Pink Think: “People say to me, ‘Would you like to swap your life with me for 24 hours? Your life must be very strange.’ But of course I’ve not experienced any other life. It’s not strange to me.” – Prince Andrew
Seeing a bottle of fish sauce at the grocery store yesterday made me homesick for the Philippines. I had forgotten how delicious it is to sprinkle tomatoes and onion with fish sauce, and eat with dried fish. To some people, this may seem odd fare (fish sauce?) but to me growing up in Manila, it seemed NORMAL. Some other interesting foods I’ve eaten:
1. balut (duck egg in embryo stage) – well, not the embryo itself
2. young coconut – the grated coconut stuff at your Albertson’s gives coconut a bad name
3. squid – freshly sauteed
4. dinuguan (blood sausage)
5. bagoong (shrimp paste) – you either love this or hate this; my husband hates it
6. guava – fresh off the tree with bright pink pulp, mmm; brought to mind by Don Carey’s blog‘s Great Guavalicious Giveaway
7. kasuy (cashew fruit) – with rock salt, tart; makes me salivate just thinking about it
8. dilis (dried anchovies)
9. hotdog and rice for breakfast
10. Spam and rice for breakfast
11. taho – soy drink with syrup and tapioca
12. corn ice cream
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And I thought the food in Australia was wild! (I visited there for two weeks in 2006.) I guess it only goes to show that what we see lots of becomes normal and ordinary to us. Some of that food in your list sounds enticing, but I’m sure I’d side with your husband on a few items.
No green papaya chicken? No adobo? Hmmm. 🙂
@Davis: My husband, a native Utahn, eats things that I think are kind of strange, like bread soaked in milk. When we were dating, he introduced me to “Hamburger Helper Stroganoff” and my life has not been the same since.
@Don: That’s right, in Hawaii, you have lots of Filipino foods, don’t you? That would take an entirely different post altogether :-). My kids love sinigang (so much they call it yummy-gang), adobo, and nilaga (without the authentic papaya though). They always ask me to cook these, sometimes I have to beg off.
wow, I feel relatively boring for liking peanut butter and pickle sandwiches! I’ve seen balut, but I have no desire to actually eat it. As for the fruit, you made me hungry for papaya and fresh coconut.
It’s odd that even within the same country there are such different things that are faves – just try getting shrimp on your pizza in Utah. They just look at you weird. But I’m from the coast, I grew up where anything that comes out of the water can, and should, be added to every dish.
@Wendy:
*pb & pickles* I’ll have to try that with my youngest; she loves both.
*shrimp and pizza* sounds good actually
I bet all your friends there will be interested to know what you stuffed yourself with the last time you came home. All that gluten! It’s really just amazing how you can stay so skinny. I miss you!
@after8: Hiya! Thanks to you I resisted a second helping of spaghetti for lunch today :-). Proud of me? Now if you’d tempted me with malagkit or ube, that’d be a different story.
I suffered through balut once while in the Philippines. The fluid not so bad, the bones and feathers, well let’s just not go there! What I miss most are mangos, and lechon chicken…cooked over an open pit and stuffed with I think it was bananna leaves which gave it this incredible flavor. I also could use some good Pancit and lumpia. Oh well. Halong!
@berlinwritergirl: Yeah, I love balut, but not the chick part :-). I get my fix of pancit and lumpia from my mom, who fortunately lives just an hour away.
I showed my wife your post here, and told her I was sad you didn’t win a jar of Guavalicious. She said just to send you one. So if you’re interested, email me your address.
Wow, Don. That’s really nice of you. Thank you!! You and your wife made my day. Am I interested? Definitely!