The Sandwich, Pinoy Style

The mighty sandwich maybe, as said, "the perfect food", but in the Philippines, it will always just be considered a snack. Here, rice is king. No meal is a proper meal without a hefty serving of rice.

Mostly consumed for breakfast (agahan) and afternoon snack (merienda), sandwiches here mostly utilize local breads. The most popular breads used are the pandesal and monay.

Common breakfast sandwiches are:

Pandesal with local jams, coco jam being the most popular.

Pandesal withlongganisa (local sausage)

Pandesal with kesongputi (water buffalo cheese)

Leftover viands make good fillings too. Adobo flakes sandwiches are delicious.

Filipinos love carbs on carbs, so don't be surprised if you see one filling pandesal/ monay with pancit (stir fry noodles)

Thanks to our Chinese influences (my father is one), steamed buns are very popular here especially those filled with red mung bean paste; pork asado; and bola- bola with salted duck eggs. Yum.

Here's a pork roast cuapao... it's like your common slider, but instead of bread, you use mantou buns.

For dessert, we fill the pandesal or pan de leche with ice cream. This one has ube (purple yam).

Remember me telling you how rice is king? Here's a hamburger using rice for buns. It was discontinued, but was a very convenient and filling sandwich.

The sandwich still has a long way to go before being recognized as a proper, full meal in the Philippines, but it's getting there.

Here's one last sandwich to cap it off. The squid ink burger, which is very popular in Asia.