Dish finder in Manila

Chicken or pork braised in vinegar, soy, garlic, bay and peppercorns. Every household has its version; eat it with plenty of rice.

A sharp, tamarind-sour broth with pork, prawns or fish and vegetables. Comfort food on a rainy day.

Chopped pork cheek and ears with onion, chilli and calamansi, served sizzling on an iron plate with an egg cracked on top. A beer-hall classic from Pampanga.

Oxtail and vegetables in a thick peanut sauce, served with salty shrimp paste (bagoong) on the side to season each mouthful.

Whole pig spit-roasted until the skin crackles. The centrepiece of any celebration; restaurants sell it by the kilo.

Marinated pork belly grilled over charcoal and dipped in soy, vinegar and chilli.

Sweet pork skewers and grilled chicken intestines from roadside grills at dusk, dipped in spiced vinegar.

Tapa (cured beef), sinangag (garlic rice) and itlog (a fried egg). The -silog family swaps in longganisa sausage or tocino.

Ginger rice porridge with chicken, toasted garlic and calamansi. What you are given when you are ill or it is raining.

The national fish, butterflied, marinated in vinegar and garlic and fried crisp, with rice, egg and tomato.

Raw fish cured in vinegar or calamansi with ginger, onion and chilli. A sharp, cold starter with beer.

Thin, crisp rolls of seasoned minced pork, served at every party with a sweet chilli dip.

Stir-fried egg or rice noodles with vegetables and meat, squeezed with calamansi. Served at birthdays for long life.

A whole grilled aubergine, flattened, dipped in egg and fried. Meat-free as served, with ketchup or spiced vinegar.

Warm silken tofu with brown-sugar syrup and sago pearls, sold in the morning by vendors calling out as they walk.

Shaved ice with sweet beans, jellies, fruit, leche flan and purple yam, topped with evaporated milk and ice cream. Mix it all before eating.