Many Filipinos have fond memories of turon because it’s something we grew up eating. It’s a sweet and crunchy Filipino snack that’s also commonly eaten for dessert or sold as street food in the Philippines. There’s no better way to start this article on popular Filipino snacks than with turon, a delicious dish made with thin slices of saba banana (banana cultivar) coated in brown sugar and then deep-fried in lumpia wrapper. It can vary from household to household but these are some of the most common. There are many different types of Filipino snacks that people enjoy for merienda. It’s as common an eating habit in the Philippines as breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Growing up in the Philippines, you just expect to have merienda everyday, even if you’re visiting a friend’s house over the weekend. Even Filipinos who grew up in the diaspora are familiar with it because it’s a custom that their parents likely took with them. Most if not all Filipinos who were raised in the Philippines grew up eating merienda.

It’s a light snack that can be savory or sweet and is meant to tide you over until dinner. In Filipino cuisine, merienda is typically enjoyed sometime in the mid-afternoon, around 3 or 4PM. Being a colony of Spain for over 300 years, it’s clear that Filipinos inherited the tradition from the Spanish though it’s a custom that’s beloved by many cultures around the world. It’s a food tradition that’s practiced in different countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, Argentina, Croatia, Morocco, and Brazil. The word merienda literally translates to “snack”. Photo by asimojet WHAT IS FILIPINO MERIENDA?

Exemplified meaning in tagalog