If you have followed my good to know articles by now, you would notice that most of these things I am sharing with you guys are coming from what is available in our streets. And as often as possible, I try to make it as delectable as I can even to the most unappetizing of varieties. (If you can remember the 'Balut?')
Fried Filipino Street Food
This time around, it will be a short share, as this is pretty much something we get to see everyday, though here, it is sold in a peculiar manner.
The Kwek-Kwek
The Kwek-kwek is a famous street food here in the Philippines. More often than not, confused with it's older brother 'the tokneneng', the 'kwek-kwek' is made from quail eggs while the latter is made of either chicken or duck's eggs.
Street food vendor selling kwek-kweks, toknenengs which includes fish balls and many others
The kwek-kwek, is a quail's egg, which is smothered in an orange batter, which is then deep fried and sometimes sold in skewers or in plastic cups. The sauce that completes the whole treat is typically spiced vinegar with finely chopped onions and chili.
The Filipinos love their Quail's Eggs
The Philippines is really home to a whole lot of different street food varieties. Why we love them? It really is because of the price we have to pay for these treats - CHEAP. Being a third world country, where the impoverished still outnumbers the rich, the demand of cheap, satisfying food, will always be very high. As such, we will always take notice of the very orange, deep fried, little eggs available in the street. Much like how we love our 'Balut' too.
A Glorious Pile of Kwek Kwek
And since our consumption of Quail's eggs in kwek-kwek is very high, we just have to educate ourselves of the nutrition we are going to get, eating these sinful eggs.
Nutrition Facts
Just a comparison between the kwek-kwek and the boiled generic Quail's eggs
I have to be honest, this is the first time I have seen this comparison. While I believe that a significant increase in cholesterol should be present after having it deep fried, I am unsure why the calories would decrease. Sadly, I am not a nutritionist, and I am not going to be able to explain this, but you can definitely check on the links to both nutrition facts from the source cited below.
Note: If you would have other sources to check out for the comparison, please feel free to comment them below, so we can have this clarified.
Finish Line
Much like the other street foods, I find myself really tempted to go out and about in the streets searching for these types of treats. I have actually grown to love them as they played a huge part of my childhood as snack items right after school. These are really the treats I grew up with and enjoy eating even up to now. So you can definitely expect more of this from me on plenty of my good to know articles.
Tokneneng sold with cucumber and seaweed along with spiced vinegar to make it refreshing.
Before I wrap things up. Here's a Fun-Fact about the Tokneneng (The Older brother of our dear kwek-kwek)
Tokneneng, allegedly came from the 1978 Pinoy komiks series Batute. In this series, the main character Batute has his own language and he refers to eggs as tokneneng. Source
That is definitely a wrap! Please FOLLOW me, as I am planning to do more good to know stuff from the Philippines.
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Check out my previous Good to Know Articles:
• Good to Know: The Mayon Volcano - An Active Perfect Cone
• Good to Know: SINULOG - One Beat, One Dance, One Vision
• Good to Know: Habal-Habal, The Two Wheeled Taxi
• Good to Know: Jeepney, The Colorful Kings
• Good to Know: Balut! A Bizarre Gastronomic Experience
• Good to Know: Apo Whang-Od - The Living Legend
• Good to Know: Lanzones (Lansium parasiticum), The Golden Bunch!
• Good to Know: The Philippine Tarsier (Carlito Syrichta)
• Good to Know: Tamilok (Teredo Navalis), A Philippine Delicacy
See you guys on the next Good to Know...
