GRAB N’ GO

Bangkok has boat noodles, Singapore has satay sticks and Hong Kong has skewered fish balls, but Manila also has its own signature street foods. One location to taste a large selection is the city’s Quiapo Market – known as Quinta market. Dating from 1851, it’s a hectic, noisy, not-always-fragrant but thrillingly vibrant assault on the senses with food at every turn. Did we mention that some local favourite snacks have the best names we’ve ever come across?

Grilled chicken feet are known locally as

Adidas while smoky barbecued pigs’ ears are called Walkman. We’re not kidding. Lumpia are a local Filipino take on fresh spring rolls where an egg-based wrapper is packed with palm heart, carrots, lettuce, garlic and chopped peanuts, before being slathered in all-important sweet soy sauce. Hunt them out at the market’s Globe Lumpia House. One favourite comes with spirals of bright orange chicken innards known as isaw, which are pierced through with a skewer. Other savoury must-tries include pancit palabok, rice noodles decked with squid, egg, tofu but most of all chicharron or crackling.

To wrap your Quiapo Market food odyssey, it can only be halo-halo. It’d be easier to say what ingredients can’t be used to cover the balls of refreshing shaved ice. Evaporated milk, jam made from purple yams, fruit jelly, sweet beans, local custard flan – the choices are borderline overwhelming, but there’s something for everyone.

Grilled chicken feet are known as Adidas while smoky barbecued pigs’ ears are called Walkman