Ox cart with vegetables on the road in Leyte. I’m not sure if coconuts are vegetables or fruits but I do enjoy buko juice every now and then.
Coconuts, jackfruit, and saging (bananas). Fried bananas are a food staple in the Philippines.
Here are some fruits and vegetables found in the Philippines.
Rambutan
This sweet fruit has soft hairy outer covering. The meat is delicious but you have to spit out a fairly large seed so you can eat a lot of them without getting full. In the Philippines they cost between 20 and 40 pesos per kilo. When rambutan are in season the market gets flooded so the price drops.
If you are buying rambutan in the market, be sure to look them over for dark splotches near the stem. Sometimes they are covered with ants gorging on the sweet sap. It’s an indication that they are very sweet, but if the ants get disturbed they will be all over the place.
Santol
These fruits are seasonal and get as cheap as 3 pesos each. They are not sweet but actually a tad bitter. Mapait. Perhaps it is an acquired taste.
Merang
I just saw these for the first time in the market in Ormoc last week and have not yet tasted them.
update – I bought a merang for 20 pesos on the way home from the internet cafe today. They have an interesting flavor and a texture like lansones or rambutan but the seeds are a tad smaller. I find that my throat and lips tingle a bit when I sampled this fruit, so I suspect that I have a slight allergy to this one.
Durian
This fruit is most common in Mindanao, but this picture is from Ormoc in Leyte. The durian is known for it’s pungent odor and delicate taste.
Signs are sometimes posted in hotels – “NO JACKFRUITS OR DURIANS ALLOWED!”
On a Pelni ship in Indonesia a few years back, the ships officers were doing a sweep of the cabins trying to figure out who smuggled a durian onboard. Seriously! The odor is unmistakable and unavoidable.
Caution – they are stacked high on the tables in Indonesia. If you drop one on your foot it will cause serious injury because those spikes are hard and sharp.
Hard Mango
These are often peeled and sold from carts on busy walk ways. The slices are great with salt or bagoong (a brown shrimp paste).
Hard mangoes are not yet ripe and have a tart taste. Avacado are common on Biliran Island.
Talong – tarong – eggplant used in a pakbet vegetable mix along with squash, amplaya, okra, sitaw and patola. Pipino or cucumbers are in the upper right photo. Names for these vegetables change depending on what island you are at.
siqua – patola in Cebuano
opo
Vegetable market in Ormoc, Leyte.
Lansones have a pleasant flavor, similar to that of a rambutan , but a bit tart. There are 5 sections under the peel, kind of like an orange.
Sunkist
These small green oranges are called “sunkist” locally. They are quite sweet in spite of the green color which would indicate not yet ripe on a Chinese orange.
Ponkan are the brightly colored orange from China that flood the streets on the carts in Cebu City during season.
Ginger
Waray Waray – Luy a
Cebuano – Luya
This would probably be classed as a “spice”.
Gabi
This root can be made into tinulang baboy – a pork soup.
Squash.
Sitaw – these long string bean things – will get more info on these later. I don’t care for the taste that much.
Sitaw is fried with oil garlic, onion and soy sauce (toyo).
from reader: I love the taste of those long string green beans and I’ve even got the seeds out of them to bring back home so i can grow them in my garden here. They sometimes come in other colors like Purple,White and Brown but I’ve only ever eaten the green ones.
Many pineapples are grown in the Ormoc area. Sugar cane is is a big crop here too.
Sayote…more to come later
from reader : we call them “CHOKOES” they have no such taste,you can boil,bake or steam them also, but most of the time they are just mixed in with other vegetables. They are grown over old fences here as they grow as a vine and sometimes can grow as long as fifty meters. Also the smaller they are the better they taste as when they get to full size of about 5 or 6 inches they can be “WOODIE” so its best to get them around about the 4 inch size.
Buongon – this fruit resembles a giant orange, but has a completely different taste. They are sold for 15 to 20 pesos from vegetable carts (already peeled and in plastic bags).
Saging – Bananas
These saging are to be cooked or fried. I used to eat quite a few of them when I lived in Samar. I got 2 bunches today – 3 saging for 5 pesos. The color might be off putting – but these bananas are considered to be prime for frying or boiling.
This jeepney in Samar is loaded down with bananas. That’s a lot of weight on that roof!
note:
Just an interesting side note – be sure not to let the sap from the banana plant get on your clothes because it will leave a dark stain that can not be removed.
I think these bananas are the ones to peel and eat on the spot, but the best ones are those small sweet bananas that you can buy or 5 pesos a bunch in the market. Carinderias usually sell them for a peso each. Marasa!
The big bananas for cooking were 2 for 5 pesos, but we bought these small sweet bananas for 5 pesos a bunch – super cheap, even for the Philippines.
These papaya are a favorite – great for the stomach. The oranges (ponkan) in the fore ground are imports from China. They are sweet but the orange color can rub off the skin onto your clothing if you are not careful.
In Samar, slightly unripe papayas are sliced and sold in small plastic bags for 5 pesos. A shot of vinegar is added and they taste great.
Here’s a ripe Papaya. They are full of round black seeds that you scoop out with a spoon and then slice. A banana and a few slices of papaya, toast with marmalade, and some fresh Batangas coffee are a nice way to start of the morning.
Papayas grow almost anywhere and are a low maintenance plant. Most Filippinos have a few growing in the yard.
Avacado.
Mangga – Mangoes seem to be more plentiful on Cebu and Negros Islands than elsewhere. These beauties are delicious. Most people slice them but you can just peel off the skin by hand and eat them that way. They are kind of sticky so only do it that way if there is water available to wash your hands.
Camote – This root crop is similar to a sweet potato. I prefer camote to casava because it has a pleasant flavor – to me the casava is too bland and starchy. Most people here boil them but sometimes I deep fry thin slices in oil with a bit of flavoring. The resulting camote chip resembles potato chips but taste better to me.
There are red and white varieties of these camote, but I prefer the red or camote violeta by far. The ones in this picture are prime!
Atis – These were spotted in Cebu yeaterday. Possibly they are an imported item because it’s the only time I’ve noticed them.
Mangostene – These mangostene were among the fruits and vegetables sold under the walkway near the Fuente Circle in Cebu City.
Egg plant
Talong – Tagalog
Tarong – Waray Waray
Eggplant
Pepper (medium sized red)
Waray Waray – Hulabtog
diri maharang (not hot)
Pepper (small hot red)
Waray Waray – Harang
maharang (hot)
Garlic Waray Waray – Lasona
Cebuano – Ahos
Onion
Waray Waray – Siboyas
Cebuano – Bombay
Waray Waray – Karlang (gabi)
Similar to the other gabi, but is rough to eat
White and red – I am told the white is preferred
Ampalaya
Bland vegetable with a bitter hint – mapait
These grow off on vines intertwined on a bamboo super structure to keep them off he ground.
Salsa anyone?
Waray Waray – Tangkong
Eggplant Waray Waray – Agbati
Sitaw – Tagalog
Balatong – Waray Waray
Batong – Cebuano
Waray Waray – Puso (heart)
Tagalog – Puso
Cebuano – Puso
English – the flower of the banana
At the market in Cuyo, Palawan.
Kamansi – rough to eat
Petchay – Tagalog
leaf lettuce?
Repolyo – Waray, Tagalog, Cebuano
English – cabbage
Opo – long size
Waray Waray – Kundol
small size
This “ox” is called a caribao here in the Philippines.
The green coconuts are opened for milk and then split open so you can scoop out the tender white meat with a spoon made of the coconut shell. The guys selling buko juice (coconut juice) at bus stops and market stalls, often remove the meat with a flexible knife carved from a caribao horn.
Vegetable Song -Bahay Kubo
Bahay kubo kahit munti
Ang halaman roon ay sari-sari
Singkamas at talong
Sigarilyas at mani
Sitaw bataw,patani
Kundol patola upo’t kalabasa
At saka meron pa
Labanos mustasa
Sibuyas kamatis bawang at luya
Sa paligid ligid palinga linga
Palinga linga – Having a happy look at your small garden at your humble house in the mountain!
Vegetables
Dutchpicke,
I love the taste of those long string green beans and I’ve even got the seeds out of them to bring back home so i can grow them in my garden here. They sometimes come in other colors like Purple,White and Brown but I’ve only ever eaten the green ones.
As for the last photo here we call them “CHOKOES” they have no such taste,you can boil,bake or steam them also, but most of the time they are just mixed in with other vegetables. They are grown over old fences here as they grow as a vine and sometimes can grow as long as fifty meters. Also the smaller they are the better they taste as when they get to full size of about 5 or 6 inches they can be “WOODIE” so its best to get them around about the 4 inch size.
See you soon.
MG
giday dp
Juvee says to tell you she really likes this page! I have just had a very detailed discourse from her relating to every fruit you have displayed, how they taste, what they should cost and the medicinal benefits of each one….!
Cheers
Lindsay
Hi guys,
Thanks Gary. I put that bit about the Chokoes in the story. Good info!
Lindsay, it would be super interesting to know the medicinal benefits of these fruits and vegies!
Recipies and cooking ideas welcome, thanks!
dp
atis is locally grown here in the Philippines.
Chokoes are otherwise know as artichokes I think. They can be cooked until soft and covered in sugar. Taste like apples in apple pie.
Delicious Philippines Fruits & Vegetable
A few correction dutchpickle, ( I hope you don’t mind.):
We have no letter “C” in our alphabet, instead we use the letter “K”. So, “Camote” is actually spelled ” Kamote”.
“opo” is spelled “Upo”
“Mangga”, is “Manga”
” Caribao” is “Karabao”
“Avacado”, is “Avocado”
“Mangostene”, is Mangosteen”
I’m actually looking for a picture of sigarilyas (sigarillas). Maybe you could update your write up and include a picture of the vegetable. Thanks.
Hi Sugi
thanks for the corrections!
dp