I was born and raised in an Irish Catholic section of Boston called Dorchester; the other major section for the Irish is called Southie (South Boston) where many of my cousins lived. An old joke about us Irish; “Do you know what a seven-course dinner in Ireland is, Six pints of beer and a potato.”
My wife has asked me why I don’t like rice. There is no good answer to that because I really don’t, I find it filling yet very bland, but this is just my opinion, if you like it, the more to you.
Rice is something you should eat if you want thousands of just one thing. I love potatoes, but not at every meal every day. Even if served in the vast arrays there is in cooking potatoes. (No I will not list them all) Sometimes I like French cut green beans, corn, and other items with my meal but again not every day. Variety if you can afford it. (That will set someone off on a tangent LOL)
My house has an unusual machine called a Rice Cooker, sitting on the counter always full of rice 24-7.
Note: Something I learned in 1995 somewhere in your house there should be a spare “Rice Cooker” if you ever want hero status from your family. It was not a buy one take one deal. But we have a spare. (Again if you can afford it) (LOL)
I have a Fry Daddy (No spare I couldn’t afford it) on that same counter that I can cook French Fried Potatoes in, but it will also fry other stuff like chicken or fish in there too. My first time seeing a rice cooker I thought it was a Crock Pot. Add to it the little light which I call the “Eternal Flame”. My Fry Daddy also has a light, but it is only on a few hours per month.
My wife and family want rice with every meal and this American of Irish descent will do nothing to change that. What right would I have to even try? Would anyone try to stop our Australian friends from eating Vegemite? I think not. And don’t mess with my peanut butter.
With Filipino food, there is much I like, and some I don’t like. But I will always try it before having an opinion but once more, not wanting it every day. I would believe there is much American food that a Pinoy wouldn’t enjoy. Dill Pickles and mustard come to mind) But I also don’t want Hot Dogs or Hamburgers every day.
Some of the harm I’ve done in the past 25 years, with the children in my family. My granddaughter eats rice, but if given the chance to have Mashed Potatoes and gravy that will win out every time. She even likes it with breakfast, and I know every restaurant in Zambales and Bataan that serves it.(She says it is good with Kenny Rogers Chicken too) And never put hot dogs in her pasta. (Give her Italian Sausage please) Her mother will just give me “The Eye” and then smile. I started the young lady on Bacon cooked crispy and explained it was finger food. Once more I get that “EYE” from my daughter.
Mayang is old school about her rice and will pass on meals without rice; her twin sister is of the same ilk. But our two-year-old niece likes Daddy Tito Paul’s food and snacks. (Not so much Chili. Not happy with beans.)
What I do like in the Philippines are the pastries and baked goods, the lady at the Sari-Sari bakes banana bread and knows to tell me when it will be ready. It is so good, and Sky Flake crackers will beat NABISCO day in and day out, give me a Fita cracker and keep soggy Ritz out of my sight I like a lot of local candy too. Pop Cola not so much thank you, its coke Na Lang.
Now today, for lunch I’ll have cold cuts on a French roll with Potato Chips and A&W Cream Soda (A New England favorite.) Don’t hate me because where I live has so much imported food. While my wife and sister will eat a Filipino taste sensation of their choosing. I spent most of my life single, so I know how to cook whatever I like, and still do. This is not me telling you how to eat, as I would never presume to do that, this is just how I do it.
My number one favorite restaurant is still the Sit-N’ Bull, in the Barrio. Ron (The owner) worked as a cook on longline fishing boats in Alaska, and if the Captain and crew aren’t happy, it is the midnight shift at Denny’s where you’ll end up and lose one hell of a big paycheck.
He knew that if he wanted the foreign traffic, and also knew we’d never get them if the ladies didn’t like the Filipino food he served, so now my friends and I get to eat there all the time. Plus local businessmen and politicians also like the chow and it is now well known among all walks of life in the Olongapo City area.
The area has many good restaurants owned by expats and local so whatever food you are looking for is mostly here. There even was a French restaurant, it closed within six months. A Greek restaurant would be nice, but when if I have to go to Manila, I know where they are.
So I wish you all a Good Appetite;
Tagalog: Masiyahan kayo sa inyong pagkain
French: Bon Appetites
Javanese: Monggo dinikmati suguhane
Latin Cenam vestram fruimini
Italian Buon Appetito
Greek Καλή όρεξη( Kalí órexi)
You are lucky where you are Paul, western food is hard to come bye in Tagum City. Beef you just nail that on the sole of your shoes lol.
John;
We have butcher shops that import really good corn fed Australian beef. If you’ve ever had a steak in Australia you’d know how good it is. Angles City has the same type of food too. My wife just happened to live here, and she didn’t want to move far from her family. Neither did I. (LOL)
Reading this makes me miss the biscuits and gravy at Denny’s Restaurant in Yakima, WA where we lived before moving to the Philippines. Friday morning bible study with my men’s group, followed by breakfast. It was a great way to start a Friday.
Mike;
Sit-N”-Bull in the Barrio has Biscuits and gravy, But I liked the Grand Slam at Denny’s. Some foods do stir memories.
Mike,
There are Denny’s in Metro Manila, along with IHOP.
Randy, there’s an IHOP in Rehoboth about 10 miles down the Coastal Highway from where we live on Fenwick Island, Delaware. They serve the best tilapia fish fillets a la Florentine on a bed of spinach, a favorite of mine. It comes with mashed potatoes with gravy and garlic bread. Love it. Thanks for the tip. I hope the IHOP you speak of in Metro Manila serve tilapia in the same style as they do here in the States, because I will be there to eat. While my wife will have her usual customized menu of harvest pancakes, scramble eggs, hash browns and turkey sausages, I will be having the fish. At 11AM.
I have often thought about what our ( USA ) equivalent would be to having rice with every meal and I think it would be potatoes. Home fries with breakfast, French Fries with lunch and baked potato with dinner. I don’t think many of us would do that with every meal every day though.
When I do have rice I like to put butter on it. My grandmother used to put sugar on her rice. My favorite rice item is Rice Pudding but I don’t think it is very common in Philippines ?
I have found many Filipino foods and meals to my liking I just can not remember the names of most of them.
Bob (NY)
There are some wonderful meals here, and each region does it their own way. Like Clam Chowder in New York and Clam Chowder in New England.But I find the best Filipino food is never at restaurants but at a party, at a neighbors house. And I know Jollibee’s is always your favorite over McDonalds.
You mean, Manhattan clam chowder in New York, Paul. 🙂
John
The red stuff that they eat in New York.it was developed in Manhattan and they seemed to like it in New York.But without potatoes and cream, is it really clam chowder?
Paul – I like both Manhattan and New England clam chowders, with Manhattan having the edge if eaten with banana bread. The sweetness of the banana bread is an awesome contrast to the tangy flavor of the Manhattan. It’s a meal in itself.
The New England clam chowder, meanwhile, has the edge over the Manhattan, if I add clam juice and a can of tuna in a hefty bowl of the soup along with crushed saltine crackers. But, you wouldn’t have none of that, as I recall you admonishing me about it. LOL
John;
In New England we find that Manhattan Clam and Tomato soup lacks the consistency to make it a chowder. On the sea shore around New York the clam shacks by the beach, see which of the two they sel. The chowder or the soup.l
We Westerners can have bread with every meal. Bread, one way or another, is our rice equivalent.
Gary;
What you say is true, but I seldom eat bread without butter on it. I guess I could pit butter on rice.
Try soy sauce on rice, Paul, you might like it better than butter on rice. On the soy sauce, make sure it’s the low-sodium kind like Kikkoman low sodium soy sauce. The Kikkoman works well, too, when you fry Tocino Spam with it.
John;
I honestly do not like Soy Sauce.
Bob New York – Pancit? Adobo? Lumpia? Lechon?
These are usually the kind of Filipino dishes you will encounter at most Pinoy parties.
Three rice cookers here – the “standard” counter-top edition, the “emergency” just in case edition, and the “super-sized” party edition. Also have two spare power cords for each rice cooker. Seems as though some “operators” have the Midas Touch when it comes to anything with a power cord.
White rice is the largest contributor to the diabetes epidemic in the Philippines, too. I shy away and gnaw a potato, when available. ????
Paul;
And with that many rice cookers the tranquility was hang over the roof of your house up north.Under the sink we have a battered old aluminium rice pan for absolute earth shattering emergencies.
I don’t want to jinx it, Paul, but I do eat rice with ulam frequently at dinner, and I don’t have diabetes. How are things out there in Pasuquin, Paul?
Couldn’t agree more Paul regarding the mashed potatoes, salt, butter and milk, yum yum, love it, I too have it for breakfast sometimes. I guess potatoes are something all Irish will cherish forever. My wife also likes it but not as much as rice. I will eat rice but sometimes only.
Here in Mis Occ imported foods are hard to come by, not much that way in Ozamis, we mostly shop in Dipolog but very basic (not much at all) when it comes to anything imported.
Must agree with John. J. regarding the beef, here also beef is like an old boot. I think most cows die of old age before being slaughtered. The only way to cook it, I find, is in a pressure cooker (and give it extra time in there) to get it anywhere close tender
Regards
Jack;
I’ve found local beef here but it is not corn fed, and corn adds the flavor. in the 1950’s South America sent grain fed beef to the United States and when they switch to corn (A different type of grain) it sold like wild fire.
I’ll wager I eat more chicken and pork then I do beef, but when I want beef I only want the Australian imported beef.
In 1995 I did see my wife boil a steak, but I explained you only boil Corned Beef.
Not sure how others cook Calderata (or any soup or stew), but I start by browning then slow-cook my beef (and that’s local beef, not politician-priced-imported-beef) with my desired spices, onion, and garlic. Sadly no celery even resembling wilted compost around here. After a few hours, add potatoes and carrots to the slow boil. My induction cooker at the lowest setting boils for one second, shuts off for maybe 10, repeat repeat, that’s just how it works and saves a big bunch of electricity. If cooking outside on wood or uling, the boil is obviously more vigorous.
All of which makes me think of the original posting topic mention – “cold cuts”. Ah, now I understand, slow-roast beast or fowl of some sort, chill, slice thinly, then wishfully remember what real bread used to be in that far-away land. Wish my wife’s bad dog hadn’t eaten the wiring out of my oven, as I now can’t bake my own bread, and sadly that also makes the tail end of home-producing pastrami a no-go at the end of the required two weeks. Things like salami, capicola, proscuito, kielbasa, and other sorely-missed “cold-cut” meats that need to “hang” for months at cool temperatures are totally inconsistent with our warm climate here – perhaps hence no plethora of domestic producers.
A long ways off from St. Patrick’s Day, and already I am salivating at the thought of boiled corned beef, turnips and cabbage for dinner. Seems like I have a lot of favorites. This is another one of them, Paul.
John;
Corn Beef and cabbage is a mainstay around Saint Paddy’s day, but as a kid in Boston we had it all the time, especially when visiting our Grandmothers. Each cooked it a little different, and no one ever figured out if one was better than the other as they both were wonderful. Brisket the only beef you should boil.
In New York I believe they add tomatoes to it! (LOL)
Paul: Last night for dinner I had a great sandwich, pastrami, cheddar cheese, pickles, good mustard and a dash of hot sauce on a Hogie roll from Rustans, washed down with an A&W Root Beer. Turn off the rice cooker. I’d take this meal anytime.
And to a fellow Irishman, just before my dad died, he called me long distance from California and went right into a joke in an Irish brogue. He didn’t even say, “Hey I have a joke for you.” He just went right into it.
“So Pat and Mike were talkin’ one day, and Pat says, ‘Mike, you’re me best friend. Would you mind doin’ me a wee favor.’ Mike says ‘Well sure and begorrah I will Pat. ‘Well when I die, says Pat, Would you mind pouring a pint of fine Irish Whiskey over me grave? I’d appreciate it.’ ‘Well, consider it done Pat, but would you mind if I passed it through me kidneys first?”
My dad was born one week after the ship moored in Boston, but all my grandparents were born in Ireland. The greatest natural sense of humor comes from them. Tip of my hat to your Dad! Great joke BTW!
The sandwich sounds great (Hogie is one I’ve not heard in a while) Mustard is something my family won’t touch, I just don’t know why? (LOL)
Taitneamh a bhaint as do chuid béile
Hi Paul –
You’re right about rice being bland, that’s why rice is rarely eaten by itself. Rice is almost always eaten with some kind of dish what we, Filipinos, call “ulam” or “putahe” (from the Spanish “potaje”). Ulam or putahe, it means the same thing: viand. By the same token, ulam is rarely eaten without rice.
But, I’ve also seen people eat rice without ulam.
Poorer folks from barrio Salaza make do when there is no money for ulam; they eat rice with “bagoong” (fermented fish sauce), or “tagapulot” (hardened sugar made of sugar cane juice).
There aren’t many Filipino dishes I don’t particularly care for like the kare kare, which is cooked in peanut butter. Other than that, I like almost all Filipino dishes to go with my rice, foremost among them are chicken adobo, sinigang na baka, beef kaldereta, and pinakbet.
Since my wife does not cook Filipino dishes as a routine, I have to wait until we travel to Northern Virginia to visit our kids living there to satisfy my fix for rice and ulam. Plenty of Filipino restaurants there, but hereabouts where we live in Delaware, there is none.
John;
I’ve only eaten French Fries or chips without something else, so we both have something in common. I’ll assume that you must be the only Filipino man who doesn’t cook? Every male in my wife’s family can cook, and do. My two son-in-laws both taught my dughters to cook, (lol0 and you don’t.
But if you must wait to eat what you love, think about how good it is when you have it. Food is important to each of us.
Masiyahan kayo sa inyong pagkain
Oh, I cook alright. I know how to cook sauteed corned beef from a can, for example. We have a rice cooker, but not the eternal flame kind like you have, because the only person in the household who uses the rice cooker is me. There’s only me and my wife in the household. She fixes mostly Lebanese or Arabic food, which are not that different from each other, and I fix my food, mostly from the can; that is, if we’re not at Outback Restaurant dining on my all time favorite King cut prime rib cooked Pittsburgh style and lots of au jus with baked potato with sour cream and chives on the side.
This is not to say I don’t like Arabic food. Just tonight, my wife cooked molokhia with lamb for dinner. I’m still burping as I type. LOL Btw, Paul, molokhia is saluyot in the Philippines.
John;
During my many trips to the Persian-Arabian Gulf I tried Middle Eastern Food, I’d rather go to the Outback with you and have a Blooming Onion. I don’t do a lot of can food, but I have. I like spam, the national dish of Guam.
Funny that you mentioned blooming onions, Paul. It’s my wife’s favorite. It’s a must have appetizer when we go to Outback to eat. Guamenians know what they’re talking about. I like Spam as well. On a recent trip to visit my youngest son in Ashburn, I picked up a can of Tocino Spam from Lotte, an Asian grocery store there in northern Virginia. The made in the Philippines Tocino Spam is the tastiest Spam I have ever eaten. I ate it with guess what. LOL
John;
There is a Outback in Manali at the North East Mall (I think that’s it) If the VA makes me go again I’ll go for the Blooming Onion.
Hi Paul i liked reading your post
Ulysses;
Thank you, I like reading your comments.
Have you (or anyone) considered opening a business to source and ship precious items like French bread (or any European-style bread), cheese, and cold-cuts (real cold cuts, not the pink processed stuff that’s the only thing local groceries stock)? I’d sacrifice bigtime for one decent sandwich a month. Good chance I’m not the only deprived foreigner in the boonies.
Swiss Deli in Davao (not far from you) has everything you are asking about. As does S&R.
Bob, I appreciate your suggestion and am aware of what’s way over there in Davao, but I don’t consider Davao “not far”. To me, downtown is “not far”, Digos is already way too far, and Davao must reasonably be an overnight trip, otherwise work all night, go to catch the sardine-can-van at dawn, and get home in time to work all night again has these last few years caused me to contract something very nasty that takes a month or more and advanced antibiotics to shake at my age. Seems I grew a LOT older just a few years ago, so no joke and something I dread and avoid. Maybe it’s just me, but Davao is a once-a-year-can’t-ignore-BI-reporting excursion and maybe pick up a few things at a mall on to stuff under my feet in the commuter van on the way back out.
Hence my thought that if someone could make a business of picking up a few extra things while they are doing their regular shopping next door to them and sending them to the interior at a 20% markup for profit with shipping at my expense. Still hungry for that impossible sandwich, but now craving a McDo or BurgerKing or such burger – but hey, that’s way down there in Davao too, so only once a year and one can only eat so much in the few hours actually there!
Just like how many times have I picked up things at the mega-mall palengke here and put sacks of such on the jeep to the bundok for people way up there. It’s routine and for me I just do it as a favor to family and friends. Yeah, that’s in theory much closer than Davao, but an all-day trek which logistically many people prefer to avoid.
Ed, the thing is that you constantly complain about this and that not being available. I mean constantly. If you live out in the boondocks, that is the way it is. If you don’t like it, make a change!
Bob;
Thank you for jumping in and assisting a fellow sandwich lover. We had a Subway Sandwich Shop her in Olongapo for about six months years ago. I pulled up, got out of the car and it was the 1000th internet cafe on Magsaysay Street.Months later I ran into the owner, and he said the Kano’s were not enough to support the business, he needed Pinoy customers too.
In Puerto Rico my bars had Gringos and tourist, but without the locals I’d never would have survived.. .
Paul,
There are quite a few Subway’s now in Metro Manila.
PapaDuck;
Yes there are but I like nothing so much that I’d go to Manila for, unless I absolutely have to. (LOL)
Ed;
I feel your pain, a well made coldcut sandwich is a beauty to behold. But it seems our Web Master Bob has found the answer for you.. (Enjoy your Sub.)
Here in the UK the wife only has rice 2-3 times a week, I guess this will change once we relocate full-time. Although I don think it will go back to the 3 times a day. I do enjoy rice for. breakfast as long as it’s champorado and for lunch with a curry.
Champorado! Talk about food stirring memories as Paul said above. Champorado always brings fond memories of the rainy season in Salaza (and vice versa), when Mom used to serve it for breakfast with fresh, boiled carabao milk. Fried tuyo is a perfect accompaniment to champorado.
Gary Dadd;
A very good point,you made, rice is good with curry, I ‘d forgot about that, and as curry is becoming common in Olongapo,
Paul,
I don’t care for white rice either. When i eat potatoes it’s usually potato salad which is good when the weather is hotter. But i do love mashed potato’s also. I get them when i buy my cooked turkey at S&R. They are actually pretty good, along with the gravy they make. I have to agree with you that Sit n’ Bull has good food. But also Texas Joes is another favorite there. We are going to S&R this week in Alabang. We like to eat at Chili’s. I especially like the nacho’s there. They are the best I’ve had here. But what make’s them really good is that they are free for filling out a survey.
Papa Duck, I don’t dislike white rice, I just find it bland, but as Gary pointed out above it is good with curry. and in Puerto Rico I liked it mixed with red beans. Texas Joes is my go to BBQ restaurant, but they don’t serve breakfast.
Hello Paul, and guten apetit.
After more than 35 years in Europe and the US, My wife, Marlyn, doesn’t crave rice for every meal. She is, I think, the exception to the rule though. Most, if not all, of her stateside relatives who’ve been there just as long retain the need for rice.
We actually have a couple of local restaurants with a western style menu. They’re pretty good. So far, I’ve tried their salads and sandwiches. Maybe I’m due a steak now.
Take care,
Pete
Pete;
I left out guten apetit. in error as the Barrio has a Bakery and restaurants owned by Germans. Salads are also on the rise and something I enjoy. A salad Bar would be a winner with me..
Yes, agree salads are very healthy and not easy available in the Philippines as they are not cultivated other than in the mountain regions like Baguio and are sold at very high prices at the mall grocery stores! Also what they call Baguio tomatoes are much to expensive! The trouble is that the filipinos don’t eat green salads and therefore there isn’t so much demand. In what filipino fast food or local popular eateries do they offer to make you a salad? This is a food that has won terrain in western countries and comes from the Mediterranean cultures. The kind of salad the filipinos eat is of a green long stilk seaweed which is salty. For 30 to 40 years ago here in Norway salad leaves was used as garnish served on dinner plates! Not eaten! And now many recipes and many types of green salads appear in the stores and people eat it with joy! But to get the average filipino to eat it maybe a challenge!
I eat salads every day that I et (I fast for about 5 days a week). Salad is widely eaten here in Davao. Lettuce and other greens are grown in Bukidnon, not far from Davao.
Timothy;
With the advent of foreign restaurants owned by folks from, Australia , United Kingdom and the United States, Making salads common place in the Subic Area now. Trucks deliver from Baguio every morning all the fresh produce required. (When in season fresh strawberries too) Salad popularity is growing in Olongapo City. My wife is still up in the air over salads. (LOL) .’ S&R has a big salad I like when in a rush..
Rice, three times a day. Your problem is you do not know how to make the dried rice (white rice) more palatable. You can choose various types, colors, textures of rice. Not that more expensive in the Philippines. Try fried rice, and put in all types of vegetables, try this in Chinese fast food takeouts. Try the “sticky rice”. Try your favorite soup, like maybe chicken noodle, and put in the ordinary rice your family makes into it, and stir. Put a cup of white rice on your plate, and put gravy or some sauce on top of it. Delicious!
String beans: try the Chinese or Thai green beans with good flavors all over them. Try them at Chinese buffetts.
Just a quick look at other ways to make food palatable.
Jerry;
So we agree rice is bland and needs ways to spice it up, but what chance would I have ib changing the rice my family eats (LOL) But your suggestions are very good, amd a couple I’ll try. Thank you!
Spanish Rice, the best rice ever.
Loren:
But Spain is such a long way from Bataan!
BTW When are you coming back to Olongapo?
Jerry;
So we agree rice is bland and needs ways to spice it up, but what chance would I have ib changing the rice my family eats (LOL) But your suggestions are very good, amd a couple I’ll try. Thank you!
I reckon that rice is addictive; perhaps it’s the traces of arsenic?
Why do I say this? Well, it’s bland and tasteless, and if you introduce it to someone who didn’t grow up with it, they’ll say, likely, “yeugh”. But if you grew up with it, as, dare I say it, a filler to compensate for a lack of more expensive food, it gets that you can’t live without it, and you need it not just every day, but with every meal. Isn’t that the definition of addictive?
I met rice in my twenties, surrounding the Indian curries I’d just discovered, which are the best food in the world, if properly cooked. The rice is useful for soaking up the wonderful juices so that nothing is wasted. Even the Filipinos and other nationalities with a rice addiction, dribble something on it so that it has some flavour. But would I put it on my plate just so that I could add something to it to make it palatable…nope! But then, I didn’t grow up with it, and so I avoided the addiction. (With the possible exception of that which comes in a tin with “ambrosia” written on it), that filled a lot of my pudding plates as a child.
Each to their own!
Jim
Jim;
I like Spam on occasion but not all the time. As a merchant seaman a large selection of my ships were homeported in Guam. But because of WW-II the people of Guam became addicted to Spam, so when at someones house for a party there will be Spam. In Puerto Rico they grew neither rice or red beans, yet it is the national dish consumed with all meals. BTW I also like Rice & Beans, “But not every day” (LOL) Food like language is implanted on us from birth, no matter where the birth happened.
We must not foreget rice is not universally eaten in the Philippines, places like Negros corn grits are the staple.
Gary;
Grits are a staple? 1994 I arrived here and this is the first I’ve heard of that. I can’t count the number of times my retired shipmates and I sat and lamented that we could not find grits here in Zambales or Bataan. And they were here all the time. Now they show up once in a while on the Freeport. I’m from New England but being stationed in the South and breakfast on ships taught me to like grits. Thank you, I’ll check with friends in Negros to get some.