Paskong Pinoy

Christmas is the time when we get to eat foods especially made for this season. Whether these are for Christmas parties or for Christmas reunions or for the Noche Buena (celebrated on Christmas Eve), we look forward to these times for the fun or for the simple joy of partaking a meal with people whom we love or are friendly with.

Christmas in the Philippines is no exception. In fact, Filipinos are people who are really known to love their food, especially during this special season. We love food so much that if we’re going to have a Christmas party in the house, we’ll literally spend days preparing the food. Despite the rising popularity of catered foods, we still prefer to make our own, from scratch.

 MCJ featured are some of the favorite foods we love to eat during christmas season.

Lechon

Otherwise called the roasted pig, this is a staple food for any kind of celebrations such as Christmas, birthdays, weddings and fiestas.

Leche Flan

It has two main ingredients: egg and milk and is a favorite dessert for parties, no matter how big or small the party is. It is a great take home food too.

Ham

The most common is the Hamon de bola or a ball-shaped cured ham. You can also have the pear-shaped ham or the chicken ham. You can glaze it with pineapple juice / sauce, fry it or bake it.

Queso de bola

Castanas

These are best served newly-roasted and hot. Of course, there’s the tedious process of trying to peel the chestnuts but it’s worth it just to get a taste of this delicious food.

Kalamay

a sticky sweet dessert made from glutinous rice, grated coconut, margarine, brown sugar and even peanut butter. It is topped by fried coconut milk.

Puto Bumbong

This is what we commonly eat after the early dawn mass called “Simbang Gabi”. It is made from ground rice (in purple color) and is cooked in bamboo tubes over special steamer-cookers. When they are removed from the bamboo tubes, they are then placed on banana leaves, where they are spread with butter and sprinkled with grated coconut and sugar.

Christmas Fruits

Christmas is the time when we see an abundance of fruits in the country, such as grapes, oranges, apples, mangoes, banana, cherries, papaya, etc. If you can’t have them fresh, there’s always the fruit salad

Bibingka

this one is made from glutinous (malagkit) rice. In appearance, it looks like the pancake, however this is where their similarity ends. This one is cooked on a special clay pot, wrapped with banana leaves and with live coals above and underneath it. White cheese (kesong puti) and salted duck eggs (itlog na maalat) complete this delicious native dessert.