Filipino Dishes for Christmas

It’ is December and once again, most Filipinos eagerly await this time of the year as an excuse to lay out the best and yummiest dishes for a festive treat during the holiday season. Filipinos and foreigners alike who sampled these dishes love most of them while Filipinos who lived abroad long for the taste of the authentic Pinoy food. Prepare to feast your eyes on this wonderful gallery with some bits and pieces of info on the wonderful delicacies popular in the Philippines. Are you ready to taste these mouth-watering treats? Read on.

As the name suggests, it is deeply-fried pork meat, the ‘pata’ is the meatiest part of the pig. Done the right way, many Filipinos consider this top on their list. Best eaten with rice and yummy sauce or spicy dip, or as ‘pulutan’. This is not for those prone to hypertension or having heart problems as this dish is sinfully cholesterol-laden.

Grilled to perfection tuna jaw is an all-time favorite by many Filipinos. Best served with your favorite ale.

Grilled bits or strips of pork meat after being marinated with ready-made BBQ sauce or marinate mixture of soy sauce, sugar, seasoning mix and butter. Ideal also for beach parties.

For those who opt to stay clear of cholesterol-filled pork dishes, this Filipino-style Fried chicken is a great alternative.

Kohol is actually some sort of a snail endemic in Philippine rice fields. When mixed with coconut milk and some vegetables and spices, it makes for a heavenly treat.

Another pork-based dish, consist of deeply fried pork meat, with dip or sauce.

I believe this dish comes from Pampanga, a province in the central part of the Philippines. It’s really meat-based (beef), with vegetable, and peanut butter adding to its rare flavor.

Also a complete dish in itself made of special noodles served with generous topping of boiled egg, shrimp, and a special sauce.

This complete main dish is originally from the Spain but Filipinos have adapted it to suit their tastes. Many variations abound on how to cook this delicious mix of long-grained rice, shrimps, peas, oyster, and many other ingredients.

Custard cake made of egg yolks, milk, and sugar. Leche flan works well as topping to other snacks as ice cream or Halo-halo.

Made of ground glutinous rice and laid neatly in a bilao, and with its rainbow-like colors and delectable taste, who can resist?

Rice-based dessert made of ground glutinous rice or plain rice mixed with coco milk, sugar and other variations of this basic recipes then laid on banana leaves. Best taste when baked in a kiln. This is the Filipino equivalent to your cupcake or muffin. My mouth waters at the sight of these!

This is a special bread topped with butter or margarine, sprinkled with bits of sugar and some put cheese. Best eaten while still hot with your favorite drink.

Filipinos make good use of coconut milk in most of their dishes and one of them is this sweet guinatan. A concoction of glutinous rice, sweet potato, jackfruit, banana (saba), and other crops. Nice eaten either hot or cold.

Another cool treat consist of sweetened beans, ube halea, sweet peas, some topped it with ice cream of leche flan, with milk , sugar and fine ice shaving. Halo Halo literally means Mix Mix, so you should mix it before you savor its goodness.

A mixture of strips of young coconut meat, milk, sugar, ‘pinipig’ rice, Pandan flavor, sometimes with jelly. Others make slight modication of this basic recipe. This is a welcome cool treat especially during the hot summer months