Traditional Filipino
Christmas Food to Try This Year
Christmas is a celebration eagerly awaited by numerous Filipinos throughout the year. Families gather around a table and feast on delicious cuisine, enjoying their time with loved ones. If you are planning on tasting Filipino dishes during Christmas, then you are about to enjoy delicious cuisines, consisting of both savoury and sweet options.
Filipino foods are delicious and loaded with a variety of flavours that burst into your mouth as you take the first bite. Keep reading below to learn about the dishes that are being served at the feast during Christmas.
Christmas Feast in the Philippines - Noche Buena
As Christmas is coming by the end of this year, it is time to experience Noche Buena. The celebrations start from Christmas Eve, and relatives come together from different places, making it unique. Family members are seen to gather around, and a massive variety of delicious dishes are present on the table. This helps in symbolising family unity and hope in the upcoming year. A number of different Filipino Christmas foods are being presented on the table, including Lechon, Lumpiang Shanghai, Pancit Malabon and many more.
10 Filipino Christmas Foods to Try
Here are the ten Filipino Christmas foods that you can savour to enjoy a variety of flavours and ingredients.
Pancit Malabon
Pancit Malabon is a traditional Filipino dish prepared during Christmas, originating from Malabon City. This flavourful dish features rice noodles, which are being cooked in the seafood broth that may consist of fish sauce or crab fat, along with annatto seeds. After cooking the dish, it is topped with a variety of other ingredients, adding more flavours to the dish, such as crushed chicharron, eggs, pork, squid, mussels, and shrimp, among others, making it look like a complete seafood platter.
Pinoy Spaghetti
Pinoy Spaghetti is a traditional Filipino dish that is often featured at almost every celebration. The major twist in this dish is the distinct taste, which isn't salty like the other variations of spaghetti; instead, it is a sweet and tangy version, as sugar gets added to the ingredients. In some versions of this dish, even condensed milk gets added to increase the sweetness of the dish. Some of the basic ingredients found in his dish are tomato sauce, ground pork or beef, and cheese, among others, which help bring out the taste and flavours.
Ensaymada
Among a list of sweet dishes, Ensaymada is just another dish that is being served at the Noche Buena. It is a pastry, more like a brioche, which is made with butter and sugar. After being baked, they become fluffy and light, after which they are topped with grated cheese, sugar and butter, bringing together the rich flavours to your plate. This dish has a historical significance, as it is a Spanish dish and reminds one of the early colonisation times in the Philippines.
Kare-Kare
One of the popular and comforting Filipino dishes is the Kare-kare, which is actually a peanut stew. This dish is served only on special occasions and comprises many ingredients, such as ox tail, pork leg, and many more. Another version of this dish focuses more on the seafood, including mussels, prawns, shrimp paste, and many more. You can also find vegetables in it like bok choy, eggplant, string beans and many more. Both dishes offer a wide array of flavours bursting in your mouth and creating a symphony of different ingredients.
Caldereta
Another traditional dish that you can spot at the Noche Buena is Caldereta, a cosy Filipino dish introduced by the Spanish people. This meat dish has become a Filipino classic, and the Filipino people are known to give a twist to their Caldereta. This dish is a meat stew that is made with either goat, chicken, pork or beef and added with other ingredients like potato, bell peppers, carrot, liver paste or sauce, tomato sauce and many more.
Lumpiang Shanghai
Lumpiang Shanghai can be described in simple terms as the spring rolls of the Philippines. This Filipino cuisine is often treated as a flavorful appetiser during Noche Buena, around the Philippines, whose origin dates back to the 1500s. A thin egg crepe wrapper is being filled with fillings made of sautéed ground pork with carrots, shallots, garlic and onions. Each roll is fried until it turns crispy and golden brown, and is then served with sweet and sour sauce.
Lechon
Lechon can be considered an essential part of hosting Noche Buena. Lechon is the grandest of all the dishes presented at the centre of the table on Christmas Eve. Lechon is prepared by seasoning a pig with salt and pepper and then slow-roasting it on a rotating spit for several hours, until the outer skin gets crispy and golden. In different parts of the Philippines, one can find different ingredients getting stuffed into the pig, such as pineapple, lemongrass, chillies and peppers, among others, adding more flavours to the meat.
Crema De Fruta
Christmas celebrations remain incomplete without a cake, and here comes Crema De Fruta, which is a Filipino fruitcake, a sweet treat made with fruit gelatin, custard and chiffon cake. This Filipino dessert is a must on the table during Christmas Eve, as it has always been a Filipino favourite. The preparation of this cake is quite time-consuming and sophisticated, as the cake is made of successive layers of gelatine, candied fruit, custard and sweet syrup.
Lumpiang Ubod
Another appetiser that is being served at the Noche Buena is Lumpiang Ubod, a different kind of spring roll that is quite popular among the Filipino people. The heart of the palm (ubod ng nyog) is being used as the filling. This version of spring roll is a popular Filipino Christmas food, adding another flavorful and refreshing option to the Noche Buena table.
Macaroni Salad
Macaroni salad is a classic Filipino favourite Christmas dish that is being served at Noche Buena, as it is rich in every way. Some of the basic ingredients used in preparing this dish are pasta, raisins, egg, ham, cream and various vegetables. However, every family has their unique way of organising their macaroni salad with different inclusions.
Conclusion
The aforementioned Filipino Christmas foods not only fill the table on Noche Buena, but also fill your stomach and heart with contentment. Besides these ten dishes, there are also some other dishes or some other versions of these dishes, which offer different tastes and flavours. The time of Christmas will help in spoiling your gastronomic desires with its variety of flavours served at the table on Noche Buena.
FAQs
Some of the commonly prepared dishes during Christmas Eve in the Philippines are Pancit Malabon, Pinoy Spaghetti, Kare-Kare and many more.
Some of the traditional dishes to be eaten during the Noche Buena are Pinoy Spaghetti, Lumpiang Shanghai, Lechon and many more.
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