Manila Found

- February 28, 2026

Thursday, February 5th, 2026

Manila Found : Chaotic, vibrant, and full of life

We checked back into Achievers Hotel, refreshed a little and headed out to see what Manila had to offer. We decided to go to the Baclaran area where we could enjoy some yummy street food.

The heartbeat of the Philippines streets—colorful, quirky, and always ready for a culinary adventure!

First stop: Spicy peanuts with red chillies.

Then we peeked into the Baclaran Catholic Church

The street food haven was right outside the gates of the church

Manila Street food is not for the fainthearted! The smells and the sights were challenging our tastebuds and our tummies!

Dried squid skewers cooked over the grill seemed pretty popular even among the teenage crowd.

Baluk

They incubate chicken eggs and quail eggs for a few days and before the chick fully forms they cook it and sell on the street with the shell still on.

People peel the shell, pour some sauce inside the egg and suck out the half formed chick right into their mouths. It was interesting to watch but we were too chickenhearted to try a Baluk!!!

Japanese Pancakes

The pancakes were not too sweet and very fluffy. I really enjoyed it.

This chicken skewer was very good and crunchy. The sauce was the best.

My favorite was the quail eggs on a stick, dipped in batter and deep fried fresh after we order it. I went back and got another one because it was so yummy.

Lot of the meaning was lost in translation. When we tried to ask the vendors what the food was, usually they repeated the name of the food and nothing more. Sometimes a customer who knows a bit of English would try to explain. But most of the time we had to guess and just eat the food to find out what it was.

These little skewers looked very appetizing. When we asked what it was, it seemed like they said beef but we weren't sure. We thought we would try it. The texture was a bit more rubbery for beef and it was also a bit soft not chewy. It tasted like liver.

Papu looked it up and thought it could be blood on a stick. Some internet sources say it is lungs and trachea of a cow. Whatever it was, we ate it!

There were so many street cats wandering around. There were also so many kids playing on the streets among the shops. We were wondering where their parents were. Are they the kids of the street vendors?