The Filipino Snack You Would Chase the Vendor Down the Street For

Merienda is the meal between meals, and in the Philippines it is taken seriously. There is one mid-morning and another mid-afternoon, and for a lot of people the second one is the best part of the day.

This bracket draws from three places. The first is the street cart: fishballs and kwek-kwek out of the same wok, isaw and betamax off the grill, banana cue still sticky with brown sugar. The second is the bakery and the pasalubong shop, where cookies like uraro, puto seco, and silvanas come in plastic tubs meant to be carried home. The third is everything in between: lumpia, siomai, siopao, and the steamed and boiled things somebody's lola still makes better than any shop.

A cart snack and a bakery cookie do not compete on the same terms. One is about heat, sauce, and eating it right there on the curb. The other has to survive a bus ride. Expect early rounds where both are great and you have to decide what kind of hungry you are.

There are fifty snacks here. Some are national, some belong to one province, and a couple are dares.