No Filipino gathering is complete without favorites like lumpia, roast pig, or the beloved noodle dish pancit. However, despite its popularity in the island nation, pancit is not native to the Philippines, and while “pancit” can describe almost any noodle dish, there’s more than one meaning behind the name.

“Pancit” gets its name from ”pian e sit” which is the Southern Chinese dialect, Hokkien, and means “something conveniently cooked.” The dish was likely brought to the Philippines by traders from China, and today, the term “pancit” refers to both a variety of noodle dishes and the noodles used in these recipes.

Pancit can refer to almost any noodles cooked in many different ways. However, before you get confused, know that there are many different types of pancit from pancit guido made with rice flour noodles sautéed in soy sauce to pancit malabon with a thick, tubular noodle covered in shrimp and pork gravy or the thin-noodled pancit palabok.