Explainer | What is ‘second-hand fried chicken’; how this snack became popular in Philippine slums
Videos of Chinese bloggers sampling recooked, seasoned leftovers in run-down Filipino neighbourhoods go viral on social media
A decades-old staple in the slums of the Philippines, known as pagpag or “second-hand fried chicken”, has unexpectedly trended on mainland social media.
Videos of Chinese influencers and bloggers filming themselves trying the food have gone viral.
Pagpag, which literally means “to shake off dust”, has been eaten in poverty-stricken parts of the Philippines for decades.
It is made from discarded leftovers which are cleaned, re-seasoned and deep-fried before being resold as “reprocessed food”.
The dish is the only affordable source of protein for some impoverished families.
It originates out of extreme poverty in the 1960s when the country was suffering from a debt crisis and severe underemployment, forcing many people to migrate to urban areas in search of opportunities.
These communities began using leftover scraps of protein from various sources, which later turned into pagpag.
