Sort of a mixed plate if my plate was full of Filipino food. If you are active on social media, you may have seen how popular Ilocos Empanadas are. There is a well known place in Hawaii that sells it but it’s out of a house and you have to call in your order on Wednesday night to pick up during the weekend. Apparently it’s hard to even get through the phones on Wednesday so I am good. Well I went to the Marketplace in City Square the other day for produce and just so happened to see it at one of the vendor stalls! Total twist of luck. I don’t recall a big sign for the vendor but it could possibly be Pinoy One. If I’m wrong, please let me know and I can edit this.

So what is Ilocos Empanada? I pulled this from Google…Ilocos empanada is a famous Filipino deep-fried street food from the Ilocos region, featuring a thin, crispy, bright orange rice flour shell. It is typically stuffed with savory savory Vigan longganisa (garlic pork sausage), shredded green papaya, mung beans, and a whole egg.

Took quite a few bites for me to get down to the egg! I knew it was the empanada in their case because they put each empanada in its own paper bag and of course it’s all greasy lol. They serve it with a vinegar dipping sauce. So was it worth the hype? Ehhh…I think this was $6.50 and it was just alright. Not super flavorful by itself or even with the sauce. Maybe I gotta try it from the super popular place…glad to have tried but was just alright.

I can’t resist pancit so I got an order of it from the same stall. Bummer of the year, a flavorless pancit. How can? You look at it and it looks full-bodied and seasoned! It wasn’t. I was this close to just drowning it in hot sauce or something but didn’t. It’s all too bad!