Pepper's Food Hacks

This isn't a Peach Mango Pie hack so much as a tribute, for several reasons. First: That crunchy-cornered Jollibee pie crust is hard to replicate at home. As we did with our 

 we resorted to ready-made puff pastry dough. Not the same, but it's easy, convenient, and 

Second: A hack implies accuracy. If we stayed true to the fast food pie, you wouldn't find a lot of fruit in the filling—you might find that a Peach Mango Pie is more of a deep-fried juice box than an actual fruit-filled pie. This homemade version has an interior rich with chunks of peaches and 

 the way God intended. The dash of cinnamon is optional (we like it); the salt is not—a pinch rounds out the sweet, tangy filling just right.

Third: Everyone knows the Peach Mango Pie's current size is disappointing. Why make a puny two-bite treat when you can have a proper hand pie? That's the good thing about homemade non-accurate hacks: You can go hard on the wish fulfilment.

But you know what we did replicate? That scorching hot first bite into lava-like peach mango filling. Because it's not a Peach Mango Pie if you don't burn your mouth.

Peach Mango Filling

Pie Pockets

Make Peach Mango Filling

Make Pie Pockets

Fry Pie Pockets

Jollibee-Inspired Peach Mango Pie Pockets

While we can't hack Jollibee's pie crust, the next best thing—store-bought puff pastry dough—makes rich, flaky pie pockets bursting with peach-mango filling.

 is a dark horse in the cutthroat local chocolate cake arena. It looks less like your 

 Big Al's bakes their cakes in aluminum tins, then tops them off to the brim with chocolate icing.

And that chocolate icing—the best part of Big Al's! Imagine McDonald's hot fudge, or the ganache draped across the 

 of your childhood, but extra thick, super gooey, and deeply chocolatey. Pair that with a tender chocolate cake and it must be what pure happiness tastes like—and why Big Al's is one of our most requested food hacks.

You’ll notice that this recipe mentions three types of cocoa: unsweetened cocoa, Dutch processed cocoa, and black cocoa.

 is the classic, standard-issue cocoa powder you’ll find in groceries, from Ricoa to Hershey’s.

 is cocoa that has been dutched or treated with alkali, giving it a deeper, less bitter flavor and darker color. Some bakers prefer it for its more chocolatey flavor.

 is extra-Dutch processed cocoa with a much darker color and mellowed out chocolate flavor. It's what gives Oreo cookies their pitch-black color and distinct flavor. Black cocoa is optional in this recipe—we use it to achieve that dark Big Al’s-colored frosting without resorting to food coloring.

If you have to buy one type of cocoa for this recipe, get Dutch processed cocoa. Otherwise, unsweetened cocoa powder will serve you just fine.

Chocolate Cake

Hot Fudge Chocolate Icing

Make Chocolate Cake

Make Hot Fudge Chocolate Icing

Headline Title

This recipe was originally published in December 2021. It has been updated with adjustments and rewritten steps.

Big Al's-Inspired Chocolate Cake with Hot Fudge Icing

This Big Al's-style chocolate cake is all about the decadent hot fudge-like frosting.

You won’t find the usual suspects in Razon’s 

 ice cream, no colorful beans and jellies. This Kapampangan version keeps it simple with only three things: macapuno, caramelized bananas, and 

 Then there’s the shaved ice, ground finely like snow, soaking in a rich, creamy milk.

That creamy milk base is what makes Razon’s so special. This homemade version recreates it with the help of extra-milky Nestlé Carnation Evap.

How to Make Razon’s-Inspired Halo-Halo at Home

With just three components—chewy macapuno, caramelized bananas, leche flan slices—plus shaved ice and milk, Razon’s halo-halo is pretty easy to recreate at home. Much simpler than your standard maximalist halo-halo, for sure. Here’s what you need:

Unless you’re blessed with fresh macapuno, store-bought commercial macapuno works just fine for this recipe.

Starchy saba bananas hold their shape better when cooked in brown sugar. Vanilla extract plus a pinch of salt makes the caramel flavors pop.

Creamy Milk Base with Nestlé Carnation Evap

Nestlé Carnation Evap’s creamier, milkier formulation works perfectly for this recipe. Combined with equal parts carabao’s milk, it achieves a deliciously rich, milky-namnam milk base as good as Razon’s.

It's difficult to replicate Razon's snow-like ice at home without expensive equipment. But don't let that stop you from making this halo-halo at home!

 (manual or electric), use a powerful blender with an ice-crushing option. Pulse ice cubes in small batches until you get a fine consistency. If your ice gets stuck, break up the clumps with a spoon or add a bit of milk to keep it moving.

The best halo-halo ingredient! Take the convenient route and buy your leche flan so you can go straight to slicing. If you want to make it from scratch, get extra packs of Nestlé Carnation Evap for our recipe 

Caramelized Bananas

Creamy Milk

Assembly

Razon's-Inspired Extra Milky Halo-Halo

No Razon's in your area? Make the extra milky Kapampangan halo-halo at home with caramelized saba and Nestlé Carnation Evap.

 is so iconic, you can recognize it at first glance. It looks like an American roast chicken dinner with Filipino sensibilities: kamote (sweet potato) fries instead of roast potatoes; banana ketchup instead of gravy; and a bronze, crispy whole chicken that's been deep-fried, not baked.

What makes Max's chicken special is its lack of batter or breading—it's deep-fried dry, with just a coat of patis for flavor and color. The skin emerges crisp and beautifully browned, paired with a succulent interior.

Sadly, those who grew up with Max's might find 

 with their chicken today. If you share the same sentiments, this recipe brings back the Max's chicken you know and love. No dry, bland birds here—just juicy, flavorful chicken with that familiar salty, crispy skin. 

To make Max’s-style fried chicken at home, you need to butterfly, poach, and dry your chicken a day before frying.

To butterfly or spatchcock your chicken means to remove the backbone and press the bird flat. You’ll often find this technique in grilled and roasted chicken recipes.

Max's doesn't butterfly their bird, but it will make cooking at home a lot easier. By flattening the chicken, you’re laying the meat out in an even layer, allowing it to cook more evenly. It’s much easier to handle while frying than a whole chicken, too.

Poached Chicken = Flavorful, Properly Cooked Meat

Poaching does three wonderful things for your fried chicken:

 Poaching par-cooks the chicken and reduces the risk of undercooked meat while frying—a 

 Pumped with salt and aromatics, the poaching liquid seasons the chicken, gives it color, and keeps it moist.

 Poaching tightens the skin around the chicken while rendering out some of its fat, which can get in the way of crispy skin.

This step is super important! To achieve crispy chicken, you want as little moisture as possible on the skin. The best way to thoroughly dry out a chicken is to let it sit overnight, uncovered, in the fridge.

After blanching your chicken, brush the surface down with patis and finish with a rub of salt, pepper, and garlic powder (if using). Set the chicken on a tray and place it on your fridge’s bottom shelf, uncovered. Your chicken should be darker in color and dry to the touch the next day.

The one thing as important as the chicken itself is the banana ketchup—it’s not Max’s-style fried chicken without it. The restaurants use Jufran, and so should you.

Real Max’s fans will customize their banana ketchup with Worcestershire sauce for tang, and a bit of Knorr liquid seasoning for that distinct Pinoy umami.

Once you have your chicken and ketchup, all that's left to do is eat. Enjoy your Max's-style fried chicken with steamed rice, kamote fries, or both.

Fried Chicken

For Serving

Prepare Chicken

Poach and Dry Chicken

Fry Chicken

Max's-Style Filipino Fried Chicken

This is Max's fried chicken the way you remember it: crisp, golden brown skin revealing juicy (not dry!) patis-seasoned meat, ready to dunk in banana ketchup.

Want to wow your family and friends? Make this cheesy baked salmon a la 

Save yourself the headache of ordering from the shop—in just 30 minutes, you can achieve the same silky salmon covered in a rich, cheesy crust. The buttered vegetables complete the feast while adding color and crunch. Bonus: You can make it in your air fryer!

How to make Conti’s-inspired baked salmon

Before starting, make sure to preheat your oven or air fryer to 350°F (or 180°C). For less cleanup, you can bake your salmon in a Pyrex or ceramic baking dish, add the buttered vegetables there, and bring everything straight to your dinner table.

Cream Topping

Salmon

Vegetables

Conti's-Inspired Baked Salmon with Buttered Vegetables

Make Conti's bestselling baked salmon—cheese crust, buttered vegetables and all—in your oven or air fryer.

. But the Indian ground beef dish is packed with Middle Eastern spices. It’s traditionally used as the meat component in other dishes such as curry, samosas, and pies. Though we (as well as a lot of students, it seems) are happy eating it as is, paired with buttered rice or a couple of 

Mister Kabab’s keema is a popular choice for people looking for a quick Persian fix. We’ve hacked it so now you don’t even have to leave the house to enjoy it. It takes a while to cook, but it’s necessary to truly break down the beef, and to make sure it soaks up all the flavor. Put on some TV while stirring occasionally.

Spice Mix

Beef

Mister Kabab-inspired Beef Keema

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

Dipping Sauce

Fried Oysters

Omakase-Inspired Oysters Butteryaki

While Jolly Spaghetti is the undisputed poster child for Pinoy sweet-style 

 Pancake House's comes in a close second. It's still sweet enough to make pasta purists cry, but holds back on the 

Pancake House spaghetti is less fast-food and more like mom's cooking: tomato sauce, ground beef, grated cheese.

This is an overdue update to our original 10-year old (!) Pancake House spaghetti recipe. A tablespoon of liver spread sets everything right. (It's not Pinoy spaghetti without at least one weird ingredient.) The brow-raising liter of water has been reduced to 1 cup.

Is it 100% accurate? Probably not. But this copycat spaghetti will bring back memories of orange walls and faded movie posters, guaranteed. Make it a combo meal and serve with 

Want to Make It Vegan?

Spaghetti Sauce

Pancake House-Style Spaghetti

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)

If you didn't order the Toro Spicy Sashimi, did you really eat at 

 This recipe hacks the popular spicy tuna from Pasay Road's famous izakaya.

Sriracha provides heat and color to the sashimi dressing. It's not Japanese, but the sauce has spice and pucker similar to Nihonbashitei's. Kewpie mayo and sugar adds sweetness. The tempura flakes are the most demanding part of the recipe, but don't skip it! They provide an addictive crunch that completes the dish.

Tempura Flakes

Spicy Dressing

Sashimi

Nihonbashitei-Style Spicy Tuna Sashimi

Bring out the beer: This Nihonbashitei Spicy Tuna Sashimi hack mixes tuna sashimi chunks in a spicy sauce and a flurry of tempura flakes.

Total Time

This Sisig Hooray hack doubles as a home kitchen-friendly sisig recipe—no grill, pig ears, or sizzling plate required. Just like the food court joint, you toss chopped bits of crispy pork belly in a mayo-based sisig sauce. Chopped banana chilies give it a touch of heat. Crushed chicharon adds porkiness and texture. Fried eggs are optional, but don't forget the calamansi—its juice adds brightness while cutting through the rich, fatty pork.

Sisig Sauce

Sisig

Make the Sisig Sauce

Make the Sisig

Sisig Hooray-Style Pork Sisig

Sisig Hooray's pork sisig is one of the most famous—and quickest—fastfood iterations of the Filipino dish. Here's how to hack it.

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

Banapple banoffee pie seems simple in theory. But making all those layers takes a 

of effort, from pressure-cooking condensed milk to making toffee to whipping cream to stiff peaks to shaping melted chocolate into curls. All that work will make you just want to buy the cake—and we won't blame you; that's how we felt after developing this recipe too. 

But if you're up for a challenge, our hack gets you a 90% accurate Banapple banoffee pie at 100% satisfaction. You get the firm, slightly salty graham crust, the deeply rich toffee, the thick whipped cream, and the sparse but noticeable chocolate shavings in just over an hour.

Toffee

Graham Crust

Cream

Banana Filling

Make the Toffee

Make the Graham Crust

Prepare the Components

Assemble the Banoffee Pie

Banapple-Style Banoffee Pie

We'd give this Banapple banoffee pie hack a 100% accuracy rate, but that'd be out of bias. We love it 100% though, if that counts.

Whether you like having it as a side, dessert, or stand-alone snack, Kenny Rogers' Corn Muffins have a following of their own. These homemade muffins have a nice exterior, but still retain a soft, moist center freckled with sweet corn kernels.

Better Than Kenny Rogers Corn Muffins

Come for the roast chicken, stay for the corn muffins.

Because McDonald's never serves enough BBQ sauce, we made our own. A few pantry staples—plus tamarind puree and a dash of smoked paprika—can be transformed into a copycat sauce that's 90% similar to the real thing. Go beyond nuggets and serve it with fried chicken, porkchops, or lumpiang Shanghai.

McDonald's-Inspired BBQ Sauce

Because McDonald's never serves enough BBQ sauce, we made our own. This recipe gets you a version that's like 90% the real thing.

This is probably an exaggeration, but crispy beef is a feat of engineering—thin strips of beef that remain crispy even while smothered in sauce. But we've figured out the science behind this 

. The good news is, it's actually very simple. Now anyone can whip up Crispy Beijing Beef in just 30 minutes at home.

Crispy Beef

Panda Express-Inspired Crispy Beijing Beef

This crispy beef recipe mimics Panda Express' crispy Beijing beef: crunchy strips of meat in a sweet and sour (and slightly spicy) sauce.

 never gets it wrong with reimagining the Filipino cuisine. Even their humble appetizer, Manam's tropical take on the 

 shines inexplicably, making it an easy all-time crowd favorite.

We love it so much that we re-created it. What's good about this is it only takes about 15 minutes to make and uses common and inexpensive ingredients. That's an absolute win, for sure.

Dressing

Salad

Manam Ensaladang Namnam

Manam's Ensaladang Namnam is the perfect Filipino salad: crunchy, fresh, and savory, all in every bite you take.

This high-protein salad gets you tasty, lightly seared tuna on a bed of lettuce, edamame, oranges, and tomatoes tossed in honey-wasabi dressing. When buying tuna, look for sashimi-grade cuts in your local grocery's frozen seafood section. Or better yet, swing by a Japanese specialty store for the real deal.

Seared Tuna

Saladstop-Inspired Seared Tuna Salad (Tuna San)

If you had to point out one flaw in Cibo’s Spinaci Zola, it’s the serving size. No amount of rationing will make the dip, which comes in a teeny-tiny ramekin, enough for everyone at the table. Good thing it’s easy to make at home, and easier to make big batches of.

The appetizer gets its name from its two primary ingredients: spinach and gorgonzola. Both fresh and frozen spinach will work well with this recipe—the latter saves time by skipping the blanching step. If you can’t get your hands on gorgonzola, use any blue cheese in its place.

Bake the dip in small ramekins a la Cibo, or pour it all into one communal oven-safe dish. Serve at a party with crostini or nacho chips, then watch it disappear in seconds.

Cibo-Inspired Spinach Gorgonzola (Spinaci Zola) Dip

If you're not at Max's Restaurant for the 

 with kamote fries, maybe you're there for their second best menu item: tofu 

Served on a sizzling cast-iron plate, it's everything you love about sisig—the dish Anthony Bourdain called 

—sans the pork. But the tofu, sliced into cubes and deep-fried to a crisp, will leave even the staunchest meat-eater satisfied. 

Replicating Max's tofu sisig at home is easy, all thanks to liquid seasoning. It provides that familiar umami flavor that makes this copycat a dead ringer for the real thing.

Some brands of tofu have a slightly sour taste that remains even after cooking. Blanching tofu in hot salted water brings out a fresher flavor while coaxing the tofu's inner moisture to the surface, making it easier to dry.

Either pour the hot salted water over the tofu, or dunk the tofu into a simmering (not boiling) pot of salted water. Pat it dry, and your tofu's ready to use. Sounds counterintuitive, but it works!

Freezing tofu changes its tender texture to something chewier and meat-like. When thawed, the ice crystals inside the tofu leave sponge-like holes, creating a bouncy mouthfeel. It's a trick we use in our popular 

To freeze, you can keep your tofu whole or cut up into smaller portions. Keep the tofu in its packaging or, if using cut-up portions, transfer to freezer-safe containers or zip-lock bags. Freeze until solid and more yellowish in color, then defrost either overnight in the fridge or at room temperature on an 

 Don't forget to (gently) press out that extra moisture before frying.

Fried Tofu

Max's-Inspired Sizzling Tofu Sisig

This hack for Max's tofu sisig tastes exactly like the restaurant's, all thanks to one convenient pantry ingredient.

You can’t enter a BreadTalk and leave without a Flosss bun—that’s just disrespect. The bakeshop's famous pork floss buns are irresistable, from the tender bread to the sweet-savory pork floss topping. This recipe is our attempt to recreate them.

Our from-scratch fluffy buns bake into buttery golden domes for the pork floss to perch on. The homemade pork floss is an extra-credit project that you can skip for store-bought pork floss. Binondo's 

 sells a powdery pork variant that we love.

Buns

Topping

BreadTalk-Inspired Pork Floss Bread

This recipe recreates BreadTalk's famous sweet-savory pork buns. Use store-bought pork floss or make your own.

 like Rodic's, the legendary diner from UP Diliman's Shopping Center. Who else would think of chopping their tapa into corned beef-like shreds? It looks less like your textbook classic tapa and more like 

 showered over a pile of rice on a stainless steel plate. But it's this unique approach to tapa—flaky, tender, seasoned with anise—that has drawn crowds to the hole-in-the-wall since 1949.

Of all our tapa recipes, this style takes the longest. Here we use beef shank, a cheap yet flavorful cut that's low in fat—we want our chopped beef to be as meaty as possible. A long braise in an anise-spiked marinade injects the shank with flavor while breaking it down into softer, shreddable meat. It's then chopped and fried, caramelized in its braising liquid until flavorful and glossy.

Rodic's-Style Chopped Beef Tapa

Here's how to make beef tapa inspired by Quezon City's beloved Rodic's tapsilog, which uses anise-flavored chopped beef.

Tambai's fast-cooking, relatively affordable yakitori is one of the OGs of Makati's Poblacion area. One of their crowd-favorite dishes is the ever-so-soft beef rib fingers.

You can ask for the beef rib finger from the butcher (try looking for US beef rib fingers in the frozen section), or just get ribs and cut the "finger" out yourself. Make sure your grill is hot before adding the beef fingers—you don't want to deal with stuck bits of meat after cooking.

Marinade

Beef Rib Finger

Tambai-Inspired Grilled Beef Rib Fingers

Bring Poblacion to your home with Tambai's popular beef rib finger yakitori.

Hong Kong's Yardbird is known for their yakitori, but they also have some other items on the menu such as Sweet Corn Tempura, Garlic Fried Chicken with Kewpie, and the crowd-pleasing Korean Fried Cauliflower. The lightly battered, crisp vegetables are dressed in an addictive sweet-spicy glaze. Think of them as a healthy-ish alternative to spicy chicken wings.

Pepper's Food Hacks

Jollibee-Inspired Peach Mango Pie Pockets

Big Al's-Inspired Chocolate Cake with Hot Fudge Icing

Razon's-Inspired Extra Milky Halo-Halo

Max's-Style Filipino Fried Chicken

Conti's-Inspired Baked Salmon with Buttered Vegetables

Mister Kabab-inspired Beef Keema

Omakase-Inspired Oysters Butteryaki

Pancake House-Style Spaghetti

Alba-Inspired Stewed Ox Tongue (Lengua Sevillana)

Nihonbashitei-Style Spicy Tuna Sashimi

Sisig Hooray-Style Pork Sisig

Manam-Inspired Crispy Pancit Palabok

Banapple-Style Banoffee Pie

Better Than Kenny Rogers Corn Muffins

McDonald's-Inspired BBQ Sauce

Panda Express-Inspired Crispy Beijing Beef

Manam Ensaladang Namnam

Saladstop-Inspired Seared Tuna Salad (Tuna San)

Cibo-Inspired Spinach Gorgonzola (Spinaci Zola) Dip

Max's-Inspired Sizzling Tofu Sisig

BreadTalk-Inspired Pork Floss Bread

Rodic's-Style Chopped Beef Tapa

Tambai-Inspired Grilled Beef Rib Fingers

Yardbird-Inspired Korean Fried Cauliflower

McDonald's-Inspired Filet-O-Fish

Your Local-Inspired Salmon Bowl with Mushroom Rice

Locavore-Inspired Sizzling Sinigang

Cyma-Style Roka Salata with Candied Walnuts

Cibo-Style Penne Al Telefono

Bacsilog with Extra Milky Cheese Sauce, Ate Rica's-Style

Hungry Pac-Inspired Chocolate Crinkles

8cuts-Style Onion Rings

Frankie's Salted Egg Chicken Wings

Dunkin-Style Choco Butternut Donuts

Pancake House-Style Fried Chicken and Gravy

Nathaniel's-Inspired Special Buko Pandan Salad

McDo-inspired Ebi Burger

Kopi Roti-Style Malaysian Coffee Buns

Meat Plus-Inspired Garlic Beef Salpicao

Tapa King-Inspired Sweet-Spicy Tapa Queen

Mamou Lorenzo Truffle Cream Pasta

FRNK Milk Bar-Style Dark Chocolate Matcha with Mochi

Topside Diner-Inspired Garlic Parmesan Wings

Two Seasons-Inspired Fried Oyster Sisig

Lola Nena's-Inspired Cheese-Filled Donuts

Saladstop-Inspired Spicy Chili Crab Salad (Oh Crab Lah)

Mang Inasal-Style Sweet Chicken Inasal

Chowking Chinese-Style Fried Chicken

Tim Ho Wan-Inspired Pork Buns

Nono's-Inspired Truffle Cheese Wontons

Dong Bei-Style Kuchay Dumplings

Manam-Inspired Watermelon Sinigang

Kanin Club-Inspired Sinigang Rice

Mary Grace-Style Cheese Rolls

Starbucks-Inspired Matcha Espresso Fusion

Sincerity-Style Oyster Omelet

Jollibee-Inspired Honey Beef Rice

Fastfood Pies: Apple Pie, Peach Mango Pie, Tuna Pie

Señor Pollo-Inspired Roast Chicken with Chimichurri

Dunkin-Style Choco Honey Dipped Munchkins

Real Coffee Boracay-Inspired Calamansi Muffins

Mary Grace-Inspired Lemon Bars

Banapple-Style Lasagna Roll-ups

KFC-Inspired Korean Double Down

Pancake House Hot Roast Beef

North Park Pinsec Frito (Fried Wonton)

Yellow Cab-Inspired Charlie Chan Pasta

24 Chicken-Style Jack Daniel's Chicken

Gino's-Inspired Spicy Honey

Mamou-Inspired Buttery Steak Rice

Chili's-Style Classic Nachos

Mang Tootz-Inspired Banana Rhum-a Turon

Two Seasons-Style Four-Cheese Pizza

California Pizza Kitchen-Style BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad

Italianni's-Inspired Sicilian Salad with Mangoes and Grapes

Homemade Choco Mallows

Recipes-Inspired General's Chicken

Din Tai Fung-Inspired Black Sesame Lava Balls (Buchi)

Pepper Lunch Beef Pepper Rice