Turu- turo (pointing out the Pinoy taste)

“Turu- turo” or Street foods. I think the best way I would define street foods in the Philippines are, affordable and readily available at all streets and corners. It is ready-to-eat food or drink sold along the street or other public places like schools, churches, parks, office buildings, or any other place with a sidewalk, even in malls. Everywhere you look you will find crowded people eating along the streets and corners, because prices of commodities are getting high, many Filipinos look for cheapest food, and at the prices ranging from three pesos(P3) to twenty pesos(P20) you can now easily satisfy your hunger somewhere out there.

I can also say that street foods are Filipinos addiction; it is a mouth watering pleasure that is quickly satisfying and perhaps and most importantly affordable. It is an alternative to restaurant dining or meal that can also fill your stomach without spending too much.

Foods play an important part of Filipino culture. They say street foods are often reflecting to our culture, because we Filipinos really love to eat even when we’re happy, sad, anxious, bored and angry, sometimes we just trip too. While the infinite number of unusual restaurants or street stalls ready to serve us to satisfy our hungry and cravings.

Each street food activity/enterprise is generally small in size, requires relatively simple skills, basic facilities and small amounts of capital, yet they are very numerous and have considerable potential for generating income and employment. It is a good remedy for those who are unemployed because of difficulty of attaining jobs in the formal sector. The income derived is enough to supply their daily needs.

In my opinion, I think we need to acknowledge the importance of informal sector, even though some of us thought that it symbolize as a lack of our economic development, but we need to understand that not all Filipinos are in a good way of living. Selling foods along the streets create a big help for the low-income families to support their daily needs and it would be worse off if there were no street food vendors to serve fast in inexpensive foods. So let’s support street foods.