What's on the table at Filipino festive celebrations – photo essay

Food is a strong expression of love in the Philippines and, for Filipinos abroad, it's also a symbol of nostalgia

Chef Veron Ramos, aka Queen Saba, owner and founder of Queen Saba Cafeteria, home of comforting Filipino food and desserts. All photos: Victor Besa / The National

During the busy holiday season, Queen Saba gets bulk orders for Filipino favourites, such as chewy and colourful desserts typically made with glutinous rice and coconut milk

Another party classic is pancit guisado, made of rice noodles, shredded chicken, shrimp and vegetables. Guisado means sauteed and refers to the method used to cook the dish

Pancit is made by soaking the noodles in soy or oyster sauce

Loyal patrons drive from across the UAE to eat at Queen Saba Cafeteria

Queen Saba's nickname is derived from the saba banana, a hybrid cultivar originating from the Philippines. It is primarily a cooking banana and an important ingredient in Philippine cuisine

Pancit lug lug is a noodle dish made from a buttery, bisque–like shrimp sauce tossed with white rice noodles and topped with chicharon and crisp-fried chicken skin. The sauce is made from ground shrimp heads and shells blended with annatto seeds, water and corn starch. The dish is usually topped with a hard-boiled egg

Two of the most loved Filipino desserts in one. Puto flan (or leche puto) is a combination of leche flan and puto

Veron Ramos gets up as soon as the Al Mina Fruit and Vegetable Souq opens to get fresh ingredients for her dishes

Hollywood actress Vanessa Hudgens, a Filipino-American star, once said: 'It’s not Christmas without lumpia and pancit'

Suman maruecos is made from glutinous rice flour, coconut milk, sugar, and flavoured with purple yam, wrapped in banana leaves

Veron Ramos has been serving the community since 2013

Lumpia is the Filipino term for spring rolls

Kutsinta is a type of steamed rice cake found throughout the Philippines. Made from a mixture of tapioca or rice flour, brown sugar and lye, enhanced with red or yellow food colouring or annatto extract

Laing is a dish of shredded taro leaves with meat or seafood cooked in thick coconut milk, spiced with labuyo chili, lemongrass, garlic, shallots, ginger and shrimp paste

Pichi-pichi is a dessert made of steamed cassava flour balls mixed with sugar and lye. It is often flavoured with pandan leaves and served rolled in freshly grated coconut and cheese

Chef Veron Ramos, aka Queen Saba, and her team

The Philippines is known to have some of the most extravagant Christmas and New Year celebrations, with festivities kicking off in September.

While others eagerly await December 25 and January 1, the peak of celebration for Filipinos are in the evenings before, called noche buena for Christmas Eve and media noche for New Year's Eve – Spanish terms owing to the South-East Asian country's colonial history.

Aside from the many religious traditions Filipinos follow during the period, food is a focal point of the celebrations. Filipino dining tables are filled with food, believing that a feast will attract good fortune as the year ends. It's also used as a social glue, bringing members of the community together.

Such is also the case in the UAE, where close to a million Filipinos celebrate the holidays every year. Recreating traditional Filipino dishes, from sweet to savoury, is just one way for the expatriate community to conjure a sense of home.

In Abu Dhabi's Mina Zayed Port, Queen Saba Cafeteria is a hole-in-the-wall establishment that has been dishing out nostalgic Filipino plates since 2013. Bulk orders are typical during the busy Christmas and New Year's Eve period, as many members of the community work over the holiday and often do not have the time to cook for themselves.

Although most of Queen Saba's dishes are available to order all year round, they are in high demand for the last week of the year. One of the most popular dishes is pancit guisado, a stir-fried noodle dish that is a staple on special occasions.

There are many variations to the Filipino pancit. Queen Saba's version is made of rice noodles with shredded chicken, shrimp and vegetables. It is typically paired with another party favourite, lumpia, or spring rolls, and dipped in the infamous banana ketchup.

Aside from savoury dishes, many Filipinos are fond of sticky desserts. Queen Saba serves a tray of assorted rice cakes called kakanin. The most common ingredients in these desserts are glutinous rice and coconut milk. They are chewy in texture, similar to Japan's popular mochi, and are typically topped with toasted coconut milk curds. They are often elevated with different flavouring elements, such as ube or purple yam, jackfruit, corn and other ingredients.

As is the case with many other nationalities that celebrate Christmas, Filipinos love to do it together – and what's on the table is usually the highlight of the night.