Pancit Princess: Philfest Phun 2015

This past weekend we trekked all the way to Tampa for their annual Philfest. (Philippine Festival). A three day celebration of Filipino food and culture. I was so amped up. I was prepping for this festival for weeks. All my favorite filipino foods were to be there so I had to plan accordingly.

When we arrived it was already hot as beans. After meeting with some friends and family I was ready to eat and find some shade. The festival had at least 20 food vendors. Food and drinks are purchased using tickets and range from 1 ticket to 10. We found most had the same dishes like pancit, rice, adobo. But each booth seemed to have at least one thing that the others didn't. Such as fish balls, balut, ube ice cream, sapin-sapin and pan de hipon. I wish I took more pictures of all the different foods. But when you're strolling around with a 2 1/2 month old and 5 kids under 15. Things get pretty hectic.

My first dish was a steamed pork bun (Siopao) from Filipiniana restaurant booth. This place had a line all day and with good reason. They had bubble teas and halo-halo. Not sure if it was world famous halo-halo or something or because it was 90 something degrees. Not like you need a reason to eat halo-halo, because it's delicious! I held off on the halo-halo because I had one the weekend before and I was saving my calories. haha. But my good friend had her first halo-halo here and she liked it.

My friend's Halo-Halo "mix mix" ice dessert

With my Siopao I had a side of turkey Lumpia (eggrolls) from the PAO food truck and a buko (young coconut) juice which I didn't get a picture of. :(

For dessert I decided to try a slice of Sapin-Sapin. It's a pretty layered cake made of rice and coconut. It's consistency was gooey meets sponge-y. It's steamed so it's not like a traditional cake. Each layer of the cake is a different flavor. The orange is jackfruit, the white is coconut and the purple layer is ube. Honestly I was not that impressed by this Sapin-Sapin. It had almost no flavor. So that was a disappointment. But look how pretty!

Sapin-Sapin "layers"

After lunch we walked around and caught a show. Then the most amazing thing happened. We found the booth with the balut. Now I don't eat balut ( I just can't get over the whole baby duck thing) but a lot of Filipinos do. You can read about balut HERE. My brother and cousin ended up getting an egg each. We found a semi-shaded spot for them to eat it. It was the funniest thing because a crowd started to form when they were eating it. People were taking videos and pictures.
Here's a big ol basket of balut.

In the mid-afternoon. I was craving a snack myself. I opted for Suman and a melon juice. That melon juice was the best thing I have ever tasted. It was sweet and refreshing. We've juiced a lot of cantelopes at home but none of that melon juice compared to this filipino style melon juice.

My favorite thing from Philfest hands down was a cup of Taho. A warm snack made with a brown sugar syrup, silken tofu and sago ( tapioca pearls) The last time I had Taho was 15 years ago while visiting the Philippines and it was everything I remembered and then some.

All in all Philfest was a success. I ate everything I could see, enjoyed some folk dancing and caught up with family. Philfest 2015 has come and gone but If you're ever in Tampa in April be sure to check out Philfest!

Check out the Philippine Cultural Foundation for future events.
Philippine Cultural Foundation