You take a walk down Pabayo Street on a Friday night, your school stuff in tow. You see a lot of college students flocking to one of the plethora of carts serving street food. You're really hungry and your tummy's rumbling, but unfortunately you only have a twenty-peso bill left in your pocket. So you position yourself near one of these stalls and purchase a stick of proven and two cups of buko juice (because the other cup's a free refill). Total cost: ten pesos!
Street food has become embedded in the Filipino character; it reflects the Pinoy's craving for foos, sometimes in the most creative and unusual way. Cagayan de Oro has a lot to offer in the street food arena, ranging from the traditional heavyweights BALUT (is a developing bird embryo (usually a duck or chicken) that is boiled and eaten from the shell) and PENOY (Partially shelled balut egg showing yolk) to barbequed delights BATICOLON ( chicken's gizzard) and ISAW (barbecued pig or chicken intestines) to a new favorite PROVEN ( is a type of street food popular in some regions of the Philippines. It consists essentially of the proventriculus of a chicken, dipped in cornstarch, and deep-fried).Carts are not an uncommon sight near the city's top colleges and in Divisoria, where vendors ply their trade to a host of students and passersby wanting to fill their stomachs- while not worrying about flushing their wallets too much.
- Proven and tested
If you sight a flock of students crowding a over a certain manong who's skewering 4 or 5 golden brown, breaded balls in his small "wheel resto", it is the manong who sells chicken proven. These enticing goodies consist of the proventriculus of a chicken; hence, the name. It is a tissue situated between the esophagus and the gizzard- dipped in cornstarch and deep-fried to crispy perfection.
You can plunge a stick into either a sweet or spicy dipping- or you can buy an additional PUSO (is rice wrapped and boiled in a triangular casing made of woven coconut leaves) if you' re that hungry.
- Kwek-kwek fever
Street food neophytes call it "The Orange Egg". It takes form in hard-boiled chicken eggs individually covered in orange-tinted batter and then fried until the batter turns crispy. And if that's not enough to satisfy your hunger, it comes with a selection of condiments: sweet or spicy sauces and chill paste to name a few. Here's a precaution though- make sure you're not prone to high blood pressure as this treat carries a good punch of cholesterol and fats that make your blood pressure rise. Once tasted, you might give in for another round but make sure it stops there if you don't want to have complications later on.
- Sidewalk dim sum
Brought by the Chinese, siomai remains one of the all-time favorites among the sidewalk cuisines. These dumplings- in its Filipino incarnation- are composed of finely ground pork, vegetables and spices, covered by a wanton wrapper and steamed to its full goodness. These are commonly served in ten-peso trios with a choice of both soy sauce and CALAMANSI (is a small, very round citrus fruit) , or a grayish chili paste. You can easily spot a siomai vendor through the presence of steaming pans.
- Buko juice.. twice
After a long while of street food hopping, nothing beats a cup of this divine, white juice that has been a staplein the field of pinoy street food- BUKO juice. For only five pesos, you get a cup of this healthy drink, eqquiped with the benefits of electrolytes, calcium, potassium and magnesium.
- Sanitation and other follies
It is not uncommon knowledge that these foods are vulnerable even to the slightest of sanitary blunders made by the handlers. Anytime during processing when MANONG decides to scratch his scalp right before dipping a chicken egg into the batter or he unknowingly takes his spare time harvesting his boogers while waiting for his customers, bacteria and other pathogens can simply attach themselves to these goodies and wreak havoc inside the poor host. And, of course, most of these vendors don't have their health permits with them (hands down though to one kwek-kwek vendor who diligently attached his permit on his cart).
Aside from manong grooming himself in front of the food, there are also unconfirmed rumors of other vendors trying to give a new meaning to exotic food- that is, using meat from exotic sources such as cats. Though reports such as this come few and far between, it is nonetheless disturbing even to the non-follower.
Rumor or no rumor, street food continues to be one aspect of both Filipinos urban life and of Filipino cuisine. After all, these are cheap thrills that delight our taste buds and satisfy our cravings for good food- all for twenty pesos or less.
Bon Appetit!