Favorite Filipino dishes Jennifer Aranas serves at her restaurant:

Adobo is a stew of poultry, beef or pork simmered in vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. If the Philippines had a national dish, this would be it.

Kare-Kare is a stew made with oxtail, beef or tripe, as well as eggplant, long beans and onions, all in a peanut sauce. Lumpia-Shanghai are long, slender, fried spring rolls filled with pork, shrimp and shredded cabbage.

Paella, the classic dish of saffron-scented rice with shellfish, meats and vegetables, may include sweet sticky rice and coconut milk in the Philippines.

Pancit means noodle; it also refers to a variety of warm or cold noodle dishes.

--Karen McArn-Assante