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I've tried it a few times, but even visually it just doesn't really look appealing...
A lot of the better Filipino dishes need an open pit to make them taste good. I don't think that's available in Singapore. There has been a lot of answers to your question, and I can tell you that part of it is that not all Filipino dishes are bad. Also, you get confused on what to consider as the "foodie scene" vs "the cuisine" of a place. Yes, London's foodie scene is vibrant due to many restaurants of various nationalities, but British food is still considered bad anyway.
Anyway, I am not saying Filipino food is stellar, as I don't like some dishes either. But it is also not as bad you make it out to be. It's not only me who noticed that you overrate Malaysia and Singapore anyway you can here in the forums. So what if some dishes are not visually appealing? Which dishes are you talking about? I can tell you that bak kut teh does not look visually appealing, nor does black Hokkien mee in KL. Not every Filipino eats balut anyway, if that is what you are referring to.
I've tried it a few times, but even visually it just doesn't really look appealing...
If that's your opinion, so be it. I just don't understand why you have to "investigate" on this further and reject everyone's explanation of why and how Filipino cuisine is the way it is.
Again, nobody it is shoving it down your mouth so make your life simple, don't eat it. If it's that repulsive, spend your time researching on other cuisine that interests you more. Food is there to make life much more exciting; it's a vehicle for you to experience a facet of a culture without having to physically immerse yourself at it. Do yourself a favor and move on and start a discourse on a cuisine you love and are very passionate about.
A lot of the better Filipino dishes need an open pit to make them taste good. I don't think that's available in Singapore. There has been a lot of answers to your question, and I can tell you that part of it is that not all Filipino dishes are bad. Also, you get confused on what to consider as the "foodie scene" vs "the cuisine" of a place. Yes, London's foodie scene is vibrant due to many restaurants of various nationalities, but British food is still considered bad anyway.
Anyway, I am not saying Filipino food is stellar, as I don't like some dishes either. But it is also not as bad you make it out to be. It's not only me who noticed that you overrate Malaysia and Singapore anyway you can here in the forums. So what if some dishes are not visually appealing? Which dishes are you talking about? I can tell you that bak kut teh does not look visually appealing, nor does black Hokkien mee in KL. Not every Filipino eats balut anyway, if that is what you are referring to.
Foodie Scene vs Cuisine.
I just have to point out, the "foodie scene" in the Manila is stellar. I would say it is even much better than some of the major cities in the United States (Houston, for example). And yes, contrary to uneducated opinion, a lot of Filipinos are exposed to various cuisines in Metro Manila. I would definitely not underestimate the "foodie" scene in Manila.
There are some possible reasons for why Filipino food is lackluster compared to some of its neighbors in East and Southeast Asia, and some of these reasons probably also fit into why some, but certainly not all, Latin American (Mexico and Peru being huge exceptions) and sub-Saharan African cuisines (Ethiopian, Somali, some West African, and South African cuisine being large exceptions) a bit lacking. I don't think all of the below are required to have a particular interesting/idiosyncratic cuisine (especially the last one about large scale and diverse immigration), but certainly one or two of them probably go a long way into helping things work.
- The Philippines were never the seat/capital of a particularly large or prosperous nation state for a sustained length of its history while many of the neighboring nations have had various large, independent kingdoms pop up which would have been able to martial the resources for a relatively large and wealthy upper class who would have been able to push resources into creating a large number of dishes with a wider variety of ingredients, techniques, and cookery; this is a pretty old and repeated theory for why great and varied grand cuisines came out of certain parts in the world, though it doesn't seem to be both a necessary and sufficient condition as English cuisine is pretty unremarkable--though I've heard the corollary to that is "given sufficient time", so maybe it didn't have enough time as a major power for that to happen
- The Spaniards who conquered the Philippines did such a great job in their caste system and assimilation that there was probably a preference to try to adapt Spanish cuisine as best as possible even though biogeographically/agriculturally the Philippines is quite different from Spain
- There has never been a huge influx of immigrants from diverse other places forced to mingle in as great a number or proportion as there were in some of the other neighboring nations such as in Singapore and Malaysia which threw in a variety of people with their separate, and already pretty distinct and complex, cuisines into one place in fairly large numbers
- There has been rampant poverty in the Philippines in the 20th century going on to now, so there hasn't been much resources in creating a more extravagant or more complex cuisines rather than stewing or frying things; use of mass production processed ingredients that are a bit more one-dimensional such as maggi, tomato paste, and spam (I love spam) are also extremely common as is the influx of basically American junk food--who knows, maybe there was a much more layered and unique Filipino cuisine before much of the middle/upper class left in the years after the American occupation and then the World War.
Filipino cuisine also gets a worse reputation than it really deserves as it does have some great highlights with the unfortunate thing being that some of its more notable dishes and ingredients exist in similar forms or have their origins in the cuisines of neighboring nations which seem to have more highlights in general. I don't think as a cuisine it's nearly as good as the cuisine of most of the neighboring countries nor as good as either Mexico or Spain (whoever said Spanish cuisine is bland is crazy), but there are definitely some pretty good, though generally not particularly distinct, highlights and it's certainly possible to get some pretty great meals in the Philippines.
I'm just asking out of curiosity, I don't mean to bash Filipino cuisine, I'm sure there is food from there that is good, I'm just wondering why most people agree it's so inferior compared to other Asian cuisines.
Roasting a pig in a pit is certainly not unique to the Philippines - it's a common thing in Polynesia and parts of Indonesia. That's only for special occasions anyway. I don't see that is particularly Filipino.
I'm just asking out of curiosity, I don't mean to bash Filipino cuisine, I'm sure there is food from there that is good, I'm just wondering why most people agree it's so inferior compared to other Asian cuisines.
Roasting a pig in a pit is certainly not unique to the Philippines - it's a common thing in Polynesia and parts of Indonesia. That's only for special occasions anyway. I don't see that is particularly Filipino.
Because southeast and east Asia has really amazing and diverse cuisines that set the bar really high? You ever have Malian cuisine? Now that's a pretty bare cuisine. Or Tongan? It's like Filipino cuisine but with ALL the interesting parts stripped out--sure, they can have fresh fruits and roast a pig (and neither of those are common day to day so much as just regular starchy or canned crap), but that's available everywhere.
I think Filipino cuisine comes out fine. Not stellar, not bad. I like a good tapsilog after a night of drinking.
Because southeast and east Asia has really amazing and diverse cuisines that set the bar really high? You ever have Malian cuisine? Now that's a pretty bare cuisine.
No but I've had Ethiopian cuisine. Maybe you've heard the joke about an Ethiopian dish being one grain of rice on a plate or something . Ethiopian isn't bad, actually.
I'm just asking out of curiosity, I don't mean to bash Filipino cuisine, I'm sure there is food from there that is good, I'm just wondering why most people agree it's so inferior compared to other Asian cuisines.
Roasting a pig in a pit is certainly not unique to the Philippines - it's a common thing in Polynesia and parts of Indonesia. That's only for special occasions anyway. I don't see that is particularly Filipino.
There is already several possible explanations here.
Roasting a pig is not unique in the Philippines but that is a big part of Filipino cuisine. Yes, they do it in Bali, Puerto Rico and some parts of Polynesia too. So what? I've tried the Filipino version of roast pig and I like it. Anthony Bourdain declared it the best pig ever. I have never said that all Filipino food is extremely good, but you downplay it too much. Frying/baking/steaming/etc. chicken/pork/beef/fish/etc. are not particularly unique to a particular region in the world.
Singapore comes up with ice cream between two pieces of bread and you rave about it like it's such an innovative idea. FYI, they also do that in the Philippines but I have not tried it and no one will buy it already served that way. And that Magnolia ice cream you put there is originally from the Philippines. I don't know how you can be so dense. Yes, others had it right. If you don't intend to try it again or visit the Philippines, or even process some of the explanations, then why bother asking the question. Just don't eat Filipino food, no one is shoving it down your throat.
No but I've had Ethiopian cuisine. Maybe you've heard the joke about an Ethiopian dish being one grain of rice on a plate or something . Ethiopian isn't bad, actually.
I've also tried Ethiopian. Not bad. But that is not Malian. Just as Malaysian is not the same as Filipino.
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. Ethiopian isn't bad, actually.
Yes, others had it right. If you don't intend to try it again or visit the Philippines, or even process some of the explanations, then why bother asking the question. Just don't eat Filipino food, no one is shoving it down your throat.