I get a kick out of my Mom. As you know, she is currently visiting Davao, and will be here for about 6 weeks or so. When she first started coming to the Philippines about 6 years ago, she used to have a problem with the food here. She could not really find a type of food that she liked that much. Even the foods that she likes back home in the States didn’t sit well with her here. For example, she felt that the beef here tasted “gamey” or kind of like “wild game,” if you know what I mean. Last time she was here, though, she fell in love with the pork here in the Philippines.
Now, almost every meal, it seems my Mom wants some kind of dish made with pork! She is particularly fond of the Pork Liempo from a restaurant here in Davao called “Banoks.” She is constantly raving about the Pork in the Philippines. She says that the pork here tastes so much like the pork she could get in the USA back in the “old days.” She goes on to say that the pork available in the USA is not nearly as good as it used to be, but the pork in the Philippines is always excellent.
Over the weekend, I took my Mom to Samal Island. It was her first visit to Samal, and she loved it. During the ferry ride to the island, there were guys selling various types of snacks on the boat. One vendor had chicharon (pork rinds) and I bought some. Oh my goodness! My mom suddenly had a new friend in that chicharon! She loved it. She even joked that a few bags of those could be her dinner!
What about you, do you have a certain type of food in the Philippines that you particularly enjoy? Is there some food here that makes you remember the foods from your childhood? For me, I particularly enjoy the seafood here – shrimp, crab and some of the fish. I guess the pork isn’t bad either! ๐
SMB from Seafood City can double as paint thinner! ๐ The export versions of most Filipino favorites are disappointing at best and downright “yuckie” at worst. ๐
I always like our soupy based dishes – soul foul like Tinola and Sinigang (baboy of isda [pork or fish]). For me, nothing beats a steamy hot soup of either of these two, especially on a rainy day. Ah, childhood memories of sipping such heavenly soups with chunks of chicken or pork, usual remedies also for colds and flu. Yeah, like chicken soup!
While I like also the taste of Thai sour soups, I still go for our Philippine sinigang soup based food anytime, anywhere. Just the right hint of sourness to perk up my day!
Of all the foods I enjoyed on my 3 trips there was when Elena made sinigang na baboy. Most foods or meats are dry, so I love the broth to pour over the rice. And I love cooked vegtables.
For dessert, nothing can compare to Elenas Mango Float. I have had it at other resturants there, but there is something Elena does with hers to make it so much more creamy. Yummy
Hi Jio – I am not a huge fan of the soups here. They are more water based, yet, I prefer more of a cream based soup. That's a personal choice, though.
Hi Bruce – I remember hearing you rave about the Mango Float that Elena made!
I might sound naive and that's okay… what is a mango float? Is this mango and some ice cream that you put in a blender together?
And I'm with Jio on the reminiscences of sinigang na baboy and tinolang manok. I love the broth on these dishes. Also kare-kare remains high on my list.
Lately I'm seeing a "sisig" on the menu of some Filipino restaurants. What exactly is it? Is it ground intestines or ground pork? I have not gotten the real scoop on this one.
Hi Angie – Sizzling Sisig is ground intestines of a pig, with various spices and such.
Well I do 90% of the cooking my household so I'd have to say I love native chicken or any pork really, especially pork chops. I have even taught my wife you don't have to cook the pork until you could retread your chinella. (I have a probe thermometer from my days as a chef so I always cook the pork to 190) I'm not so fond of soup but I will eat it, especially a fish soup made with bangus and a generous helping Kalamunggay. Well I'm off to Cebu with my wife until Sunday, Palaam everyone.
Soup: Tinolang manok (native chicken) Please don't forget the lemon grass.
main : kinilaw (first class deep-sea fish, not "overdone" with coco vinegar); sinugbang fish with soy sauce + native sili + vinegar as dip sauce
sweets: leche flan; mango float is OK
fresh fruit: mango is top of the list
halo-halo with ube or mango ice cream
shake: avocado or mango
snacks: puto-maya with hot chocolate (pure tableya)
comfort food: bulad + rice + cold coke
or fresh young coconut with its juice and evap milk mixed (hot season)
benignit or biko (with extra coconut syrup/latik + coffee (rainy season):lol:
I agree with your mom that pork tastes much better here! I never ate much pork in the States, but since beef was so tough, we began to eat a lot more pork when we moved here. When we went back to the States to visit, and I tried my favorite pork dishes, they tasted yucky! It must be the feeds.
I love chicken barbecue, pork barbecue sticks, foods cooked in gata (coconut milk) with dahonan (leaves), beef guisado, escabese fish, and bam-i (pancit made with both sutanghon and canton noodles). And lechon, of course! give me some of that crunchy skin, ha, be?
Hello all, This is good talking about foods, ๐ makes me hungry.
Jio- agree with you on our kind of soup. I love tinola and just bought 2 pack of malungay last sunday. Our sinigang is the best still compare to Thai soup ๐
Bob-Jon, my husband prefers the creamy soup the western likes. He calls our tinola just literally water and fish which sometimes I do cooked it that way especially if malungay is not handy. He loves Thai soup also.
Bruce &Angie-Mango Float was introduced; I think just1 or 2 yrs before I arrive here in US. That would be 7 yrs from now and I think you’re long gone in Pinas then. Its' ingredients is graham cracker, ripe mango slice thinly (canned mango can be used too), all purpose table cream (can use media crema)& condense milk need to be mix. Laid in a container first the graham cracker then mango pour the mixture of cream& condense milk repeat the procedure until your done sealed it with graham. It should look like layers then freeze it. Voila! you got Mango Float (almost like an ice cream). Everyone love the mango float each time I introduce & bring one in any get together here in US.
Americanlola I love the barbeques back there. It seems I can’t replicate the taste no matter how I can try. Hmm I wonder maybe it has to do with MSG. Just made escabeche tonight ammm… doesn’t look like our escabeche there ๏.
Agree with Louie that native manok or pork meat taste better. There is even a barbeque vendor that sells this native barbeque chicken which usually attracts patronage.
We just arrived her in MNL yesterday.The foods I love to eat when we're here are the ones that we cannot get in SoCAl.For example, pusit sauted in it's black ink.MMMM sarap. Or, sinigang ng Lapu- Lapu(the only real Lapu Lapu is found in The Philippines not the Seafood City version).Another one is Baliwag chicken .I love how juicy their chicken is.
As for fruits, my wife, son and I ate about 10 Mangoes each after we arrived in the AM. The mangoes in SoCal are those lame mexican "Manila" mangoes… not as good.We had some rambutans yeaterday as well.
Of course San Miguel Beer seems to taste better here in MNL than the ones we buy at Seafood City in National City (:
My son would add that the Mango shakes and Banaques taste better here as well
aguho
My favorite:
main : kinilaw ( fresh deep sea fish, not overdone with coco vinegar)
sinugbang baboy (stomach part) with soy sauce, sibuyas bombay + native sili and lemoncito juice
soup : same as Jio's. Please don't forget the lemon grass with it.
dessert: leche flan
fruit: mango is on top of the list
others: halo-halo with ube/mango ice-cream, mango or avocado shake
comfort food: buwad and lots of rice + ice cold coke
snacks: puto maya or suman pilit + hot chocolate (tableya)
benignit (for rainy days)
fresh buko and its juice with evap milk + little honey (hot sunny days)
I like all filipino foods obviously because im a filipina, ANGIE,I have a recipe for you of MANGO FLOAT,2 or 3 pcs of mangoes(slice ),1 big can of condensed milk and 1 big can of nestle cream..mix them all together and freeze…ITS VERY DELISH!
"Hi Angie – Sizzling Sisig is ground intestines of a pig, with various spices and such."
The major ingredient is pig ears.
I like lechon kawali. And barbecues. I find most restaurants (read "most" with "cheap") serve foods that are not very tasty or sanitary. For for the rare few that are usually easy to find due to their popularity, the Filipino foods are served so good, that I tend to become a regular. Jo's Inato (don't know if they are in Davao) are really great bbq place. I also absolutely LOVE bicol express, which is heavy on coconut, so it tastes somewhat like thai green curry, which is perhaps on of my top 5 fav foods. Pinakbet is great also!
While in Davao, I found a great Chinese seafood restaurant in a resto/entertainment area that's on par with restos in Hong Kong. I forgot the name of it. But it's very large and the area has many LARGE restaurants/karaokes surrounding a large parking lot, next to a shopping mall… The decor was simple, but they had many acquariums where you would choose your dinner. Melts in your mouth good.
But this, I guess is not filipino food…
Breakfast: Sinangag (fried leftover rice) with fried bulad (dried fish), mango or banana, and kapeng barako
Lunch: Utan (mixed vegetables) na may subak (with) lapu-lapung bulad + rice of course!
Snack: Binignit (can't translate this one…help..)
Dinner: Grilled fish or pork + bulalo soup + rice
Hi Louis – Have a good trip!
Hi Jul – my favorite fresh fruit is probably mangosteen. My favorite shake is green mango! I love it.
Hi AmericanLola – Very interesting about the pork! I didn't realize the difference.
Hi Mady – Sounds like Jon and I have a lot in common!
Hi Aguho – I hope you get to enjoy plenty of your favorites during your stay!
Hi Jae – You are correct, I forgot that most sisig also contains generous amounts of pigs ears!
Hi Teng – I know what Binignit is, but can't quite figure out how to describe it, though.
re: US Pork vs. Philippines Pork – I think it's due to the fact that pork in the US has been heavily marketed over the past years as 'the other white meat'. Hence, it has been engineered to be leaner (less fat) and thus, less flavorful also.
Favorite food? Sinigang na Baboy (Pork Sinigang) of course! With lots of sili (chili peppers). If you're in Metro Manila and a pork fan, you've got to try the inihaw na liempo at Yoo Hoo outdoor grill at Metrowalk in Ortigas. It's the best!
Hi rob – I agree with you on the "other white meat" comment – I have thought the very same thing myself!
hi bob say hi to your mom, i hope she enjoys her stay and has a nice visit with the grandchildren … i like leche flan , mango float is very good my fiancee made it for me last time i was in davao ,i also like bananaques.lechon ,lechon manok is my favorite,adobo,many different types of pancit.
Hi Ken – Wow, you have a long list of foods you enjoy! I must say that I enjoy each of these myself!
Hi Mahdy, Neng,
Thank you for the mango float details. That's not too difficult, I can probably try making that at home.
Bob, Jae,
Thanks for explaining what sisig is. I've been tempted to order it a restaurant but the 2x that I have asked what it is, the resto folks have not given a satisfactory answer… Something like, "basta, baboy iyan" or "lamang loob ng baboy" or "baboy o kaya lamang loob… it depends…"
It depends? It depends on what? My personal philosophy is if "in doubt, skip it…" So I have skipped ordering it. Probably next time I will try it.
Surprised that no one mentioned "dinuguan" (as the Americans that I know here would call it, Bloody Mary) — does anyone not like it at all?
Me! I don't like it at all! ๐
Sorry guys, I double -posted. Something went wrong when I hit the send button –I thought the first one was lost !
Anyway, I can only eat dinuguan if I my male cousins are the cooks. I can even fix it myself but it's labor-intensive. ๐ฎ
Jul,
You make me think… what makes the difference if it is a male or a female cook that fixes the dinuguan? Or is it just a personal idiosyncracy of yours? (Excuse my inquisitive mind…:lol:)
Oh, and I'm not a kitchen aficionado so I have no idea of the extent of labor required to fix these dishes.
My kitchen is everywhere… except in my own home ๐ You got the hint. But there's Filipino restaurants now sprouting in my places so when I crave, I just drive. (None in my area though and I don't think there will ever be one in the near future. There's a handful of Filipinos here, not the number to make them profitable.)
Hi Bob- mine's are:
Sisig, Banana-q, lechon paksiw!
Hi Bob,
If your mom likes the food so much, she should stay living in the Philippines!
Hahaha, you're wicked, Angie!
It so sad that the female generation of my family didn't inherit the culinary virtue of my grandparents, but the male does! So when we're having a get-together, the boys do the cooking and the girls do the table-setting, washing of dishes and a lot of chickkas. Sometimes I feel we're just a nuisance to the boys because they don't like us watching them do their rituals in their cooking, especially the gourmet dishes. The rituals include adding their secret ingredients that I wanted to find out what!
For dinuguan, the intestines of the pigs have to be cleaned extremely well with soap and water and other additives so it matters to me who prepared it. Thanks!
Hi Angie – I tried dinuguan, but only once. That satisfied me for life! ๐
Hi AmericanLola – We have similar taste buds, I guess!
Hi marygrace – thanks for sharing!
Hi Tom – That day may come.
Hi Jul – no matter how well prepared – Dinuguan is not for me!
Angie if you have more question about mango float let Neng and me know . It is very easy not messy, you just have to freeze it.
Jul it is good that in big gathering Males are usually assigned in laborious cooking ๐ hehehehe…
BTW I love dinuguan, bopiz and papait. Although, I love all Filipino foods, there are few that I don't eat and cannot it them anymore (specially the delicious ginisang shrimps and crabs huhuhu ๐ฅ , fish is ok )
Mahdy,
Re #29. Thank you for offering. I'll definitely give it a try but Ineed to go to an Asian type grocery store to find the "real" (Manila) mangoes. Correct? I'm just thinking that the Mexican mangoes won't do. They probably won't give the same taste as what you and Neng have described.
Thanks again. That's really sweet of you.
Hi Bob-My favourite Filipino dish is Sampayna with Sinanlag. When I attend parties both here in the UK and in the Philippines and if the hosts know I'm attending they always make it for me.I think they have a secret competition to see how much I can eat at any one time.
I have always wondered why Filipinos don't eat spicy foods. Most SE Asian countries (actually the entire Asia) eat spicy foods.
Jae,
Re #32.
Go to the Bicol Region. I think there's even a contest there for eating "sili" (ie, pepper). If I remember correctly, someone also died as a result of ingesting too much sili.
Yes, most of Korean dishes are spicy, right? But I find Thai food to be even more so. I love both cuisine though.
Angie,
It took me some pulling of teeth to get Elenas Recipe, and I do not know the quanties, but here it goes.
All purose cream
Condensed milk
butter
graham crackers
sliced mango
In a bowl cream the butter and then mix in the all purpose cream and then the condensed milk until fully mixed.
In a glass casserole dish layer crackers, cream and sliced mangos. Continue layering to top of dish.
chill in the refrigerator for a few hours or until the crackers have become soft.
Serve and enjoy
Hi Jim – be sure to eat plenty! It wouldn't be right to offend the cooks, after all! ๐
Hi Jae – Of course Angie is right about Bicol, but you are right about the vast majority of the Philippines. Combine the Asian preference for spice and also the Spanish influence, this should be the spice capital of the world! I wonder about that too.
For me , being a chef , in iligan city i fried shrimps myself , in the wok with garlic and a little tanduay.
But for the rest we eating out. Bihon gaisado , and the thick pork ribs
wo are on de BBQ same as chicken.
And for me the San Miguel beer is as good as Heineken.
It,s only a shame that it,s no more on draft in iligan. And i allso not like the can , only bottle.
Our last vacation in July 2007 i found draft in cebu , and i must say,
i drink a lot.
On bucana beach,in iligan, they make their own [ what they call ] palm-wine. You see the boy climing the tree.
But i must say , i can not drink it.
But the food , i like allmost everything.
And there is the BuLaLu , allmost ever day i have it [ on my holiday,s ]
try to make it in my home [ Netherlands ] but it,s never so as in iligan.