Ingredients, cooking terms, and food-culture words you'll run into across our recipes — with pronunciations, and links to every dish that uses them. Brand new to Filipino food entirely? Our Intro To Filipino Food guide is a better starting point than this glossary. For the customs and traditions behind how this food actually gets eaten, see Filipino Food Customs & Traditions.
A salty, fermented condiment made from tiny shrimp or small fish, used as a savory cooking ingredient rather than a table sauce.
Filipino fish sauce — a thin, amber, intensely savory liquid made from fermented fish, used to season soups, noodles, and dipping sauces.
Filipino soy sauce — thinner and saltier than most Chinese or Japanese varieties, used both as a cooking ingredient and a table condiment.
Filipino vinegar, most often made from sugar cane, coconut, or nipa palm sap, with a sharper, funkier tang than plain white vinegar.
A garlic-and-chili spiked vinegar dipping sauce built on suka — the classic table-side condiment for fried and grilled Filipino pork dishes like lechon kawali and chicharon.
A small, round Philippine citrus fruit — tart like lime, with a floral sweetness — squeezed over food, into drinks, and into dipping sauces.
Small reddish seeds from the achiote tree, used to give Filipino dishes their signature orange-red color without adding much flavor of their own.
Coconut milk — pressed from grated mature coconut meat, used to add richness to both savory stews and sweet desserts.
Purple yam — a starchy tuber with a vividly purple color and a mild, slightly nutty, vanilla-like flavor, central to Filipino desserts.
A long, fragrant tropical leaf used to flavor and scent both sweet and savory Filipino dishes, often described as grassy, vanilla-like, and slightly floral.
Toasted coconut curds — the browned solids left behind after simmering coconut milk until the oil separates out, used as a crunchy, nutty topping.
Filipino sausage, typically pork, in styles ranging from garlicky and savory to sweet and slightly cured, and often noticeably red in color.
Tamarind — a tangy, tart fruit pod used as the primary souring agent in sinigang and other sour Filipino soups.
Thin, dried noodles made from rice flour, used as the base for several pancit dishes, most notably Pancit Bihon.
Fresh, thick egg noodles, chewier and more substantial than dried rice noodles like bihon — the noodle base for several Filipino soups and pancit dishes.
Small, whole dried and salted fish, pan-fried until crisp — a breakfast staple whose intense saltiness is meant to contrast with something sweet, like champorado.
Young glutinous rice, pounded flat and dried into thin, crisp flakes — toasted for a nutty crunch and folded into desserts like pinipig polvoron and halo-halo.
Pickled green papaya relish, sweet-and-sour with shredded carrots and bell pepper — the classic condiment for fried and grilled Filipino dishes.
An umbrella term for Filipino rice cakes and rice-based sweets — usually steamed or baked, often sold from trays at markets and street stalls.
An afternoon (or sometimes mid-morning) snack meal in Filipino culture — often a light savory or sweet dish eaten between lunch and dinner.
Filipino bar food — savory snacks and small plates meant to be eaten alongside drinks, usually beer, during a casual gathering.
A gift of food or small items brought home for family and friends after a trip — the tradition behind boxed treats like hopia and polvoron.
Whole roasted pig, slow-turned over charcoal until the skin turns deeply crackling and the meat inside stays tender — the centerpiece of Filipino celebrations.
Eating with bare hands off banana leaves spread down a table, food shared communally rather than plated individually — a Filipino dining tradition older than utensils at the table.
Tell us what you'd like explained and we'll add it.
Email us at: info@pancit.com
