Filipino Cuisine is a unique blend of Asian and Western influences, especially from China, Spain, and the United States, which are the countries that have greatly influenced the culture of the Philippines. Rice figures prominently in the diet of most Filipinos and their tastes prefer much flavor; spicy or salty like their neighbors in Southeast Asia and sweet like their American colonists.

The staple food of the Philippines, like most countries in Asia is rice. For most Filipinos, a meal is never complete without rice, whether simply steamed or prepared like other dishes. In fact, the Filipino word for rice, kanin, is related to the Filipino verb kain, meaning “to eat”. And unlike in English which calls all forms of rice as “rice”, Filipinos have a lot of terms for rice: palay for the rice plant, bigas for the uncooked rice grains, and kanin for the cooked rice, among others. Many Filipino desserts are also made from rice and are generally called kakanin.

Filipinos almost always eat rice with one or more viands, called ulam. Most viands, like afritada, adobo, caldereta, kare-kare, menudo, sinigang, and mechado, are soup dishes that combine pieces of meat and vegetables. Most Filipino food, like these viands are of the mixed variety, where different ingredients are mixed together in one big dish. In fact, one popular cold Filipino dessert is called halo-halo, literally mix-mix.

Chinese influences have introduced the various noodle dishes called pansit as well as various lumpia.

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