How Many Calories in Kwek-Kwek?

Also known as Kwek Kwek, Orange Battered Quail Eggs, Tokneneng (chicken egg version).

Hard boiled quail eggs dipped in an orange annatto flour batter and deep fried, served with a sweet chili vinegar sauce. The 5 peso street snack outside every school.

280kcal / 4 pieces with sauce

Four pieces of kwek-kwek are about 280 calories including a spoon of the sweet sauce, or roughly 65 calories per piece. The quail egg itself is only 14 calories. The rest is about 35 calories of flour batter and 15 to 20 calories of oil absorbed in the fryer.

Nutrition facts

Per 4 pieces with sauce (90g)	Amount	Per 100g
Calories	280 kcal	311 kcal
Protein	8 g	9 g
Carbs	22 g	24 g
Fat	18 g	20 g

Where the calories come from

Quail eggs (4)36g

56 kcal

Flour and cornstarch batter36g

125 kcal

Frying oil absorbed8g

70 kcal

Sweet chili vinegar sauce15g

30 kcal

The real talk

The egg is the smallest part. A quail egg is about 9g and 14 calories, which is nothing. Then it gets a thick coat of flour and cornstarch batter, about 10g dry per egg, and goes into oil that has been reused since morning. The batter soaks up 3 to 4g of oil per piece. That turns a 14 calorie egg into a 65 calorie ball. Kawaling Pinoy's recipe card comes out at 275 for 3 pieces, but it counts the whole pot of frying oil across the batch, which overstates it.

The sauce is sugar. The sweet kwek-kwek sauce is vinegar, brown sugar, cornstarch and chili, and a good ladle over 4 pieces is about 30 calories. The spicy vinegar version (sukang maanghang) is closer to 5. Most vendors let you choose, and the spicy vinegar is the one to pick if you are counting.

At 5 pesos a piece it is easy to eat 8 or 10 while waiting for a jeep. Ten pieces is 650 calories, which is a full meal from something that felt like a snack. The tokneneng version made with a chicken egg is bigger, about 150 calories each, because the batter shell is thicker and there is more egg.

How the portions compare

140 kcal

2 pieces

280 kcal

4 pieces with sauce

650 kcal

10 pieces with sauce

Kwek-Kwek variants, ranked by calories

Variant	Calories	Notes
Plain boiled quail egg	14 kcal	No batter, no oil
Kwek-kwek, 1 piece, thin batter	50 kcal	Vendor with a light coat
Kwek-kwek, 1 piece, standard	65 kcal	Sauce not included
Tokneneng, 1 piece	150 kcal	Chicken egg in the same batter

How to eat it lighter

Four pieces is a snack at 280 calories. Ten pieces is lunch at 650. Decide before you order.
Choose the spicy vinegar dip instead of the sweet orange sauce. About 25 calories saved per serving.
Pick the pieces with the thinner batter shell. A thin coat is about 50 calories per piece instead of 65.
If you want eggs for protein, plain boiled quail eggs are 14 each. Ten of them is 140 calories, the same as 2 kwek-kwek.

Common questions

How many calories in one kwek-kwek?

About 65 calories per piece with a standard batter coat, plus about 7 calories per piece for the sweet sauce.

Is kwek-kwek healthy?

The quail egg is, at 14 calories and 1g of protein. The batter and reused frying oil are not. Four pieces is a 280 calorie snack with 18g of fat, most of it from the fryer.

Kwek-kwek or tokneneng, which has more calories?

Tokneneng, at about 150 per piece, because it is a whole chicken egg in a thicker batter. One tokneneng is roughly 2.5 kwek-kwek.

How many calories in the kwek-kwek sauce?

The sweet orange sauce is about 30 calories per ladle from sugar and cornstarch. The spicy vinegar is about 5.

Related foods

Lumpia Shanghai

280 kcal per 5 pieces

Isaw

45 kcal per 1 stick (chicken)

Balut

190 kcal per 1 egg

Lok Lok

70 kcal per 1 stick (average mixed item with sauce dip)

Turon

220 kcal per 1 piece

Pandesal

110 kcal per 1 piece (bakery size, about 35g)

See all Snacks & Kuih calories, ranked ›

Calorie and macro figures are estimates for a typical carinderia or restaurant serving. Actual numbers vary by stall, recipe and portion size. Use them as a guide, not gospel.

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