I stayed in the Philippines for about a month and came up with a list of Filipino dishes I liked.  You should definitely try when you have a chance to visit there!

1. SISIG

SISIG is an appetizer dish made from parts of pig's ear, liver and belly, usually seasoned with calamansi and chili papers. It is usually served in a hot pan and goes with rice... or BEER! Since Paolo and I LOVE sisig so much that we order it everywhere, and then we realize that every restaurants have different styles. We like the one has lots of pig ears to give it a texture.

We learned how to make it at home from Paolo's parents friends. Check out our recipe video here.  

2. PANCIT

Pancit is like Chow main.  You can cook with different size of rice noodles, simply seasoned with soy sauce, salt, paper and fish sauce. I like very thin noodles for its texture.  

3. BBQ

I guess BBQ is not a 'dish' but I love Filipino BBQ so much that I had to add it on the list.  They know how to cook it perfectly. Filipino barbecue sauce is red and sweet. At night markets, there are various BBQ available. 

4. SINIGANG

Filipino food is very oily and you need some light soup to calm your stomach down.  Sinigang is very sour soup that can be cooked with anything - seafood, beef or pork. I usually hate things that are too sour but I needed this when I eat Filipino food. (Picture is from home made cooking.)

5. KARE-KARE

Kare Kare is not Curry, but more like stew.  They cook beef and vegetable in a peanut sauce for a long time. It's good with rice and taste nothing like others. You gotta try and see what it is like! 

There are a lot more famous Filipino dishes like Lechon, Adobo, Lumpia, Balut and so on.  The list is simply all about the stuff I liked so you should definitely try other things too if you have not tried!

-Maiko