Filipino food is going to be the next-big-thing, according to annual trend report by restaurant consultancy group Baum + Whiteman. After Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese cuisine have stormed the wester palate, Filipino food will steal the spotlight in 2018. For the uninitiated, here’s three of our favourite Filipino foods!

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BALUT

Baluuuuuuuuuuuuut is a haunting chant around evening food markets.

Technically speaking, it’s a developing fertilised chicken embryo,

incubated for 21 days, boiled and then eaten from the shell. In practice;

a rotten egg with bits and bones of an unborn chick. You crack the

egg open on top, sip the murky broth, and then eat the boiled yolk

including pieces of the chick fetus and growing feathers.

“Don’t forget to salt it,” says Lito Mendoza from the Filipino Tourism Board.
 

BETAMAX
No, not the cassette. Betamax is slang for grilled chicken blood. You

coagulate chicken blood by adding gelatin, and then grill it and stick

it on a skewer. Dark red squares with the consistency of toffee, Betamax is

best complemented with vinegar and chilli sauce.

 

ISAW
Filipinos will not let any of the chicken go to waste; you can have isaw or addidas, atay and

balunbalunan – chicken intestines, feet, liver, and gizzard respectively. All of it grilled and barbequed and dipped in various sauces. The rubbery strand of guts wrapped around your fork tastes like chicken.

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