Well-known Filipino Exotic Foods

Dinuguan

Dinuguan is a Filipino dish composed of internal organs of pig (typically lungs, kidneys, intestines, ears, heart and snout), meat, and garlic, chili (most often siling mahaba), vinegar and main ingredients is pig blood.

Dinuguan is named because of a Tagalog dialect in the Philippines. Sometimes, foreigner named it "Chocolate Dish", because of its color texture.

Balut

Balut is a duck egg with embryo that is boiled and eaten from the shell. The Balot in Tagalog means wrapped, a egg wrapped with shell. The eating of balut is controversial due to religious, animal welfare, and human health concerns. In the Philippines, Balut eaters prefer salt, or a chili, garlic, and vinegar when they eating it.

Penoy

Penoy is a popular street delicacy in the Philippines just like balut, actually, they are like twins, when you hear the name of balut the second thing you would think of is penoy. Unlike Balut, it has no embryo of duck inside of its egg. But Penoy is an unfertilized duck egg without yolk formation inside of it. The masabaw is produced by incubating the eggs and putting them in rice hay within 12 days

Betamax

You think that Betamax is a cassette, It is. But in Philippine food, is a street slang for grilled chicken blood. Chicken blood is extracted from the chicken in liquid form. Betamax is a cheapest merienda here at Philippines, you can buy it as a Peso or about 2 to 3 cents USD.

Isaw

Isaw is a well-known street food in the Philippines made from pork and chicken intestines that was grilled to perfection. Isaw is probably the cheapest finger food you can eat while drinking alcoholic beverages. We usually dipped in vinegar or sukang pinakurat (vinegar with onions, peppers, and other spices). Isaw can eat while drinking alcoholic beverages.

Tokneneng

Tokneneng is a tempura-like Filipino street food made by deep-frying orange batter covered hard-boiled eggs. Tokneneng is also known as kwek kwek in the Philippines. The thing that I like about this, is its ability to fill your stomach for just a few bucks. Don’t expect too much on the taste because it is basically boiled egg.

Betute Tugak

Betute Tugak is a fried relleno-like skinned farm frog stuffed with minced frog meat or ground pork and finely chopped fresh herbs and spices. It is an exotic dish made of whole tugac (farm frog) caught from the river or rice paddies in Pampanga. Farmers in Pampanga used to depend on rain water to irrigater their farms. Children would then catch the frogs, which came out during the rainy season, while their parents cultivated the land or planted rice. Outwitting the frogs has been a traditional "family bonding" ritual.

Kinilaw na Tamilok in Palawan and Aklan

Kinilaw is a popular way of preparing seafood especially shelled mollusks. Kinilaw is quite similar to ceviche, where you would need some acidic solution to cook the ingredients. Tamilok is a kind of woodworm that can usually be found in Palawan, Philippines. Tamilok can be found in bakawan or in the mangrove trees. They are known as woodworms or shipworms but they’re not actually worms, they are mollusks that taste like oysters, they also seem to have the same texture. They look like worms inside, but they taste like the typical oyster. So imagine your typical oyster served in kinilaw style and you would get an idea of how this would taste like.

Abuos

These creepy crawlers might put you off a bit, but you might be surprised how other culture also eat red ant eggs. Ilocos serves it sautéed with garlic and tomatoes.

Adobong Salagubang

If you have tried Adobong Kamaru, you should also indulge in Adobong Salagubang. They are the same, crunchy on the outside and mushy and juicy on the inside. It is commonly found at Nueva Ecija around the rainy season in the market. So if you’re out to have a bite of this crispy delicacy, then you might consider dropping by Ecija when the rain starts falling.

Adobong Uok

Beetle larvae may not sound very appetizing at first, but uok cooked as adobo served with rice and tomatoes is considered an exotic delicacy. One restaurant that serves this dish is Balaw-Balaw Restaurant in Angono, Rizal. Uok live in dead coconut logs. Natives would collect them and eat them raw or cooked adobo style. It has an interesting texture and taste that people from around the globe are a fan off.