No Pretensions

NO reservations? No problem. You don’t need to be on any list, guest list, A-list or whatever, to indulge in this kind of food. Membership in a gastronomic society isn’t mandatory either; no unpronounceable French names are used here. While experienced sauciers may recognize the typical street food sauce as a roux, it’s ingredients and preparation may leave them a bit boggled, shocked or both. No fancy vinegar worth almost a hundred grand a liter is involved, only ordinary local coconut or cane vinegar with garlic cloves, onion bits and crushed red peppers. 300-dollar bottles of wine are also noticeably absent, just beer, soda or water.

Anthony Bourdain, host of Travel & Living’s No Reservations, would definitely enjoy this kind of cooking, and Bourdain, being Bourdain, thrives on this kind of thing. This is adventure. This is cheap thrills. This is cheap food at its finest, street cuisine if you will.

Puso – This is a small serving of steamed rice packaged in coconut leaves, very popular in the Visayas and Mindanao regions of the Philippines.

Chicken intestines – Popularly called “IUD” for some bizarre reason, chicken intestines are among the more popular beer matches in the country. Skewered on slender bamboo sticks and grilled, it goes best dipped in spicy vinegar and paired with a very cold bottle of San Miguel beer. In some regions of the Philippines, grilled pork intestines are also popular beer matches.

Pospas – Eaten as it is, or with a slice of chicken or beef, or goto (pork innards), or sometimes with a boiled egg, the pospas can probably be considered the quintessential Pinoy food: simple, inexpensive, easy to prepare yet delightfully tasty and filling to boot. Foreigners can probably recognize it as rice porridge.

Tempura – Not to be mistaken for the Japanese tempura, though also deep-fried, this local favorite can only be described as a white, floury sausage. Made usually out of fishmeal, flour and spices, skewered onto bamboo sticks and dipped in vinegar or a sweet and spicy sauce, it’s a popular snack among people from all walks of life, from students, loafers, and office workers to scions of wealthy families. Almost always sold from pushcarts, together with fish balls and squid balls, they can be found on many a street corner in the city.

Balut – Perhaps the most famous Pinoy street food of them all, the balut is not for the faint of heart. A boiled 16- to 18-day old duck’s egg, it contains a tasty broth, yolk and a half-formed duck embryo (forget about the hard white stuff, you’re not supposed to eat it). There’s also a particular way of eating balut, much like a three-course meal, only messier, and definitely more barbaric, but hey, street food ain’t gonna be called street food if dainty, hoity-toity manners are needed to eat it.

To eat a balut, tap open a hole at the slightly wider end of the egg and sprinkle some sea salt into the opening. Slightly shake the egg to mix the salt with the broth, and then drink from the hole. Once you’ve drunk the “soup” inside, break off the eggshell little by little until the yellow yolk is exposed. Sprinkle either salt or vinegar on the yolk and bite it off. It usually breaks off cleanly from the rest of the contents of the balut. Now for the best part. Again, sprinkle salt or vinegar or both onto the half-formed duckling. Slurp the embryo into your mouth, then, depending on the age of the balut, swallow directly or chew a bit first. It sounds disgusting but it’s definitely worth a taste. Oh, you can try eating the hard white thing but I wouldn’t suggest it.

With the Pinoy’s fondness for eating, it’s no wonder that Pinoys have taken eating to the streets. Quail’s eggs, considered a luxury item in some countries, are actually sold on the streets of Cebu and Manila. Weirder items such as blood chunks, chicken feet and day-old, deep-fried battered ducklings can also be found, as well as the more ordinary lumpia, barbecued pork, chicken tail and sautéed or boiled peanuts. Of course, one should always be careful when eating anything new, not just street food, but then again, what’s life without adventure?