The Ultimate Pinoy Street Food: Isaw

Walking along taft day in and day out, you see a lot of street vendors selling all sorts of food. From peanuts, turon, green mango, isaw and so much more! You see loads of people gathered around those street food vendors all the time. Buying fishballs or kikiam, for example. The thing about street food is that it's so cheap and convenient. You don't have to wait too long for your food and it's great for those who are trying not to spend so much. There are different types of food for all types. There are sweet food like bananaque, turon, kamoteque, taho (the ultimate street breakfast), scramble (which is now becoming very popular, you can even get it in the mall), dirty ice cream, etc. Then we also have the salty food like barbeque, isaw, fishball, squidball, quek-quek (?), siomai, balut, lumpia, etc. There are so many choices to choose from. 

I basically can't eat most street food because I don't eat anything more than seafoods, but a few of my personal favorites would have to be:

1. Green Mango with bagoong

2. Fishball

3. Lumpia

4. Quek-quek

5. Dirty ice cream

1. Green Mango with bagoong simply because I love sour foods, and green mango is one of my favorite fruits. With the right bagoong, it can be heaven. (just make sure to wash it before eating because you want to make sure it's clean)

2. Fishball is great with the spicy sauce, but that is because I love spicy foods as well. But it is really good since it needs no rice and I can actually eat it.

3. Lumpia is my ultimate UP food because they always have great lumpia in UP. If you try eating it, you'll notice that the lumpia from the streets taste so much better than the ones cooked in cleaner oil. It's bad for the health, I know, but it tastes delicious! Just dip it in some spicy suka and you're good to go!

4. Quek-quek is probably my sister's favorite food. I love the quek-quek because of the quail eggs inside, but even those are so unhealthy as well because they have twice the cholesterol of normal eggs. Also, my friend told me earlier not to buy the bigger eggs because they are supposedly really dirty because they are spoiled? But let's leave that there. I don't want to get into that. But also another food that tastes good when bought from the streets because when you make it at home without the food-coloring, it is no longer as good. This is also great with some spicy suka.

5. Dirty ice cream is my favorite street dessert. I especially love the cheese or quezo flavor. But the chocolate one is also pretty good. It's perfect for our hot days (which is most of the year) and it's starts at only 10 pesos a cone! YUMMMM...

Now, those were just my favorites. To find out the ultimate street food for other Pinoys out there, I walked along the road of Taft to go to the food places along the sidewalks and I actually asked some of the vendors what sold the most. Most of the vendors that sold isaw along with the other foods would say isaw. Some of the other vendors said fishball and quek-quek. But I was able to ask some friends and some people eating what their favorite or ultimate Pinoy street food was and majority of them said isaw! Also, most of the time, when I think of street food, the first thing that pops into my mind is isaw! Even though I've never eaten it in my life.

Wo with that, I leave you with isa being the ultimate Pinoy street food! :D

      The Ultimate Pinoy Vehicle!

turon, bananaque, and kamoteque (which looks like french fries)

Manggang hilaw! (green mango)

Isaw, betamax (?), etc. 

The grand winner!

quek-quek, fishball, squidball, and kikiam

tsitsirya (?)

Since I was looking at food for so long, I decided to get some since I was getting hungry. The result of my hunger: FISHBALLS! Funny how fishballs aren't balls, right? I ate it with the spicy sauce. 

That's all for my post. Hope you guys enjoyed my entry on the ultimate Pinoy street food!

-M