Cooking from Pulutan! Filipino Bar Bites — February 2026

Pulutan! Filipino Bar Bites, Appetizers and Street Eats by Marvin Gapultos collects the food Filipinos eat while drinking, which is close enough to our whole philosophy that the pick made itself. Almost every chalkboard at the event matched a recipe title word for word.

Corn-Dogged Quail Eggs (Kwek-Kwek)

Quail eggs in corn dog batter. A Filipino street food staple, and the first thing to disappear that night.

• 2 dozen quail eggs
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 large chicken egg, beaten
• ¼ to ½ cup beer, preferably a pale lager
• Canola oil, for frying

Fried Calamari with Crispy Purple Yam Crust

The ube flour turns the crust a colour that had the whole table taking photos before anyone touched it.

• 1 lb cleaned fresh squid, tubes and tentacles
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup purple yam (ube) flour
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Coarse sea salt
• Chopped parsley and calamansi (or lemon) wedges, to serve
• Canola oil, for frying

Hot Wings with Fish Sauce and Calamansi Caramel

The glaze here is the book’s Patis-Mansi Arnibal, a fish sauce and calamansi caramel that is worth making on its own.

Wings:

• 2½ lbs chicken wings
• ¼ cup Fish Sauce and Calamansi Caramel (below)
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Green Mango Hot Sauce (also in the book) or sambal oelek
• 1 tablespoon each chopped chives and sesame seeds
• Canola oil, for frying

Fish Sauce and Calamansi Caramel:

• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 4 tablespoons fish sauce
• 4 tablespoons fresh calamansi or lime juice

Grilled Pork Belly Skewers with Coffee and Ginger Beer Glaze

Coffee and ginger beer in a marinade sounds like a stunt until you taste it.

• 2 lbs fresh skinless pork belly
• 12 oz ginger beer or ginger ale
• 1 cup strong brewed coffee
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2-inch piece fresh ginger, cut into matchsticks
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

From the night

Everything else on the table came out of the same book: chicken-fried eggplant, beer and Spam mac and cheese, pineapple pigs in a blanket, sea salt and vinegar peanuts, sautéed mushrooms with lemongrass, grilled tomato and green onion skewers on toast, beer-marinated chicken skewers with a shrimp paste rub, and beer and peanut brittle for dessert.