Street Food Challenge: The Search for Philippines' Best Isaw

My friend Abbey read my post, "The Best Fruit Smoothies are in UP", and invited me to go on a food trip with her in UP Diliman. Since she's a UP student, she knows exactly where the best eating spots are in UP. 


She then told me that she knows where the Best Isaw (intestines) is in UP. The best Isaw in UP? Isn't Mang Larry's Isaw in UP the Best Isaw? "There's an even better isaw stall in UP", she exclaimed. The Street Food Challenge is on!  


We met at 5PM after my Saturday HTML/CSS classes around UP Sunken Garden. It's been awhile since I last saw her so I was excited to see her. Aww I missed you Abbey! :) Our stories took control of time as we started walking towards the much awaited isaw challenger. In no time, we arrived in a large open grassland with 3 push-cart stalls. 

There's the small Pika-pika store that sells Fish balls, Squid balls, Kikiam, etc, a Dirty Ice Cream pushcart and the Isaw stall. We were there for the Isaw so we went straight and ordered 20 Chicken Isaw and 10 Pork Isaw. 

There are several other street foods to choose from for the adventurous food eaters: Balunbalunan (gizzard), Bato (Kidney), Atay (Liver), Bulaklak and more. For those who are less adventurous, there's the typical Barbeque as well. 

There were several students when we were there so we had to wait for around 10-15 minutes for our isaw. 

ISAW 1: My Friend's Favorite Isaw Place in UP

ISAW 2: Mang Larry's Isaw (photo courtesy of habagatcentral.com)

So how does it compare to Mang Larry's Isaw? 


As you can see in the picture above, it's a little meatier and much redder than Mang Larry's Isaw in its raw and cooked version. I'm not too sure if redder means it's fresher. It packs much more flavor as well as opposed to its counterpart in Mang Larry's. 


Between the two stalls, Mang Larry's is more popular even to outsiders. Many celebrities go all the way to his stall just to have isaw. In fact, you'll find so many site when you type "Mang Larry's Isaw" in Google. However, according to my friend, she and her UP friends like the featured unnamed isaw stall since it's more delicious. In terms of taste, I have to give it to this unnamed isaw stall. Too bad it's unnamed, probably that's also why it's unknown to the non-UP isaw loving crowd. 


In terms of ambiance (whuuut?), I like Mang Larry's more since there's more personal space for you and your isaw. I won't elaborate on this one. :P You'll get what I mean when you go there. So just a tip when you eat here, bring your Isaw with you somewhere else so you can enjoy it in peace. :) 


This unnamed Isaw place is just across UP Diliman's International Center.

UP International Center

 It's pretty easy to find from UP Sunken Garden. It's near UP College of Law Building. Here's a map to help you locate it. 

Map courtesy of UP Diliman site

Follow the blue arrow. :) If you can see the map clearly, building 57 is the International Center, while building 12 is the UP College of Law. The big oval in the middle is the Sunken Garden. 

I encourage you to try this unnamed isaw place in UP. It's tastier than Mang Larry's in my opinion. Mang Larry's isaw is also good, but I like this one better. Probably because it's less "commercialized"? Haha. We went there on a late Saturday afternoon. I'm not too sure about its operating hours.  


Once again, I had a great time in UP. :) Probably I'd become fat if I studied in UP since there's so much food around the campus. Haha. I also had a great time catching up with Abbey. Abbey, I'm looking forward to more food trips! Food trip is really one of the best ways to bond :) 


Btw, I recently saw a Mang Larry's Isaw stall in Katipunan, beside Mini Stop. It's almost at the corner of Katipunan and Aurora Boulevard. I haven't tried it yet though.


Let me know if you know more Isaw spots for this Street Food Challenge. :)


~It's the little sweet notes everyday that matter. :)~