Filipino cuisine has a unique taste that separates it apart from the others. The Filipinos or Pinoys’ widely known value of hospitability mainly features offering guests with the finest dishes. These dishes certainly have distinguishable flavor. That’s why it’s definitely easy to understand why people from all over the world crave for Filipino food. Today in this blog post, we’re going to share the Top 14 Pinoy dishes for dinner.
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Here’s an enjoyable comprehensive list where you can find the prides of the Filipino people in terms of food and everything about cuisine! Stay in tune until the very end!
Top 10 Pinoy Dishes for Dinner
1. Adobo
The dish got its name from the Spanish adobar meaning “marinade,” “sauce,” or “seasoning.” Moreover, this is a top contender for the most famous Filipino dish. It’s actually the unofficial national dish of the country. Basically, it’s consisting of meat, seafood, or vegetables marinated in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and black peppercorns. Furthermore, adobo is browned in oil and simmered in the marinade.
2. Sisig
Another one of the best Pinoy dishes for dinner is Sisig. It’s a Kapampangan dish which actually means “to snack on something sour.” For this reason, it consists of parts of pig head as well as chicken liver that are seasoned with calamansi or the Philippine lime. Moreover, there also onions as well as chili peppers in this dish. Pampanga, which is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines, definitely prides its Sisig dish.
3. Bulalo
This beef dish is native to the Southern Luzon regionof the Philippines, especially the Cavite and Batangas provinces. Moreover, thecity of Tagaytay in Cavite which is a top tourist go-to is known for their hotand delicious Bulalo. The dish isindeed one of their attractions wherein there are many restaurants scatteredaround the city that offer it.
Bulalo is a light-colored soup consisting of beef shanks as well as bone marrow. These are cooked until the collagen and fat in them have melted into the clear broth or savory liquid. Furthermore, this dish contains leafy vegetables such as pechay or cabbage. There are also corn on the cob, scallions, onions, garlic, ginger, and fish sauce. If you want to spice things up a bit, you may also add potatoes, carrots, as well as taro.
4. Sinigang
Another one of the best Pinoy dishes for dinner is Sinigang. Moreover, it’s absolutely a top contender too as Philippines’ most loved dish. Sinigang is a soup or stew that is very much known for their delicious sour taste that lingers down the throat. Just like with the other dishes in this list, it has many variations across the country. However, the most common or the original is meat or seafood cooked in a sour and acidic broth. The dish is usually made by stewing this meat or seafood with tamarind, tomatoes, garlic, and onions.
5. Laing
This dish that is native to the Bicol region is also known as Pinangat. At the same time, this is also cooked in coconut milk. For this reason, it’s a so-called ginataan dish. This also gives it another name which is Ginataang Laing.
Laing consists of shredded or whole taro leaves with meat or seafood. These are, again, cooked in coconut milk. Siling Labuyo, lemongrass, garlic, shallots, ginger, and shrimp paste are also added.
6. Arroz Caldo
Another one of the best Pinoy dishes for dinner is Arroz Caldo. Take note first that this is a type of lugaw or a Filipino glutinous porridge. Arroz Caldo is basically rice and chicken gruel that are heavily infused with ginger. At the same time, this dish won’t be complete without toasted garlic, scallions, and black pepper as garnishes. Moreover, this dish comes with condiments such as calamansi or patis which is a fish sauce. Sometimes, a hard-boiled egg is added to the mix too.
7. Tinola
This is a soup dish which main ingredient is ginger. It may also consist of either chicken or fish with papaya or chayote wedges. Additionally, there are also malunggay and hot pepper leaves in it. Take note that the sour broth comes from the combination of onions, tomatoes, and of course, the tamarind.
8. Dinuguan
Another one of the best Pinoy dishes for dinner is Dinuguan. Its name comes from the root word dugo which means “blood.” It’s a stew consisting of pork blood as the main ingredient. Moreover, this may also include pork lungs, kidneys, intestines, ears, heart, snout, and meat. These are all simmered in the pork blood with garlic, chili, and vinegar.
9. Kaldereta
This dish got its name from the Spanish caldera meaning “cauldron.” Kaldereta is a dish which is a goat meat stew. In this, the goat meat is stewed with vegetables and liver paste as well.For the vegetables, you can choose to put tomatoes, potatoes, olives, bell peppers, and hot peppers. Take note also that the variations of this dish can either use beef, chicken, or pork as the main ingredient.
10. Bicol Express
Another one of the best Pinoy dishes for dinner is Bicol Express. First of all, know that this dish got its name from the passenger train service with route from Manila to the Bicol region. Also take note that Bicol is famous for their spicy foods that are very much delicious and unique. This dish is actually a native in Malate, Manila, but the reason for the name is that it’s still prepared the Bicolano way.
Bicol Express is a spicy dish which is a stew consisting of long chilies, coconut milk, and shrimp paste. It also has stockfish, onion, pork, and garlic.
11. Kare-kare
This dish is a stew that has a thick and very tasty peanut sauce. Of course, the ground peanuts are responsible for the rich flavor it has. On the other hand, the thickness in this dish can certainly be achieved by adding toasted ground rice. Moreover, this is colored with annatto which is an orange-red condiment coming from the seeds of the Achiote tree.
Take note that the base of this dish has a wide variation. It can have stewed oxtails, pork hocks, valves feet, or pig feet. It may also consist of seafood such as prawns, squid, and mussels. At the same time, vegetables like eggplant, cabbage, green beans, asparagus beans, and okra definitely complete the Kare-kare dish.
12. Tapa
Another one of the best Pinoy dishes for dinner is Tapa. This dish consists of dried or cured beef, mutton, or even horse meat. These meat are made sure to be thinly-sliced. Then these are cured with salt as well as spices for preservation.
Moreover, when this dish is prepared, the preserved meat are either fried or grilled. Then it may also come with fried rice as well as fried egg on the side. For this reason, this dish got its other name which is Tapsilog. It’s a combination of Tapa, Sinangag or garlic fried rice, and itlog or egg.
13. Pinakbet
This dish got its name from the Ilokano pinakebbet meaning “shrunk” or “shriveled.” is basically a mixture of vegetables that are then steamed in either fish or shrimp sauce. Moreover, the original seasoning sauce for this dish is bagoong. This is made by salting and fermenting the bonnet mouth fish.
Furthermore, the vegetables here are eggplant, tomato, okra, string beans, chili peppers, and parda. There may also be winged beans, kamote or sweet potato, patani, and kadios.
14. Bagnet
Last but definitely not the least among the best Pinoy dishes for dinner is Bagnet. This dish is native to the Ilocos region in the Philippines. This is basically liempo or pork belly that’s boiled as well as deep fried, consecutively. These are both necessary to produce that crispy end result which is Bagnet’s signature. Moreover, this consists of garlic, black peppercorns, bay leaves, and salt added to the mix.
Take note that what makes Bagnet amazing apart from the double crispiness is that it can stand on its own and can also be eaten with other dishes. This dish makes you feel like you’re eating lechon kawali together with chicharonin a much tastier dish.
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Wrapping Up
That’s the Top 14 Pinoydishes for dinner representing the best of the Filipino cuisine. Filipinosabsolutely have one of the most enticing cuisines in the world. It’s the reasonwhy a lot of people like to go to the Philippines. It’s definitely not justbecause of the attractions available, but to also taste the richness and flavorsof various foods and/or dishes.
If you like this blog post, leave a comment downbelow. If you also believe that another Filipino dish deserves to be in thislist, put it down and let’s talk about it.