A carinderia is a small restaurant along the street that displays the dishes it has prepared in large pots

and in a glass case.

Customers are welcome to lift the covers of the pots before they choose what they will eat.

Fried eggs and sausage are familiar fare in American diners.

The staple here is rice.

Now begins the delicious Filipino food! Tinola ng manok is a chicken soup made with vegetables such as green papaya or chayote and the tender leaves of malunggay (Moringa oleifera), a tree that grows in many yards. Ginger gives the soup a little kick.

We order small dishes of a local seaweed salad with tomato and onion,

a fritter of tiny fish bound with egg,

and tortang talong, flattened eggplant fried with an egg batter, made to order – wonderful!

All of this excellent food emerges from a small kitchen. The food is fresh, served in small portions so we can sample different dishes, and very cheap.

This entire breakfast cost $9 for four people

who enjoyed every bite!

I remember restaurants like this in Greece fifty years ago where food was cooked and displayed for customers. The meals are so good I hesitate to call these places, whether istoratorion in Greece or carinderia in the Philippines, “cafeterias,” though that is the style of service.

The only caution is not to eat there late in the day, when the last portions may have been sitting around for hours. But in the morning, no worries!

Lina and I took these photos in Cebu City on the morning of Saturday, March 2.