Pancit

The word pancit (or pansit) comes from the Hokkien words pian-e-sit, meaning something that is conveniently cooked. How this food of convenience came to mean only noodles is lost in the mix of history. What is more salient is that Filipinos saw the potential of the noodle, turning it into dishes made with ingredients readily available to them. The pancit Malabon, named after a fishing port north of Manila, is made with rice noodles topped with oysters, squid, and mussels. Inland towns tend to favor pancit luglug, which are rice noodles with a shrimp juice and ground pork sauce, garnished with fried garlic, fried tofu, hard-boiled egg, crushed chicharron, smoked fish, chopped scallions, and boiled shrimp.