of food from the center of the table is subconsciously practiced by most Filipinos.
This is mostly out of shyness in case anybody else at the table is still hungry. Among
close friends and family, it’s more common for someone to lightly and jokingly
announce that he’ll be taking the last piece upon doing so. While in less intimate
circles, someone who wants the last piece might first offer it around the table, and
after several refusals, only then take it for himself.