Our food choices naturally gravitated to Filipino and Chinese...and a bit of Japanese too.
Like in the rest of Asia, people in the Philippines show their affection by plying you with food. Any kind of meeting is almost always done with a meal. And we met with many friends and relatives!
Apologies to vegan sensibilities... This is called a lechon...a roasted suckling pig usually served at Filipino celebrations.
The famous chicken barbecue of Aristocrat Restaurant, complete with Java rice and achara (pickled green papaya). By the way, I don't think "Java rice" actually originated from Indonesia. Maybe it was the Filipino imitation of nasi goreng...but I am guessing!
I stayed at my sister's house. Home cooking was good. Ingredients like these...
...turn into soups like this. This is sinigang, a sour (tamarind or guava based) soup.
More Filipino delicacies... Pinakbet--mixed vegetables cooked in shrimp paste called bagoong (pronounce BAH-goh-ong).
Bistek Tagalog. "Bistek" is the bastardization of "beef steak". Thinly sliced beef cooked in soy sauce and calamansi (Philippine lemon). Garlic rice goes very well with it.
This is what calamansi looks like, by the way. They make a great lemonade too!
Crispy pata. These are pig trotters. First boiled in spices to make tender, then deep fried into crispiness. Dip it in a soy+vinegar sauce.
Kare Kare. Stewed ox tail, tripe and vegetables in a peanut-based sauce. On the side, the aforementioned bagoong goes very well with this dish!
Sigarilyas sa gata. The vegetable "sigarilyas" is called the "winged bean" in English. My theory is that this vegetable is long and looks like a cigar so it got called after the Spanish "cigarillo", the thinner version of the cigar. It is cooked in creamy coconut milk. "Gata" means "coconut milk" and a lot of Filipino food and desserts make use of this ingredient.
For breakfast, arroz caldo is tops! It is a rice porridge cooked in chicken broth...with bits of chicken. Top with roasted garlic, green onions and hard-boiled egg. Squeeze in a bit of calamansi juice!
Chicharon bulaklak. A favourite Filipino pulutan or "beer food". Crispy deep fried pork intestines...not for the faint of heart, i.e. not recommended for people with hypertension and cholesterol problems!
For dessert, halo halo. A mix of fruit, sweetened beans, jelly and flan, packed in with shaved ice. Pour a bit of evaporated milk and add a dollop of ice cream if you like! Typically this is served in a tall parfait glass but in this pic, the restaurant served it in their own style!
To drink, sago at gulaman (tapioca balls and agar jelly)...a cool, sweet drink for the hot days. And fresh coconut juice. The young coconut (called buko) is simply cut open. Stick a straw in and drink! The coconut has to be young so that it will be full of juice. The more mature coconuts will have more white flesh and less juice. The coconut flesh is what is shredded and squeezed to make coconut milk.
Coconut is abundant in the Philippines.
But you don't need to climb the trees to get them. :-) They are sold in the streets of Manila like this.
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