Filipino Street Food: Random Streets in Bago Bantay

I walked out of my Airbnb hungry, camera in hand, with the intention of seeing what Filipino street food I could find.
Bago Bantay doesn’t show up on tourist maps, yet the first stall greeted me with giniling, lumpiang togue, and pork steak.
A group of school children pointed me to lugaw and batchoy, so I bought them lunch too.

Five quick stops across a few blocks proved Quezon City rewards curiosity more than planning. This post maps that short walk in a random barangay and shows yet again why Filipino street food thrives where you least expect it.

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Filipino Street Food, Condensed to Three Streets

Most people think Filipino street food means skewers and balut. Isaw. Betamax. Maybe barbecue if they’re generous.
But that’s a narrow view. Street food here also means lugaw before sunrise, bulalo at a sidewalk stall, and tapsilog on a plastic plate at 11 PM. If it fits on a folding table under a tarp and someone’s cooking it beside the street, it counts. That’s the culture of filipino food in general. Everything’s fair game if you know where to look.

This walk happened in Bago Bantay, a barangay most people ignore unless they live there. Which is wild, considering two of Quezon City’s biggest landmarks sit on its edge: SM City North Edsa and SM Grass Residences, where I stayed. A barangay, by the way, is the smallest local division in the country. Basically a neighborhood, but with its own captain and council.

I had no plan beyond walking until something looked good enough to stop me. It didn’t take long. In fact, I didn’t need to go far at all to fill my gluttonous pie hole.

Nanai Vicky’s Carinderia

This is our first stop and I literally walked 45 seconds outside of the Grass Residences gate before finding it. And I cannot stress this enough if you’re visiting the Philippines. Give up Google Maps and hit the barangays for authentic Filipino street food. Why? Because places like Nanai Vicky’s won’t be found otherwise. No Maps listings, no social media accounts, and no physical address. They exist to feed people, that’s it. The best I can tell you is it’s on Nueva Viscaya directly across the street from Grass Residence Gate 2. But these kinds of carinderias are the backbone of Filipino street food. Small, quiet, and completely invisible online.

As I walked up I was immediately greeted by Nanai Vicky herself. She went out of her way to make me feel welcomed while explaining all the dishes. It may be one of the smallest “carinderias” you will ever see with two tables and a small glass covered display case with a handful of dishes. Inside they were frying fresh lumpia togue(bean sprout lumpia). I decided to try the freshly fried lumpia, giniling, and her pork steak.

Giniling

This was my first time trying giniling and it’s still my favorite version to this day. Nanai Vicky’s version is made with ground pork in a tomato based stew. Not tomato sauce or banana ketchup, fresh tomatoes cooked down in the stew with peas, raisins, onions, bell peppers, potatoes, carrots , and served with hard boiled eggs. It’s sweet, tangy and worth every damn bite.

Lumpiang Togue

Lumpia is a common Filipino street food all over the country and this version is made with togue or bean sprouts. These were freshly fried in front of me. They’re crispy, a little oily, and packed with juicy bean sprouts. Delicious

Pork Steak

Nanai Vicky’s pork steak is fatty chunks of pork stir fried in vinegar and soy sauce. The stir frying tenderizes the bejeebus out of the pork. It’s salty and sour, and works perfectly with hot steamed rice to balance the saltiness.

All three dishes and a steamed rice cost me a whopping ₱140.

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Landjailyn Carinderia

After leaving Nanai Vicky’s, I headed west along Nueva Viscaya and turned south on Nueva Esijca. Almost immediately after making my left turn I found Landjailyn Carinderia. Another small carinderia with a small menu. Some rice meals and few sabaw(soup) dishes and a small milk tea station.

Here I opted for their bulalo, a popular Filipino street food, and a caramel milk tea. The bulalo was a full on beef shank soup with a generous portion of bone marrow and fresh veggies. The meat was fall apart tender and the veggies were all fresh. The most important aspect of bulalo is a sauce mixed up on the side of patis(fish sauce), calamansi and chilies for dipping your meat into. I tend to add a little soy sauce as well for extra salt, but you’re left with deep beefy flavour followed up by a spicy, salty, and umami flavour from sauce. Hot steamed rice and Bob’s your uncle.

Unfortunately, as I was writing this article I learned that Landjailyn is now permanently closed. This is another reason to hit the streets and wander the barangays of Quezon City. Many won’t have a trace of existence at all and others still won’t be around long so you take every opportunity you have to seek them out before they’re gone.

Palmas Lugawan

We need to backtrack a bit in our filipino food crawl. When I left Nanai Vicky’s a group of eight or so school children saw me and were curious about the camera and what I was doing. We had a chat and they found the white guy wandering the streets of Bago Bantay hilarious, then we each went our own way. Fast-forward to leaving Landjailyn and I saw them again so I decided to ask where else I could find good food in the area but I really didn’t get any clear answers.

Schools in the Philippines close mid-day for a few hours due to extreme heat and the kids were on their way home, so they decided to walk with me, We made our way south on Nueva Esijca and turned west on to Bukidnon and then I saw it. Palmas Lugawan. It’s exactly the kind of Filipino street food spot you stumble into and remember forever.

You also won’t find this location on Google maps, but it’s a large covered stall with an old school diner style seating area along the bar. The kids were with me so I asked them if they were hungry and offered to buy them lunch. The kids all chose tapsilog meals for themselves and I ordered their all-in lugaw and batchoy.

Lugaw

This was my first experience with lugaw and I was excited to try it. If you’re unaware, lugaw is rice porridge that is very similar to congee. And this is a hill I will die on. Both Filipino lugaw and goto destroys any congee you will have anywhere else in the world. In most countries, congee is a bland mess with some toppings thrown on it. It’s fine, but once you try lugaw or goto you will never want it any other way.

The lugaw here was spot on from the start. Packed with tripe, grilled isaw, and chicharron. The tripe has a slight liver flavor and the firm, yet rubbery texture contrasts perfectly with the crunch of chicharron. But the star of lugaw is the heavily ginger flavoured broth it’s all cooked in.

Batchoy

I fell in love with this dish during my time in Bacolod so was excited to try it in Quezon City and Palmas Lugawan didn’t disappoint. Heavy portions of pork liver and beef meat and the house made chili oil finishes it off perfectly. A very common Filipino street food in western Visayas that I wish we saw more of here in the Metro Manila.

Albeth Bakehouse

Ok technically we hit four streets in this Bago Bantay food trip. As I was leaving the kids, I turned around and saw Albeth Bakehouse directly behind Palmas Lugawan. And since Palmas sits on the corner of Bukidnon and Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Sur becomes our fourth street. But shut up, it’s my lie and I’ll tell it anyway I want to.

Albeth Bakehouse has several locations throughout the NCR, but the Bago Bantay branch made the best first impression. I decided to try some familiar items along with some Filipino street food staples..

Egg Pie

Sounds gross when you have no idea what it is. Eggs and pie? That’s it? Well no, so don’t be an idiot like me. Egg pie is more of an egg custard and at Albeth they do it without the pie crust, so you’re eating all filling and none of the crunchy pie crust which i’m all for. The top has a browned egg white topping. This was my first time with this one and I am highly impressed.

Chocolate Crinkles

I love these and have eaten them all over the Philippines. Chocolate crinkles are fudgy cookies encased in powdered sugar. They’re rolled in powdered sugar just before baking so as they cook and expand, the powdered sugar begins to break apart leaving a “crinkled” appearance. Think a brownie in the form of a cookie. Moist and delicious.

Pandan Kalahim

I had never even heard of this before, and I still can’t tell you how it’s made. From what I’ve gathered, kalahim is sweet bread with a brightly coloured sugary filling. The pandan version I had was delicious though. Super sweet pandan filling stuffed bread. If I’m being honest the bread looks like a damn hotdog bun. It’s not, but that’s the best way I could describe it. Wouldn’t hesitate to order these again.

Bak’s Tapsilugan

I have rambled about not trusting Google Maps, but don’t trust the reviews either because Bak’s Tapsilugan has absolute shit reviews. What I can tell you; that was not my experience at all. I only ordered one dish here but I loved it. I tried their Coco Sisig Kineme and I did so because of the promise of spicy food.

This dish should be more popular in my opinion and falls perfectly into what Filipino street food should be. It’s unpopular because nobody has ever heard of the damn thing. I haven’t seen this anywhere else, so I’m calling it a Bak’s original. If you don’t live in Bago Bantay you have probably never heard of it.

Coco Sisig Kineme

Coco Sisig Kineme is a mixture of sisig and Bicol express. Sounds absolutely perfect to me. Sisig cooked in a shit ton of coconut milk and chilies. I mean how the hell would someone not want to eat that? It’s still served on a sizzling cast iron plate and it’s every bit as good any sisig or Bicol express you will find.

You get the crunchy bits of pork from the cast iron plate, a big hit of coconut milk and the spicy ass chilies lightning you up the whole way. Maybe the rest of their food sucks and that is the reason for the bad reviews, but the Coco Sisig Kineme was fantastic.

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How Far I Actually Walked

Let’s be honest. This wasn’t a food crawl. It was a lazy stroll with a spoon in hand. From my condo to the last bite, I covered maybe seven minutes of actual walking. No tricycle. No jeepney. Not even a real plan. Just hunger and dumb luck.

The whole trip spanned two or three intersecting barangay streets. That’s it. You don’t need Google Maps, a tour guide, or a cheat sheet to find Filipino street food like this. You just need to get off your ass and start walking.

Bago Bantay and any other barangay in the Philippines don’t show up on tourist lists, but all of them are hiding food ten times better than you’ll find in a mall food court. And sometimes, that’s all you need. A street corner. A stool. And a bowl of something hot.

Filipino Street Food-Final Verdict

This wasn’t a carefully planned food trip. I left my condo with no real destination and still ended up eating some of the best Filipino street food I’ve had in Quezon City. Every stop was within walking distance and none of it required a map, a guide, or a single clue what I was doing.

Forget restaurant rankings and Instagram posts. If you’re in Manila, walk through a random barangay and trust your nose. The best food won’t come with a rating. It’ll come on a plastic plate from someone who’s been feeding the neighborhood for years.

If you’ve got questions, hit the comments. If you have your favorite Filipino street food spots around QC, let me know. Would love to check them out.

Filipino Street Food-FAQ

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