All through the Spanish Era, a small jovial town copious with blessings from the sea was celebrating a feast every 8th of December in honor of its patron saint La Immaculada Conception. So conventional then was to serve food to all visitors during fête and gaiety. Always a part of these celebrations are pasta or pancit like what the Chinese have divulged to us as part of our heritage.
Malabon, then and now, is known as the place where the best patis (fish sauce) and bagoong (shrimp paste) can be found. So bountiful were the sea harvests that all over the banquet of its patron saint, townsfolk experiment a delicacy with the Chinese noodles by putting up his own brand of concoction which is known as palabok using all the available sea foods at his disposal. Neighbors who had tasted it became curious and from then on experimented with their own palabok, thus the derivation of PANCIT MALABON.