BLOG 13: An American's Experience With Pig's Blood

Filipinos have been known for eating a lot of strange food: fertilized chick embryos, pig tongue, and apparently dog (which is pretty uncommon in our country but I will get to that in another entry). But this fact did not actually hit me until I dated an American.

A couple of months into dating, I figured it were the right time to introduce my then-boyfriend to the food of my culture. I decided to get him the “Filipino basics.” This would be chicken adobo, bistek, and turon for dessert. While enjoyed all three (not so much the bistek since I think I bought a bad batch but he said he thought it would have been good), I knew he was not as adventurous to try out something extreme. So as a “surprise,” I decided to get dinuguan, which most of us know as pig insides mixed with pig’s blood. I set the dinuguan in a bowl and set it on the table. He took one look at the dark brown chunky soup-like dish and was hesitant.

This is what the poor boy saw

“What’s that?” he says. “Just try it. Find out if you like it.” It was probably a little mean of me to not let him know what it was before he tried it, but I also knew that, that was the only way he would. And if anything, I wanted to take some sort of credit for exposing him to a little culture. So he took his spoon and took a small bite. “What do you think?” “I don’t like it.” “It’s pig’s blood.” The look of disbelief on his face was priceless. He put down the spoon, took a picture, and then called his brothers and their wives telling them of his horrible experience. As horrible as it was to him, it did go down in the books as one of our most memorable moments. We have joked about it a few times too. “You know I’m the only one who could have given you that experience.” “Hmm… Yeah, I could have done well without it.”

BLOG 12: What I'm Looking Forward to in My Singapore Trip

My family and I planned a trip to Singapore this January. I thought it would be a good idea for me and this project to research what food to expect and look forward to while I’m there. So I turned to Anthony Bourdain and found the top three things I need to try while I’m there:

1. Hainanese chicken rice – this is a Chinese dish but is more common in Singapore. Though it does not sound like something one would really look out for, learning of the process made it a lot more enticing. It begins with taking the chicken and submerging it ice, stripping it from its skin and fat. The rice is then cooked and boiled with chicken fat and garlic. They are both served with chili sauce, pounded ginger, and oyster sauce. This process can vary depending on the cook.

Bourdain's Experience: 2:35-5:55



2. The Clinic Restaurant – this is something my cousin mentioned to me as soon as I told him we were going to Singapore. The Clinic is a hospital-themed restaurant where the seats are wheelchairs, drinks are served in blood bags, and the place is lit like a hospital if you know what I mean. Eerie or delicious? Cool or just plan creepy? I expect a long line when I get there. Either way I bet I would enjoy the experience.

Bourdain's Experience: 00:00-4:50



3. Steamed shark head – if someone would have told me to try it, it would probably have been at the bottom of my list just because it doesn’t sound all that special to me. But after seeing it on Bourdain, I just thought it looked pretty good. The texture and garnish made my mouth water just watching it. There is no way I am missing this on my trip.

Bourdain's Experience: 5:45-8:05

BLOG 11: Buffalo Wings

America might not exactly have their own cuisine like other cultures do, but it was an American that invented the perfect food to enjoy with your Super Bowl and your beer: the Buffalo Chicken Wing. The genius (though probably not exactly intentional) idea came from the mind of Teressa Bellisimo. She and her husband Frank owned a restaurant called the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. It was on one fateful day in 1964 that she took the chicken wings, mixed it with her special sauce and served it with celery and blue cheese—the only ingredients she had available at the moment. Little did she know, the lack of condiments made her earn culinary respect. Ever since then it has been enjoyed in every bar in the country. A Buffalo Wing Festival is even held every year in Buffalo.

In San Jose, one of the popular places that people go to for the dish is Smoke Eaters. One of the things that Smoke Eaters is famous for is their Hellfire Challenge, which is to eat 12 wings dipped in their hellfire sauce in 10 minutes. No napkins, no drinks, and they must lick the sauce off their fingers once their done. But it doesn’t stop there, they must wait 5 minutes and feel the “afterburn” to fully win the challenge. A friend of mine took on the challenge a while back and fortunately lived to tell me the story. Needless to say, he made it through 6 pieces and went through what he described as “the worse pain of his life.”
Even the famous Adam Richman of Man vs. Food thought that the challenge was truly extreme. He succeeded nonetheless.

This is my friend keeling over in pain after the Hellfire Challenge.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1920434,00.html

Watch Man vs Food's Adam Richman survive the fire:

BLOG 10: Fast Food in The Philippines

This is probably an entry of large disinterest, but I personally thought I would take the time to discuss fast food in the Philippines. For the most part, the biggest fast food chains in the country carry the same items on their menu. The KFC in the Philippines carry rice with their meals, and McDonald’s also has a chicken and rice meal on their menu, as well as a spaghetti meal. However, the biggest and most popular fast food in the Philippines is probably Jollibee. There, they have it all. Burgers, fries, chicken and rice, spaghetti, palabok (a traditional Filipino food made of angel hair pasta and shrimp sauce), and many other meals others might find strange. One of these meals includes a burger steak topped with Jollibee’s special gravy and mushrooms served with rice.  

Burger Steak at Jollibee

Palabok from Jollibee

It is also common that fast food chains host kid’s birthday parties. They cater to houses or at a nearby location and provide entertainment by bringing along a dancing mascot. Given this situation, it is quite clear that fast food in the Philippines is pretty much enjoyed by the middle-class or higher. And in a third-world country, a large percentage does not often get to enjoy these foods. This is part of the reason why our obesity rates are not as high as it is in America, despite pretty much the same amount of calories in each meal. Fast food as a luxury, yes I admit, is kind of sad. But then again, maybe they are better off not being exposed to the evils of fast food. 

And for your viewing pleasure, here is the dancing mascot:

BLOG 9: Durian

"Smells like hell, tastes like heaven." That's what I would always hear about the durian. For those who do not know, durian is a fruit common in Southeast Asia. It is most distinguishable because of its spiked husk, and of course, it's smell. As Anthony Bourdain of popular show No Reservations put it, “its taste can only be described as…indescribable, something you will either love or despise. …Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.” Despite the harsh words, ironically, the Durian is believed to be and aphrodisiac. However, there has been no scientific truth to this. I live in a city called Davao in the Philippines, a place that is known for harvesting Durians. We do not only have the fruit, we have different variations of it, from candy, to ice cream, to shakes, and even in one café, a cappuccino. To have lived in Davao for pretty much all my life, the effect of durian to other people is the exact opposite to me. Though most find durian repulsive, to me, it simply smells like the sweetness of home. To get a little piece of home while here in America, frozen durian can be found in most local Asian stores (yes, it is not the same but it will do somehow). Also, my sister and I had discovered a frozen yogurt place on Curtner called Whimsical Frozen Yogurt Gelato where they serve Durian ice cream, for those who can’t handle the real thing.

BLOG 8: My Failed Attempts at Cooking

It is a little unfortunate but I am one of those few people who actually cannot cook. I have tried several times, but feelings of discouragement always hold me back. Also, once I get hungry, I try to look for the quickest food to make to appease my grumbling belly. The very few times I do cook, it is usually the simplest ones that you can just throw on a frying pan. This includes bacon, eggs, and spam (and I know most people think it is gross but I happen to enjoy it). For someone as inexperienced as me, it is only natural that I would run into little mishaps here and there. The one time that I had attempted to make eggs sunny-side up, it was burnt on the sides, raw in the middle, the apartment was filled with smoke, and it was just... disgusting. I supposed that is what I get for trying to just "figure it out." Ironically, my best friend in high school just happened to be culinary gifted. Her family had a business and so she has pretty much been cooking and baking since she was a child. On one father's day that I decided I wanted to bake cookies for my dad I asked for her help but wanted very minimal supervision as well. Despite what you might think, no I did not ruin my friend's kitchen. And the cookies actually turned out really well. In fact, my dad asks me to bake every time I come home to the Philippines. I made a lame attempt to bake a cake when I moved here, which would have been otherwise good if I did not overestimate the size of the pan. Well it's always good to know that what I lack in cooking I make up somehow in baking.

This is the best picture I could get from my old phone. This is my failed attempt at making strawberry short cake which turned out to look more like a pancake.

BLOG 7: Persian Food Experience

My boss Raz, from my internship is a big food enthusiast. He would frequently take us out to lunch and when he does, it is almost always something interesting. One of the food trips that I thought was worthy of a blog entry was when he took us to a place called Dezzi Café, a small Persian restaurant in Santa Clara. There was not anything particularly interesting with what my colleague, Lorena and I ordered. I had Chanjeh, which was a sirloin steak kebob, while Lorena had a Chicken Koubideh, which was a ground chicken kebob. Raz, on the other hand, had the real traditional Persian food. The food which inspired the name of the restaurant was called Deezi. It was a lamb shank soup with tomatoes, beans, with different spices and herbs. This was all served to the table in a bowl, but then transferred into a small pot where it is smashed with a metal pestle. 

The bowl is the lamb soup. You can see the pestle used to smash the food next to the jar.

Raz explained to us that this is what the nomads used to eat, as it is pretty much a complete meal with all the nutrients that one needs. Though I am not sure how accurate that information is since I failed to find anything when I tried to research more about it. I tried a bite of it and it does taste like something that could fill you up. If you are interested in trying it, Deezi Café is located at 1312 Saratoga Ave. San Jose, 95129. You can also view their menu on their website at wwwsanjosepersianrestaurant.com