In the cold weather when the air is cold and the bed seems to be more enticing than ever, a warm bowl of merienda soup feels like the remedy to everything.

Words Rica Mae Labbao
Photo courtesy of Discover MNL and Panlasang Pinoy
November 17, 2026

There’s food for every mood, place, activity, and season, especially when the weather changes. Dirty ice cream, halo-halo, and ice scramble taste refreshing when the sun is up and the temperature makes anyone sweat profusely. Then if the sky starts to frown and the rain pours hard, a bowl of steamy hot soup comforts the aching tummy and gloomy mood.

In the Philippines, we have so many variations of soups that can always serve yummy taste buds and have a nostalgic feeling. When you miss home and the innocent feelings from childhood, revisit life through spoonfuls of food that go straight to your heart.

Old But Gold Lugaw

Blowing steam off a hot bowl of lugaw while sashaying your way to daydreaming wistfully completes the vibe for a Throwback Thursday mood.

Lugaw is a common rice porridge in the Philippines, often served to ill patients because of its soft and easy-to-digest characteristic—a traditional healing food for the weary.

Usually topped with fried garlic and onion chives, lugaw is basic, affordable, and easy to serve. In the country, there are other variations of it. There’s arrozcaldo that boasts its ginger-infused taste with hearty fillings, the one mixed with Chinese spices—congee, and goto, the lugaw made flavorful by ox tripe and beef innards.

For the locals in the Visayas region, Pospas is the food of comfort and nostalgia. It’s the Visayan take on lugaw, typically home-cooked rice gruel elevated with chicken, ginger, and condiments.

The Milkier, Creamier, Better Sopas

After a long day of playing indoors and arguing with siblings, a hearty bowl of sopas offers peace in the household.

Soup with milk, elbow macaroni, cabbage, chicken, and slices of sausages powers up Sopas—the classic Filipino rendition of the Western chicken noodle soup.

From the flavorful chicken macaroni soup made healthier by cabbage and carrots to the budget-friendly corned beef sopas with egg, Filipinos don't let anything stop their cravings. As of today, Sopas is continuously recreated with various ingredients but a similar lineage of taste, as it remains one of the top childhood merienda that nourishes.

One of the creative sopas remakes is the Sweet Corn Sopas. From the name itself, it is the original sopas cooked meticulously with sweet yellow corn that adds flavor and texture to the creamy elbow macaroni soup.

Two-in-One Almondigas

It’s raining heavily on a Friday, where it is a must to eat vegetables all day, and on the table rests a large container of almondigas with lots of patola.

An adaptation of the Mexican meatball soup called albondigas, Almondigas or Misua Bola-bola with Patola offers a clever way of mixing silk squash (patola), meatballs (bola-bola), and misua in a soup.

This filling meal can simultaneously be served for merienda and for dinner—a partner viand of rice. It can also be distinctly cooked as two connected yet unique dishes: Misua with Patola Soup and Sotanghon Bola-bola Soup.

Other recreations of Almondigas across the country include Miswang Ebun with Patola or Misua with Patola and Egg that originated in Pampanga and the ultimately budget-friendly Ginisang Sardinas at Miswa.

Sweet, Colorful, and Tasty Binignit

Bowls of eye-catching, almost purple Ginataang Halo-halo or Binignit graces the table during the Holy Week, when Christ is believed to die and no meat is allowed to be eaten.

Hailing from Visayas, Binignit is composed of bilo-bilo or rice balls made out of glutinous rice, Saba bananas, kamote (sweet potato), sago, taro, and coconut milk, all mixed up together.

It is one of the Qcomfort foods that offers a sweet and nourishing experience. Most kids enjoy this dish for its appetizing look and colorful plating.

Ginataang Bilo-bilo is Binignit’s identical twin from Luzon that is sometimes only different in color and the jackfruit ingredient.

Champorado, Best Paired with Tuyo

The childhood memory isn’t complete without the five-peso Champorado from the canteen tray every recess during your elementary years. Remember the times you chose the one with the most evaporated milk in it?

That’s it! Champorado is a very famous snack dish for Filipinos—the sweet version of Lugaw. It’s a lucky experience if the Champorado is made from pure tablea, but the commercial chocolate powder works best too.

Often paired with Tuyo or dried fish that balances the sweet flavor, Champorado is a chocolate rice porridge topped with either evaporated milk or powdered ones.

Today, your basic Champorado bears other flavors such as ube (sweet yam) and strawberry that bring out the creative and exploratory side of Filipinos. Recently, a viral trend circulated about the Triple Chocolate Champorado where a molten dome-shaped chocolate is added to elevate the classic one.

Maybe the comforting power of food is really true, as it can bring out the positive feelings of being innocently giddy. Just like one food motto says, “Eat good, feel good.” Let’s all have that motto resonate with us!

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