Best Pinoy sauces and dips to try

What’s shrimp without cocktail sauce? Or spicy chicken wings without some ranch sauce to cool things down a bit?

In the Filipino kitchen, there are certain sawsawan (sauces) and dips that just “completes” a meal.

Like the tiny squeeze of calamansi just before you bite into pansit, think of these Pinoy favourite sauces, dips and condiments as the perfect accompaniment to specific ulam (meals).

Let’s dip into Top 5 Pinoy saucy sawsawans:

1. Lechon Sauce

Mang Tomas All-Purpose Sauce may have the all-around all-purpose sauce title, but make no mistake about it, this sauce is lechon’s only partner in crime.

There’s no satisfaction in biting into that crispy, red lechon skin and soft, steaming slice of pork tenderloin without dipping it into some lechon sauce first.

Brown, grainy-looking, and sticky, this sauce is admittedly non-sexy, but pair it with lechon and you’ve got a party going in your mouth.

This potent mix of water, sugar, breadcrumbs, salt, starch and vinegar always seems to balance out the fatty flavour of lechon.

2. Banana Sauce

What’s Jufran Banana Sauce, you ask? It’s the Filipino version of ketchup, made from…well, bananas.

In my high school Home Economics class, we were assigned a project to make ketchup from bananas.

Invented by Batangas-born Pinay chemist Maria Ylagan Orosa when there was a shortage of tomatoes, banana ketchup is now a household condiment in the Philippines.

The ketchup is made from a different variety of bananas called saba, with traditional ketchup ingredients like vinegar, sugar, and spices, along with red food colouring.

3. Toyomansi

Toyomansi is made of toyo (soy sauce) with calamansi (Philippine lime).

This dip is excellent with any kind of pulutan (appetizers), or as a marinade for barbecues, or as an easy ingredient addition for adobo dishes.

Toss in some minced garlic and onions with this sauce, and you’re in for a tangy, wonderful treat.

Try it with baked salmon, or fried dumplings—so delicious.

4.  Patis

Patis is a brown-coloured, broth-like sauce that is added as a flavour enhancer to many Filipino meals.

As it is made from fermented fish, this salty sauce has a very distinct, pungent smell, but a tablespoon or two can truly elevate and change a recipe’s flavour.

5. Spiced Vinegar

There’s plain vinegar, and then there’s spiced vinegar from the Philippines.

It’s not really that spee-icy, but it sure adds a little kick in taste and flavour.

Made from fermented sugarcane juice, this vinegar is perfect for bbq dips, salad dressings, marinades, adobo and many other Filipino dishes.