Let’s Learn About Filipino Snacks!

Popular snacks in the Philippines? We’ll post about every snack we can find!

Introduction to Filipino Snacks

During the Spanish times, the Filipino, like his colonizer, had a regular breakfast, a mid-morning snack called segundo almuerzo, a complete lunch, a merienda at four clock and then a full dinner from soup to dessert.

Even with the Americans and the Japanese living with us in between, the habit dies hard and at any old hour one’s relatively modern mother still follows one around asking plaintively “Have you had your lunch? Would you like a snack?” “Try a bit of the newly cooked leche flan. Maybe a cup of chocolate? Mango? Polvoron?”

Hunger of any one member of the family was a reflection on the mother unless she was at the ready to paste the gap up with a rice cake. Have you ever heard of a Filipino mother inhuman enough to punish a child by sending him to bed without supper like some Americans do? Beat him up, yes, but always, always, on a full stomach.

The Filipino eats endlessly for any occasion and for no occasion.

To cater to this predilection, some food stands in Parañaque used to serve a succession of snacks appropriate for particular hours of the day or night.

Dawn to 9 a.m. was for champurado and suman. Mid-morning was for pancit guisado. After lunch was the time for tokwa’t baboy, lumpiang sariwa and ukoy, then palitaw and ginataan were served all through the merienda hours. With the setting of the sun, the champurado reappeared, this time with tapa or salted fish. Monay bread with a salted red egg was also available, as was ground pork in a hot pandesal bun. The evening ushered in bibingka and puto bumbong. After midnight, longganisa, fried rice with egg, karne norte or tocino could be expected. This stretched on until 4 a m when the champurado-cycle began again.