TOP 10 ILIGAN CITY'S COMMON STREET FOODS

Food is our basic need. The more it is easy to prepare and cook, the more it is convenient and affordable to people no matter how young or old they are. Whether you're a professional, educated, student or just a "tambay" in your home, people from all walks of life may have tasted the common foods here in the Philippines, especially in Iligan City.

However, have you ever wonder if what are the top and the most popular street foods nowadays? I've been living here for 27 years and have been tasted and eaten the all-time favorite street foods in town. Below are the following street foods that you you might already tasted before and want to taste or eat it again.

I will start with "pork barbecue".

Yes, it is a pork meat which is cut into thin and smaller slices. That makes it affordable with just 10-15 pesos per stick. Sometimes it is cooked together with a pork fat at the top or "tambok" as we call it locally.

Next on my list is the "Siomai".

It comes with different flavors such as pork, Japanese, beef and chicken but the most common one in my opinion is the pork siomai as it is tastier and savory than the rest. Unlike the pork barbecue, it is more expensive and costs 30-50 pesos per 4 pieces on a stick depending on the store. I bought and tasted a cheap siomai but it's really not worth it.

My top 8 common street food is the "Mango with uyap".

Mango is one of the most popular, nutritionally rich fruits with unique flavor, fragrance, taste, and health promoting qualities, making it numero-uno among new functional foods, and often labeled as “super fruits." It has commonly sweet and sour taste but when it is combined with uyap (bagoong, alamang, or salted shrimp paste) it adds a unique flavor to your taste buds that you can't resist to eat more. The fruit is sliced into thin, small pieces and place into a small plastic container and then you're ready to go. Women love this kind of food more than men. The highest consumers of this fruit are women based on my observation, (lol). It might have something to do with our hormone or biology but one thing is for sure - we have more amazing taste in foods than men. ^_^

Kwek-kwek is the next most affordable street food in Iligan.

It is originally a boiled quail egg coated with orange batter and deep-fried until it is crispy and serve with sweet and sour sauce. Nowadays, quail eggs are not on demand and people prefer the regular chicken egg because it's bigger and more affordable than the quails. I asked the vendors why they colored it with orange and they told me that it adds attraction to the food.

The top 6 on the list is Pancue.

This street food is very popular in a park near MSU-IIT. It has a lot of stalls where you can buy it with different kinds of "palaman" or flavor. The palamans are commonly pork barbecue, isaw (tinae), tiil (chicken feet) and grilled hotdog. The bread is grilled before it is added with special barbecue sauce as well as your chosen palaman. That's why it is called pancue which is derived from the word "barbecue" or grilled and "pan" is bread. So, basically it is a grilled bread.

Note: It is best serve and eat when it is hot. ^_~

The Bananacue is my top 5 common street food in the City.

This is one of the all-time favorite snacks not only here but

The fourth one is the Fish ball.

We all know that Filipinos have adapted foreign cultures and their foods long before we gained independence from Spanish colonization. Chinese foods like siomai and this fish ball is one of it.

It is also deep-fried then dip those cute balls in the stick to the sauce jar for additional flavor. It has been part of my childhood as I often bought a few sticks after school while walking back home.

Tempura is the top 3 on my list.

This kind of food is very easy to prepare and so tasty when it's dipped with unique, sweet and sour sauce. It is very convenient to eat it because it is placed in a plastic cup after deep-frying and it is cut into bite size with a barbecue stick. Now you realized that most of our street foods are being served with a stick. It is really more fun in the Philippines!

The 2nd common street food is the Proven or Proben.

You can find this popular foods in every street corner in the city proper. They are usually sold in carts or mobile stalls where they are cooked onsite and is very popular with students and those with limited budget. Price is usually P5 per stick (4 pieces on a stick). PROBEN or PROVEN is actually short for “PROVENTRICULUS”, a part of the digestive system among birds and chickens between the CROP and the GIZZARD or “baticolon”. It is dipped in flour or cornstarch, and then deep-fried for 3-5 minutes. Servings are dipped in some special sauce either hot and spicy sauce, vinegar, or ketchup depending on your taste.

The last but not the least and is definitely the top 1 street food is the Balut.

It is a developing bird embryo (usually a duck or chicken) that is boiled and eaten from the shell. It originates and is commonly sold as street-food in the Philippines and still the number one traditional snack over the years. You can buy this in some parts of the city streets especially every afternoon til midnight. It can be served with a vinegar and pinch of salt that adds flavor to it.

Now you've seen and read the top 10 street foods in the city. Comment down below and share your ideas about some street foods that you like. Shalom! ^_^