Festive recipes to wow your friends and family this Christmas.

Cook This for Christmas

Truffle oil gets a lot of bad rap. Chefs hate it for its synthetic flavor, replicating none of the complexity that makes real truffles so special. Anthony Bourdain had 

 to say about it; Martha Stewart downright calls it 

 abused by lazy cooks as a shortcut to fancier-tasting food.

But fresh truffles are ridiculously expensive, difficult to acquire, and a hassle to store. If you’re a home cook who’s a sucker for that delicious earthy aroma, truffle oil is your best bet.

Truffle oil is available in most grocery stores. You'll find two kinds: White truffle oil has a delicate fragrance, while black truffle oil has a stronger, earthier musk. It generally follows that the more expensive the truffle oil, the better. Buy it in small quantities.

Now that you have truffle oil in your pantry, remember:

 Truffle oil is a finishing oil, and should be drizzled in small amounts right before serving. Heat will burn off all that aroma you paid for!

Every time you use too much truffle oil, a truffle oil hater is born. Too much of it can quickly overwhelm a dish. Use truffle oil with a light hand: start with a teaspoon, taste, then add more if needed. (You probably won't.)

What pairs well with truffle oil? Everything in this pasta: bacon, mushrooms, cheese, and 

Truffle Cream Pasta with Bacon

A drizzle of truffle oil makes this creamy bacon-mushroom pasta taste like a million bucks.

 in this Filipino take on banana pudding. This version adapts Magnolia Bakery's 

 with local butter cookies and a turon-inspired indulgence: chunky caramelized 

 bananas and langka (jackfruit), cooked with a bit of brandy for a fun wink of flavor.

Headline Title

Remember when cupcakes were everywhere in the early 2000s? You can thank M Bakery—or 

The New York-based neighborhood bakery shot to fame after appearing on an episode of Sex and the City. Fans and tourists waited in long lines for their own pink-frosted 

 would jump on the trend and bring it to the Philippines with 

In 2018, Magnolia Bakery opened its first Manila branch as M Bakery. Why the name change? So you won't confuse it with a certain 

After the cupcakes, everyone knows Magnolia Bakery for their second most popular dessert offering: the 

Banana pudding is a classic dessert from the American South. Similar to 

 it's a chilled, no-bake dessert made with layers of fruit, cream, and biscuits—sliced bananas, creamy vanilla custard, and vanilla wafers—in a glass dish. Some home recipes will top it off with whipped cream or toasted meringue. 

How to Make M Bakery-Style Banana Pudding

Every banana pudding needs three things: 

This turon-inspired recipe replaces the plain sliced bananas with something more exciting: 

 (jackfruit) caramelized in brandy and sugar. Sweet, jammy, and a little chunky.

The steps for the vanilla pudding come straight from the source: the 

While the authenticity helps, simplicity is the recipe's bigger draw. The pudding comes together with just four(!) ingredients:

You can find Jell-O instant vanilla pudding mix in your supermarket's baking aisle, usually next to the gelatin. If you can't get your hands on a box, you can make vanilla pudding 

 with eggs, milk, sugar, and a bit of cornstarch.

Banana pudding purists will insist on using Nabisco 

—no substitutions. (Torey echoes the same sentiment in her cookbook.)

Since Nilla Wafers aren't available in the Philippines, we use the next best thing: 

 Any plainly-flavored crunchy cookie will work here. Once chilled, they soften and take on a more cakey texture. Save a few crushed pieces for garnishing on top.

Caramelized Banana & Langka

Vanilla Pudding

For Serving

Make Caramelized Banana & Langka Layer

Make Vanilla Pudding

Assemble Banana Pudding

M Bakery-Style Caramelized Banana and Langka Pudding 

Whip up Magnolia Bakery's famous banana pudding at home with a local twist: butter cookies and a turon-inspired combo of saba and langka.

 crispy pata uses pig's trotters. This cut contains a lot more chewy and sticky collagen that creates a delicious texture when fried.

 doesn’t require you to debone the meat. Instead, you purchase pre-cut pork leg and boil it for a few hours. Once soft, you can pull out and remove the bones with your hand for a much easier time.

Boneless crispy pata is much easier to cook than a whole pork leg, too. With cut-up pieces, you maximize the surface area for the meat to get crispy. However, smaller cuts also mean that the meat will come out drier than when fried whole. So this version will feel less meaty, and much more like pulutan.

Crispy Pata

Dipping Sauce

Boneless Crispy Pata

No deboning required for this boneless crispy pata. If you boil your pata just right, the meat turns soft enough for the bones to slip out. 

 sauce into a versatile kare-kare compound butter. Once hardened in the fridge, you can slice and use it however you like:

Toss it with meat, seafood, and vegetables.

Spread it over crusty bread and crackers as an appetizer.

To make compound butter, you mix your flavorings of choice—herbs, spices, seasonings, condiments—into softened butter. You then reshape it into a log with parchment paper or cling wrap, then refrigerate it until solid and firm. A classic type of compound butter is 

 which is flavored with parsley and lemon juice.

This recipe is as simple as unsalted butter + kare-kare sauce. You can use leftover or extra sauce from the stew, or whip up a quick version with peanut butter, bagoong, atsuete seeds, and shrimp stock, as we do.

Kare-Kare Compound Butter

Your new pantry favorite: Kare-kare compound butter. Melt it to flavor meat and vegetables, or slather it over bread and crackers as a savory spread.

 turns the cheeseburger from a solo affair into a shareable snack. Simply roll Worcestershire-seasoned ground beef, crunchy veg, and a slice of American cheese in lumpia wrappers, then deep-fry until golden.

For the dip, combine two burger condiments: ketchup and mayo. Add pickle relish for chunkiness, plus a squeeze of lemon for a bright zip. Serve as is, or lean into the 

 theme further with lettuce leaves to wrap your lumpia with, Vietnamese 

Cheeseburger Filling

Burger Sauce

Lumpia

Prepare Cheeseburger Filling

Prepare Burger Sauce

Assemble and Fry Lumpia

Cheeseburger Lumpia with Burger Sauce

A cheeseburger, but crispy. Stuff your lumpia with ground beef and American cheese, then serve it with a tart ketchup-mayo dip.

Imagine two of your favorite things combined: buttered seafood and fried snacks. Well, Omakase did just that when it came up with it's Oyster Butteryaki—a battered, then fried oyster appetizer dressed in butter sauce. We've hacked the dish so you can make it at home; time to say goodbye to boring steamed oysters. (We don't mean that, steamed oysters are the bomb.)

The rice flour and soda water combo is essential to make a light, crispy shell for the oyster. (Not to be mistaken for the actual shell it naturally comes with.) It goes without saying that fresh oysters are a key part of this dish, as it adds a subtle sweetness to the slightly salty butter mixture. Though you can always dip it into the ponzu dipping sauce to balance out the flavors.

Butteryaki Sauce

Fried Oysters

Omakase-Inspired Oysters Butteryaki

Before the surge of modern Spanish concepts, your lolos and lolas went to 

 for the cuisine. This recipe hacks their beloved Lengua Sevillana: stewed ox tongue in sherry sauce. Although we couldn’t quite get the color, the taste and consistency cuts pretty close. Alba fans will adore it.

Ox Tongue

Sauce

Alba-Inspired Stewed Ox Tongue (Lengua Sevillana)

No matter how often you eat at Manam, their Crispy Pancit Palabok will always be a sight to behold. It's a festive sight—a mountain of crispy noodles slowly collapsing under lava-like orange shrimp sauce—that's as celebratory as a candle-lit cake.

This recipe delivers both the visual and gustatory satisfaction of Manam's popular palabok. The sauce packs a strong shrimp-y flavor, but the mix of noodles, seafood, and chicharon balances it out. Use spicy chicharon for added heat!

Palabok Sauce

Crispy Pancit

Seafood

Toppings

Manam-Inspired Crispy Pancit Palabok

Cyma’s Roka Salata makes for a great crowd-pleaser with the sweet, lively flavors of sundried tomatoes, candied walnuts, and a honey-balsamic vinaigrette. Arugula, tossed with romaine, provides a peppery bite. Make it as a starter or as a light meal.

Salad

Candied Walnuts

Greek Vinaigrette

Make the Candied Walnuts

Make the Vinaigrette

Assemble the Salad

Cyma-Style Roka Salata with Candied Walnuts

Cyma's beloved Roka Salata is a sweet-salty affair of arugula, sundried tomatoes, candied walnuts, and fresh parmesan.

 penne, gets its name from the melted mozzarella in the dish. When stretched into long strands, the cheese resembles 

This hack comes together with surprising ease. Cook the pasta, make the creamy tomato sauce and add shredded mozzarella—that's it. True to its name, each forkful is connected by a web of stringy cheese. Serve warm before it loses its stretch.

Pasta

Pasta Sauce

Cibo-Style Penne Al Telefono

Our Cibo Penne al Telefono hack makes a simple but hearty pasta dish, combining creamy tomato sauce with stretchy mozzarella cheese.

The humble puto makes a great blank canvas for different flavors. This recipe infuses the Filipino treat with the flavors of coconut milk and muscovado sugar. Like a cake, you can check if your puto is ready by inserting a toothpick in the center—it should come out clean. After that, you can turn off the steamer, put the lid on, and let the puto rest for five minutes.

Coconut-Muscovado Puto

The simplicity of puto makes it a great canvas for flavor. This version keeps it Filipino with coconut and muscovado sugar.

Crispy pata looks deceivingly simple: it's just deep-fried pork hock, you might think. Technically, that's true. But there's a lot of work that gets you to a perfect crispy pata—one that has tender, flavorful meat and crispy, airy skin.

Best Crispy Pata

 in Filipino cuisine, lumpiang shanghai is arguably the most popular. The slender spring rolls, filled with seasoned pork and vegetable mixture, are deep-fried until crisp and golden brown. They're easy to make and even easier to eat, especially when served with sweet and sour sauce.

Our best lumpiang shanghai recipe uses large lumpia wrappers instead of small ones. Instead of folding individual lumpia, you roll up a large, long one that you freeze and slice into shorter pieces. Don't worry about the exposed filling on the sides—they form a crisp, flavorful meat crust when deep-fried.

Best Crispy Lumpiang Shanghai

Our lumpiang shanghai recipe makes crispy spring rolls filled with meaty, well-seasoned pork that's bouncy and slightly crunchy at the edges.

A lot of people are intimidated by leche flan. The custard has an undeserved bad rep, especially among amateur cooks. And we get it—making caramel, getting the right flan texture, and having to use specific molds aren't very beginner-friendly. But the truth is that leche flan is actually pretty easy to make. 

This recipe makes it even simpler with some foolproof tips that ensure that your flan comes out flavorful (and not too sweet), creamy, and dense—without any special tricks nor hard-to-find ingredients.

Best Filipino Leche Flan

This foolproof leche flan recipe promises flans that are rich, creamy, and smooth thanks to some key ingredients and an easy baking method!

Mamou has been a well-reputed institution for a food experience that hardly disappoints. One of their consistent staple among patrons is their Lorenzo Truffle Cream pasta, a dish that has made appetites dance in rejoice—it makes you forget about the existence of conscious eating. 

factor, unlike other cream-based pasta dishes. It only takes six simple ingredients to let its true flavors shine and make your eyes roll once the devouring begins.

Mamou Lorenzo Truffle Cream Pasta

If you’ve only had tahong (mussels) at restaurants, they can look intimidating to cook at home. But they’re affordable, nutritious, and very easy to cook, especially if you’re using the frozen kind. Here we toss them in a garlicky butter sauce that you’ll want to spoon over rice. Consider it your gateway recipe to a lifetime of home-cooked tahong.

Garlic Butter Tahong (Mussels)

Home-cooked tahong may seem intimidating, but we've got this affordable and simple recipe that's perfectly paired with a garlic butter sauce.

Glutinous rice flour gives Ilocano royal bibingka a bouncier texture than traditional bibingka, similar to Hawaiian butter mochi. After baking, the cakes are brushed with melted butter and topped with grated cheese and white sugar. A quick broil turns the topping into a toasty, cheesy crown. We use a mix of cheddar and salty Parmesan to complement the sweet cake.

Topping

Vigan Royal Bibingka Cupcakes

Unlike regular bibingka, this version from Vigan, Ilocos Sur is made with glutinous rice flour.

When you hear shawarma, all you can think of are large chunks of assembled meat cooked on a spit roast. You'd think, there's no way you'll be able to recreate something like that at home. But this shawarma roast chicken recipe proves that you can create this spice-heavy dish sans any special tool.

The result is a smokey roasted chicken that's juicy and packed with flavor. It also works well with spiced rice, pita or flatbread, and lots of garlic sauce.

Shawarma-Spiced Roast Chicken

Don't worry, this shawarma-spiced roast chicken recipe doesn't require a spit roast.

If you're craving lasagna in small doses, these Banapple-style lasagna roll-ups will do the trick. No need to layer pasta or commit to a full tray. Instead, roll up some cooked lasagna sheets with a rich cream cheese-parsley filling, smother with a chunky tomato-based sauce, and bake with melty mozzarella cheese. Snack on them solo or with a side of garlic bread.

This recipe uses lasagna sheets from Doña Elena, a brand known for its range of quality Mediterranean ingredients. Think bottled fish like sardines and anchovies; canned tuna, olives and capers; and pasta-making must-haves like pesto sauce, tomatoes, and olive oil.

Doña Elena’s pasta line is not just fancy marketing. Thanks to traditional methods and Italy-sourced ingredients, this artisan-quality pasta really does cook to al dente perfection: firm, toothsome, with just the right amount of bite.

 widely considered as the best flour for pastas.

Crafted with traditional bronze die-cut techniques, the pasta has a rough and porous texture that helps sauces cling better.

And if you’re not making lasagna, Doña Elena Al Dente pasta is available in other basic pasta shapes like Fettuccine, Penne Rigate, Fusilli, and Linguine.

 and Tiktok. Shop their Al Dente pasta line and other products on 

Lasagna

Tomato Sauce

Cream Cheese Filling

Banapple-Style Lasagna Roll-ups

This fun Banapple-inspired take on lasagna takes less space and is easier to assemble.

The best days during Yuletide season falls in between Christmas and New Year—everyone gets to rest and we're all still lingering from all the leftover food from Noche Buena + the heightened excitement for Media Noche food. Lechon is no stranger to every Filipino's leftover list. Aside from frying and transforming it into paksiw, we present to you—lechon sisig.

 It's even got that creamy texture sans the mayo, all done in 30 minutes. We did it with leftover sarsa, in case you're wondering how to use that up too.

Sisig

Lechon Sisig

There are a few things that really remind one of Christmas: around the world there’s eggnog, hot chocolate, mulled wine, peppermint candy canes -- and one of the most staple things in every table every holiday season, none other than an ice-cold bottle of Coca-Cola to complete the tablespread.

For over 100 years here in the Philippines, Coca-Cola has been refreshing Filipinos with a variety of beverages – from your favorite juice drink to your most trusted water brand to dairy to low and no calorie beverages and of course, your most loved sparkling soda--a staple in every celebration. Just like the recently launched Coca-Cola Christmas video, Chimney, the real magic of Christmas is celebrating the wonderful moments of togetherness and embracing the holiday spirit through human connection.

Peppermint Coke Float

This Coke-inspired peppermint float recipe is easy to make. All you need is chocolate sauce, peppermint, vanilla ice cream, and Coca-Cola.

This recipe marries bibingka with another comfort dish—waffles. A simple homemade bibingka batter comes together with rice flour, brown sugar, and coconut milk. We also decided to brighten it up ourselves with some salted caramel, using some salted eggs to bring out more of the caramel’s buttery flavor.

Since you’re working with rice flour, the waffles will be on the richer side. For crispier waffles, add 1 to 2 minutes to the cooking time.

To Finish

One-Bowl Bibingka Waffles with Salted Egg and Caramel

We'll bet you've still got leftover ham from Noche Buena. Sure, you can eat it as is, but if you're looking for a way to change it up, this simple brown sugar ham is a great recipe that uses it up in a way that still gives it flavor suited for a Pinoy Christmas.

The trickiest part here is making sure not to burn the glaze. Just follow our foolproof instructions, and you'll end up with a dish that's sweet, tangy, and even slightly smokey to match those thinly sliced pieces of cured pork.

Brown Sugar Leftover Ham

This brown sugar ham recipe is an easy way to use up leftover ham, giving it a simple yet special flavor suited for a Pinoy Christmas.

Chicken pastel is basically chicken pot pie in stew form. Some versions stay true to the name (pastel means "pie") by baking it with a pastry crust. But household recipes like ours stick to a creamy, hearty one-pot stew. Don't let the ingredients list discourage you—it's supposed to be a party in a casserole!

Chicken

Pastel

Best Chicken Pastel

Our best chicken pastel recipe promises a well-balanced dish of flavors and textures, with nothing overpowering the whole dish.

Crispy liempo and pork belly chips have become one of the most omnipresent snacks at markets and bazaars. Is it the modern-day sisig, an after-hours appetizer that is as snackable as chicharon? Make it at home, as thin and earth-shatteringly crisp as you like, or as thick-cut and moreish as possible.

This recipe calls for 3mm slices which turn into paper-thin wisps of porky fat with a crunchy rind, with an addition of sweet-sour mango vinegar. The dipping sauce makes this better than any store-bought version, hands down.

Pork Belly Chips

Mango Vinegar Dip

Make Pork Belly Chips

Make Mango Vinegar

Crispy Pork Belly Chips with Mango Vinegar Dip

Pairing these crispy pork belly chips with mango vinegar makes it better than the bazaar-bought stuff.

Embutido, the grand Filipino meatloaf, can either inspire wonder or horror. It depends on how you feel about the "weird" stuff—raisins, boiled eggs, hotdogs, pickle relish—separately and together. Then you have to eat it cold? If you don't like embutido, we get it. That's why we made this recipe for you.

This recipe dials it down on the stuff you hate, creating a meat-packed loaf that tastes like a cross between a Pinoy burger and 

 filling. Is this embutido blasphemy? Maybe. But if it gets you to love the Filipino meatloaf, it's all worth it.

No-Raisins Filipino Meatloaf (Embutido)

Hate raisins or hard-boiled eggs? This embutido recipe is for you.