An afternoon (or sometimes mid-morning) snack meal in Filipino culture — often a light savory or sweet dish eaten between lunch and dinner.
Merienda is a built-in part of the Filipino daily eating rhythm, roughly equivalent to a British afternoon tea but with a much wider range of food — anything from a bowl of taho from a street vendor to a plate of turon, a cup of instant noodles, or leftover kakanin. It's less about a specific dish than about the occasion: a pause in the day for something to eat, often shared.
Some households have a formal "merienda time," especially for children coming home from school, while for others it's simply whatever's around between meals.
Recipes on Pancit.com that call for merienda.
Soft, fluffy steamed rice cakes — the everyday companion to pancit and dinuguan.
Warm silken tofu topped with brown sugar syrup and chewy tapioca pearls.
Crisp fried spring rolls of saba banana and jackfruit in a caramelized brown sugar shell.
