Isaw is one of the most popular street foods in the Philippines. If you are not popular with the term, it is the intestines of a pig or chicken turned inside out, cleaned and cleaned again and again, boiled then grilled on sticks over hot live coals.
It is very popularly sold on the street sides and roadsides across from school campuses and most especially during late in the afternoon and into the night. Isaw is usually one of the barbeque choices from food stalls among others like chicken feet, chicken gizzard, pig’s ears, fish and squid balls, kwek-kwek or tokneneng, and others.
Isaw is also a popular pulutan (appetizer taken with alcohol) for people drinking at home, bars or sidewalk videoke bars.
Isaw is best eaten with your hands. Dip it in vinegar like the sukang pinakurat, a Filipino brand of vinegar oozing hot with onions, peppers, garlic and other spices.
Isaw is not only sold at street sides in the Philippines. I recently had a stick of chicken isaw at Chicken Inasal, one of the famous food chains at the Mall of Asia in Manila. One stick costs 45 pesos but you can get the same for about 10 pesos in the street sides.
You can make your own variation to the grilled isaw by making your own fried or adobong isaw. Buy like half a kilo of pork or chicken intestines, clean it well with running water, then turn it inside out and clean it thoroughly. Next, boil the intestines with vinegar and ginger and thrown in some spices like salt, pepper and bay leaves, cayenne pepper and cumin. I found one recipe here you can check out at HERE or chicken isaw recipe HERE.
I’m a dedicated chicken wing fan but do let me know how it went.