Filipino Cuisine-O

So let's have a gastrointestinal update. I think I've mentioned moving out was a great move in the aspect I more or less have control over my diet most of the time. My diet has now changed from the fried food wars back in PST mentioned in the blog post Diet Wars. Granted, I no longer have my meals prepared and I am not nearly as savvy at makin local delicacies as a host family. However, a common Peace Corps Philippines adage amongst volunteers is that delicacy is not a word we like to throw around here. I fully confess that some of these delicacies I am not wild about, in particular the numerous rice-based delicacies. The various rice-cakes, gelatinous rice snacks, dried rice snacks, etc I tend not to like. They come in two brands to my tongue...bland and sugary. However, other delicacies I've taken to fully. At school I am known amongst the teachers as Mr. Lumpia because I, if it's available, will eat Lumpia for lunch with a steaming pile of rice. In fact in my interview with the school paper when asked what my worse experience here was I cheekily replied "Lunch without Lumpia". Lumpia though isn't some of the more unusual and exotic foods here. I recently, more or less against my wishes, was for lack of a better expression peer pressured into a balut pact. I'll explain. Let's run through some of the more interesting foods, or delicacies, I've come across, or haven't...

Balut

"Baluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut. Balut Balut Balut Balut Baluuuuuuuuuut!" Any given night, any given city in the Philippines there'll be guys shoutin this out whilst peddling on bicycle balut stands. Balut, if you don't know, is a food found throughout Southeast Asia but is particularly popular here in the Philippines. Balut is a fertilized egg embryo that's nearly developed and then hard-boiled. Not for vegetarians. This past weekend I had it for the first time, to be blunt an unavoidable occurrence. The juice inside was disgusting, the rest of it just tasted like a hard boiled egg. I bet some hot sauce would've made the juice part...palatable.

Pork Sisig

This is one of my favorite dishes, I eat it frequently. It's served sizzling hot on an incredibly hot plate. Usually there's a raw egg in the middle that you immediately stir and spread along and throughout the Sisig and it fries before your eyes. The Sisig is actually small bits of pork, peppers, and other seasonings. Mixed with rice as well, of course. I love to eat Sisig it's a great dish. However, the bits of pork are actually from the pig's face and liver. Usually the face parts are the pig's jowls. Maybe not so appetizing once you hear about what it is but it is delicious.

Dinuguan

This dish is a stew of blood and meat (typically stomach, intestines, ears, heart and snout) simmered in a rich, spicy dark gravy of pig blood, garlic, chili, and vinegar. I have not to this point eaten Dinuguan, we'll see about this one. I have a feeling of inevitability the same as balut.