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Old 02-02-2014, 10:58 PM
 
Location: Melbourne, Australia
9,744 posts, read 20,660,860 times
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Food in the Philippines: A Lingering Taste of Salty Disappointment : Indiana Jo

Unpopular and Underrepresented Filipino Cuisine? | Definitely Filipino


* at least in the opinion of many and especially compared to other Asian cuisines.

I admit I've only had it a few times, but that's partly because despite the fact there are a surprising number of Filipinos here, there are very few Filipino/pinoy restaurants. I know of maybe 2-3 in Perth, a city which has hundreds of Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Malaysian, restaurants. I had this pork dish, it was just really salty, too salt, and black, cooked in some sort of soy sauce.

But in general, from what I've heard, most Filipino food is just lacklustre, lacks the complex tastes, spices.etc of other cuisines, is very salty or sweet and is of course heavy on the organs. In Singapore there are some that cater mostly to the maids but even there it doesn't seem very popular. There's also Jollibee, which I had in the US, but the less said about that the better. Even their 'halo halo' etc just doesn't compare to the sheer variety of desserts you get in Singapore, Malaysia or even Indonesia/Thailand (it's my opinion Singapore/Malaysia is the real king of desserts in Asia).

I wouldn't mind trying more Filipino dishes, but few really even LOOK appealing, a lot of brown sauces, weird things, I had Dominican food, maybe it's something about the Hispanic influence. Also how come Spanish food is not well known when it's supposed to be some of the best? But that's another topic.

I think that's one of the things which makes the Philippines less interesting to me. The cities seem choked with traffic, polluted, not as safe, dull, and the culture less Asian I suppose, although it'd be interesting to check out a Catholic Asian country.

I'm sort of interested WHY Filipino food isn't as good as it's Asian neighbours. Many of the same ingredients.etc are available, and Filipinos share similarities with Indonesians, who have delicious food using lots of spices, herbs, vegetables, fruits.etc. It seems Filipinos aren't as big on spice, I wonder why? Is it the Spanish influence?

What are your experiences/opinions?

 
Old 02-02-2014, 11:21 PM
 
3,643 posts, read 10,688,315 times
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Maybe because Spanish food sucks too (it's bland). I'm Filipino and I don't like our food. The only things I like are lumpia and adobo.
 
Old 02-02-2014, 11:25 PM
 
Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
1,021 posts, read 3,639,582 times
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Its not that bad, chicken abado and kare2 is pretty nice, seafood is also pretty great but as in general i would rate it mediocre but not dissapointing or something. They used loads of vinegar and limes in their food if i must say, not as spiced as ours (Indos or Malaysians) postman.

Plenty of organs are also in chinese food right? Especially if they use porks and so does Indonesians like a dishes called soto babat (goat meat) and as well Balinese food, i didnt fancy it that much actually. Though Indos may share alot with Filipinos, the food is completely different, Indonesian islands are rich with choices of spices and herbs available which i doubt Philippines had as much, and have been evolving through times. And as you said Hispanics is pretty fluent in their dishes, Spanish food also tend to be less spiced compared to the rest of Europe.
 
Old 02-02-2014, 11:53 PM
 
Location: Czech Republic
2,376 posts, read 7,052,012 times
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I don't think our desserts are bad at all. We have good desserts like :

Flan de Leche
Crema de Fruta
Brazos de Mercedes

These desserts look good and taste very western... Although of course these are all influenced by Spain.






Last edited by Hermosaa; 02-03-2014 at 12:10 AM..
 
Old 02-03-2014, 12:25 AM
 
Location: San Francisco, California
1,949 posts, read 6,432,662 times
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seems like a lot of the foods are almost unrecognizable , mostly stewed dishes all chopped into small pieces in gravy / sauce

the dish the Postman tried sounds like it could of been Dinuguan? pork inards cooked in pig's blood with dark sauce like a stew, the dish they tell the kids it's chocolate meat

mostly served cafeteria style like they serve food in the army
 
Old 02-03-2014, 12:50 AM
 
Location: Melbourne, Australia
9,744 posts, read 20,660,860 times
Reputation: 2833
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr bolo View Post
seems like a lot of the foods are almost unrecognizable , mostly stewed dishes all chopped into small pieces in gravy / sauce

the dish the Postman tried sounds like it could of been Dinuguan? pork inards cooked in pig's blood with dark sauce like a stew, the dish they tell the kids it's chocolate meat

mostly served cafeteria style like they serve food in the army
Oh it's pig's blood! Glad I didn't know at the time lol.

Oh wait no it wasn't, it wasn't innards just pork belly in a dark sauce that tasted like soy-sauce.
 
Old 02-03-2014, 12:51 AM
 
Location: Melbourne, Australia
9,744 posts, read 20,660,860 times
Reputation: 2833
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermosaa View Post
I don't think our desserts are bad at all. We have good desserts like :

Flan de Leche
Crema de Fruta
Brazos de Mercedes

These desserts look good and taste very western... Although of course these are all influenced by Spain.





Not bad. In Singapore, Taiwan, HK, they have a lot of western style bakeries with an Asian twist, like Breadtalk, I don't know if you've tried, some are pretty good. Pretty good cakes and stuff.
 
Old 02-03-2014, 01:21 AM
 
1,142 posts, read 2,187,973 times
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I agree that Filipino food is a bit lackluster, but it's not as bad as what the OP stated.

There are two things that Anthony Bourdain liked re Filipino food, one is lechon and the other one is halo-halo. Lechon is not readily available overseas. Halo-halo is similar to the Malaysian ice kacang. I don't exactly agree that desserts from Malaysia/Singapore are better. As much as I like Malaysian/Singaporean food, I haven't had any outstanding desserts that I can recall.

Pork barbecue, chicken barbecue and roasted chicken are cooked in charcoal, and similar to lechon, are not readily available overseas. Filipinos tend to adapt to other cultures easily, and few who went abroad are good cooks when they were in the Philippines anyway, so that explains the low number of restaurants abroad.

Also, Jollibee is not representative of Filipino food. It's a fast food chain. It's not even thought of as "Filipino food" within the Philippines. Their biggest seller is fried chicken. It's not that bad, but if the OP sampled it in the US where they use American chickens that grow as big as turkeys, it tastes awful. The Jollibee in the US also have pancit palabok that has very thick noodles. Also taste worse than what is available in the Philippines. Filipino style spaghetti tastes as bad overseas as in the Philippines though.

Maybe due to more outside influences, I would say Filipinos go and eat at restaurants of other cuisines more often than people from other countries. In China, it's normal to eat at Chinese restaurants maybe 80% of the time, while in the Philippines, when people go out to eat, it's probably like only 20 to 30% to "Filipino" restaurants. Just go to a shopping mall and count how many "Filipino" restaurants are there and most likely less than a third. There are probably as many Chinese restaurants, a lot of fast food, some Western fine dining places, and quite a number of Japanese/Korean restaurants too.
 
Old 02-03-2014, 01:33 AM
 
Location: Czech Republic
2,376 posts, read 7,052,012 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Postman View Post
Not bad. In Singapore, Taiwan, HK, they have a lot of western style bakeries with an Asian twist, like Breadtalk, I don't know if you've tried, some are pretty good. Pretty good cakes and stuff.
Actually I live on top of Breadtalk Lol
I like their breads and pastries but their birthday cakes sucks ( bland and lack of imagination ).
 
Old 02-03-2014, 01:38 AM
 
1,142 posts, read 2,187,973 times
Reputation: 1099
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Postman View Post
Not bad. In Singapore, Taiwan, HK, they have a lot of western style bakeries with an Asian twist, like Breadtalk, I don't know if you've tried, some are pretty good. Pretty good cakes and stuff.
There are a lot of Breadtalk stores in the Philippines. Nice, but I think tend to be overpriced.
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