Filipino Food vs Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese Food
How Filipino food differs from Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese food: sour and salty over heat, stir-fried pancit over noodle soup, and three dishes to compare at Barrios in Halifax.
Barrios Restaurant & Bar
10/17/20264 min read
Filipino Food vs Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese Food: How They Differ
If you know Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese food and you are trying Filipino food for the first time, the easiest way in is to compare. Some things will feel familiar straight away. Others work the opposite way to what you expect, like a peanut sauce that is savoury rather than sweet.
This is a plain guide to the differences, from Barrios Kitchen & Bar, the Filipino restaurant at 1571 Barrington Street in downtown Halifax. It is not a ranking. Each of these cuisines is huge and regional, so treat everything here as a starting point rather than a rule.
The short version
Thai food often leads with chili heat, fresh herbs and a balance of sweet, sour, salty and spicy in one bite.
Vietnamese food often leads with fresh herbs, clear broths and light, bright dipping sauces.
The Cantonese-style Chinese food most Canadians know often leads with soy, ginger, garlic and the wok.
Filipino food leads with sour and salty. Vinegar, garlic and soy do most of the work, and in most dishes the chili is on the side rather than in the pot.
Filipino food vs Thai food: sour, heat and herbs
If one flavour marks Filipino cooking, it is sour. Vinegar goes into the pot and onto the table. Calamansi, a small citrus, gets squeezed over noodles and grilled meat. Sinigang, the best-known Filipino sour soup, is soured with tamarind most often, though guava, green mango and other fruit are used too. Sinigang is not on our regular menu, but the chef sometimes puts it on at Sunday brunch.
Thai food uses sour too, from lime and tamarind, but usually alongside chili and a handful of fresh herbs. Filipino food uses fewer fresh herbs, and the sour sits next to salt and garlic instead. It tastes sharper and more garlicky, with less herb.
Heat is the other big difference. Most Filipino dishes are not chili-hot. Where Thai cooking often builds heat into the dish, Filipino cooking tends to leave it to you, in a small dish of vinegar with chili. There are exceptions, like the coconut and chili cooking of the Bicol region, and some dishes, including our sisig, have chili in them. But if you like Thai food for the heat, you will probably find Filipino food milder.
Filipino vs Vietnamese food: noodles and broth
Vietnamese food is famous for noodle soups like pho, noodles in a clear broth with fresh herbs, though it has plenty of dry noodle dishes too. The Filipino noodles most people meet first, pancit, are stir-fried, with a savoury sauce clinging to the noodles. The Philippines has noodle soups as well, like mami and batchoy, but pancit is the everyday one.
At Barrios you can taste the difference between two stir-fried styles side by side. Pancit bihon, thin rice vermicelli in a light savoury sauce, and pad thai, rice noodles in pad thai sauce with roasted peanuts, are both $17, and both come with your choice of grilled chicken, crispy pork belly or shrimp. Order one of each and share.
Is Filipino food like Chinese food?
In places. Chinese communities, mostly Hokkien, have shaped Filipino cooking for centuries. Pancit, lumpia spring rolls and siomai dumplings all trace back to Chinese cooking, and the names do too.
The difference is in the seasoning. A Filipino pancit is often finished with calamansi, and lumpia come with a sweet chili or vinegar dip. The shape is familiar. The taste leans Filipino.
Filipino food also carries layers the others do not share in the same way: more than three centuries of Spanish rule, which gave it dishes like caldereta, a tomato-based beef stew, and leche flan, and an American period that brought spaghetti and hot dogs, which Filipinos then made sweet and their own.
Rice with everything
Rice is central in all four cuisines. The Filipino habit is rice with almost every meal, from garlic fried rice at breakfast to rice alongside noodles at lunch. Many dishes are seasoned strongly because they are meant to be eaten with plain rice.
Three dishes to compare at Barrios in Halifax
Kare-kare, $22. If you know Thai peanut sauce, this is the contrast to try. The peanut sauce is thick and savoury, not sweet, and it is mild on purpose. It comes with bagoong, a salty shrimp paste, so you salt each bite yourself. The classic version uses oxtail. Ours is made with crispy pork belly, bok choy, eggplant and green beans, with steamed rice.
Chicken inasal, $22. Grilled chicken marinated in citrus, garlic and spices, with garlic rice, a soy vinegar dip and pickled daikon and carrots. Next to Thai or Vietnamese grilled chicken, it has less herb and more sour.
Pork sisig, $20. Chopped roasted pork with soy sauce and chili, served sizzling on a cast iron plate with a raw egg on top that you mix through while it is still hot, then a squeeze of lemon. There is no close match for it in the other three cuisines.
Prices shown are from our current menu and may change.
Visit Barrios
We are at 1571 Barrington Street, open Tuesday to Saturday from 11:30 AM, until 9 PM Tuesday to Thursday and 11 PM on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is Filipino brunch from 10:30 AM to 4 PM, and we are closed on Mondays. Book a table or call 902-444-2515. The full menu is online.
Quick answers
Is Filipino food like Chinese food?
In places. Pancit, siomai and lumpia come from Chinese cooking, but Filipino food is seasoned with more vinegar and sour, and it also carries Spanish and American influences.
Is Filipino food spicier than Thai food?
Usually not. Filipino food is more sour and salty than hot, and the chili tends to come on the side.
How is Filipino food different from Vietnamese food?
Vietnamese food leans on fresh herbs and broths. Filipino food leans on vinegar, garlic and soy, uses fewer fresh herbs, and its everyday noodles, pancit, are stir-fried rather than served in soup.
What should someone who likes Thai food order at Barrios?
Try kare-kare for the peanut sauce contrast, and order the pancit bihon next to the pad thai to compare the noodles.