Street Foods in My Place

I love street foods and, in our country, we have a ton of different variety of foods that is sold in the streets. That is pretty much the reason why they were called that way- they are sold in the streets. Today I would take you on a trip and show you some of the street foods that are sold in my place. Let us begin!

Buckle up we will now begin the ride!

Kwek-kwek

Kwek-kwek is made out of quails eggs and then they are wrapped with breaded mix with an added orange food coloring to make the look yummy (but for me eve without it still tastes really good so long as you put a good amount of seasoning on the batter. It’s a pretty big of work to make this street food. You have to boil the quail eggs first, peel them and set them aside. After that you create a batter mixture by combining flour, salt, beaten egg and other spices. This is where you will soak the peeled quail eggs and then fry them in a boiling cooking oil.

Tempura

When I was in college, due to the desperate need of income for my schooling, I worked at a local supermarket where friend has a stall of frozen good supplies like hotdogs, tempura fish balls, kikiam and many more. That was when I realized what tempura is made of, now, I have to clarify that this is not the common tempura that we see in Japanese restaurants where shrimps, veggies and other seafoods are dipped in a butter and are fried out. This I think are a bit similar to the fish cakes in Korea but the only difference is its shape, the fishcakes in Korea are cut into strips and then soaked in a boiling pot of yummy soap while the tempura in our place is long and is fried when sold. It think when it is soaked in seafood stock it will taste very similar to that fish cake that I have tasted because it is made out of flour and fish meat.   

Fishballs

Now this one is similar to tempuras but I think it uses a different type of fish as its base meat and also its size is different because it is round, which o think explains why it is called fish balls. Same thing with tempuras it is fried and are topped or dipped in sweet and spicy sauces made out of vinegar, ketchup and spy sauce. Now you might even get lucky if the street food vendor has free seaweed and cucumber to top your fried fish balls. (Ohmooo I am drooling)

Kikiam

I have heard that kikiams are a famous ingredient in the Chinese cuisine and I think we got it from them. Originally Kikiam are made mixed pork and seafood and then wrapped around a bean curd sheet. Nowadays, the ones tat are sold in the street are not made out of that same ingredient, they are made out of highly processed seafood paste and then molded into a sausage like form and are still called kikiam. Some with tempura and fish balls, they are fried out and then dipped in sweet and sour sauces.

Hotdog in a stick

I think other country have this too as a common street food. This very common maybe because it is very easy to prepare, you just peel off the plastic of the hotdog an then fry it and put it in the stick, if you want to pair it with rice our street food vendors also have hanging rice or "posu"-made out of coconut leaves and then woven into a heart shape container with cooked rice inside.

Barbecue

I think this one is also very common and I think everyone is very familiar with this one, may you be a Filipino or not. I love barbecue too and it could be different types of meat that can be barbecued, it could be fish, pork, chicken and many others can be one. We have more than a dozen barbecue stalls in our town and as a matter of fact we have one that is just a stone-throw from where we are living now. And what I love about this barbecue stall that I am talking about, is the fact that they do not color their barbecues. Some barbecue vendors would color their barbecue with orange or red to make it look dashingly fresh and the bad thing about that is you cant spot if it is old meat or what (well, if you smell it you will know but it would be rude to do that so we all just rely on the look, but then they would color it so you can’t tell). And plus, when food colors it is bad for your kidneys that is why I love buying barbecues which are not colored.

Balut

I know most of my foreign friends has heard about it. It is a duck egg that is days old that is boiled at a certain period of time and then eaten with spicy vinegar. Yum! The thought of eating it makes me drool. Some likes it 21 days old but me, I like it 16 days old because it has the smallest chick inside and is hardly recognizable (just don’t stare at it and be sure to eat it after dark). I love balut. I really do. How about you?

Well, that’s just it for now folks! We will talk about other street foods the next time. Let me take a roam around our town and I will take a picture of each street food that I haven’t included in this article now. Sayonara!