Skewered Street Food Around the World

I encourage you to make this recipe of Filipino BBQ Pork Skewers. They are savory & sweet pork skewers packed with flavor infused with the tangy marinade. Banana ketchup, a unique ingredient created in the Philippines, gives a tomato ketchup feel to the marinade. It provides a sweetness layer in the recipe that helps create this “BBQ Sauce”.

Banana Ketchup – Distant Relative to Tomato Ketchup

I know what you have been thinking, ok, what is Banana Ketchup? Due to the dependance of imports to the Philipines during WWII, tomatoes were in short supply. But bananas were in abundamce in the Philippines.

Tomato Shortage Leads to Recipe Development

Determined to make the Philippines more independent, a food chemist named Maria Orosa created this sauce from bananas, vinegar and spices. This mash of the fruit and spices didn’t resemble tomato ketchup, to make it familiar she added red dye to give it a similar look.

Educated in the U.S.

Maria Orosa went to university in the United States. In 1920s, she earned degrees in pharmaceutical chemistry as well as food chemistry. She returned to the Philippines in 1922. She made it her life goal to utilize native foods using techniques such as fermentation and preservation to educate residents to what was available.

Impressive Culinary Knowledge

Living back in the Philippines, she created over 700 recipes to help and provide nutritional recipes to her homeland. One of her many contributions was introducing 4H clubs across the country.

This gave access to rural areas where women could learn about food preservation, raising chickens and food preparation. Of all her endeavors she most wanted to empower her native country to be self reliant.

Grilling in the Philippines

Inihaw, the Tagalog word for grilling or open fire roasting meats. Grilling is one of the most popular cooking techniques in the Philippines. This recipe and video series has been all about street food, bbq pork skewers are a favorite with street vendors in the Philippines. Filipino BBQ Pork Skewers are amazing when marinated and grilled over charcoal. Traditionally served with a vinegar based dipping sauce.

Street Food in the Phillipines

There are Inihaw variations of this street food, it may be diced or whole meats grilled, usually pork, beef or seafood.

Most times, the marinade used is a banana ketchup based marinade. In the southern islands of the country, the street food may be called Satti and will be served with a type of peanut sauce.

The southern islands of the Philippines are in close proximity to Indonesia. It makes sense that the Satti is a relative of the Satay.

Enjoy!