Street food in Manila - Manila - TravBuddy

You'll never go hungry running around Manila and Metro Manila. It is a proven fact that every few steps you'll see either a food stall, an eatery (carinderia), or a fastfood chain that you can get stuff to fill your tummy.

My stomach has been fortunate enough to try and survive all of them.

Below is a list of the street food that you can always see littered around and can be adventurous enough to try out:

1. 'Betamax' (pig's blood), 'isaw' or 'balun-balunan' (pig or chicken innards), and pork barbeque would all normally be found in one kiosk. All deep fried, stuck on sticks, which you can dip in vinegar.

2. The world famous duck egg, 'balut', that every other foreign person has been dared to try. Supposedly an aphrodisiac, normally sold together with 'penoy', which is the more fully formed version of the duck egg, at dusk.

3. Mannga't (green mangoes) bagoong (fish paste) usually sold together or you could ask for salt instead of the fish paste.

4. Fishballs (50c), squidballs(Php 2), chicken balls(Php 5), 'kikiam' are grouped in another stall. They are all deep fried, stuck onto small sticks and enjoyed with your choice of either sweet or spicy or both types of sauces.

5. 'Tuknene' would be your quail eggs and 'Kwek-kwek' would be your chicken egg. Both are normally coated with orange flour, deep fried and stuck on smalls sticks. You can enjoy this with vinegar.

6. 'Taho'(Php 5-10) is made of chunks of soya with vanilla sweetener and tapioca balls.

7. You can also find 'Mani'(peanuts) either boiled or fried, with the skin or none, with choices of the original, garlic or spicy flavor. The fried garlic cloves and pepper are littered on top to help you know the difference(Php 5 up).

8. 'Karitela's' (carts) would also have boiled corn (Php 15) or the flavored corn kernels. (Php 5-10)

9. 'Puto','kutsinta'(Php 20 for a pack which contains around 10pcs), Bico - various forms of rice cakes, sometimes served with grated coconut.

10. Banana cue - bananas fried in sugar and put on sticks,
Turon - sliced bananas in 'lumpia wrapper', a thin "skin" made of flour or cornstarch, eggs and water (Php 12 up )

For drinks you can choose the following:

1. Your usual pineapple and orange juices (Php 5)

2. 'Buko' (coconut) juice (Php 5), which is usually mixed with milk or has more water than the juice itself with a sprinkling of grated pieces of coconut.

3. Sago't gulaman(Php 5) - Tapioca balls mixed with jelly, with vanilla sweetener and water.

None of these are guaranteed clean, that is the gamble entailed with the adventure of trying it out. Of course you can always play safe and get a better version of all of these at the groceries and just cook it yourself at home.