Responses to My Query- Can you Describe Filipino Food to a Stranger?

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  A couple of months ago, I joined a Facebook group-Filipino Cooking. I posted a query 10 weeks ago (October 5)as follows:

  "Describe Filipino food to a complete stranger!"

  I got 262 comments as of today. I am posting a few of the comments for your  reading pleasure. Don't forget to click on #15 video.
  

  1. When I met my husband I barely ate anything...my mother in law was an excellent cook and introduced me to so many amazing dishes. I still can’t do chocolate meat and fish when the head is looking right at me but everything else is amazing. I can actually cook more Filipino food than my own Greek cuisine.
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  2. It’s the easiest food to cook because there’s only a few ingredients. Fried or has soup.
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  3. Something very unique because of the mixture of cultures that influenced it. It is an amalgam of tastes from those that the Filipinos has in contact with and somehow assimilated into our cuisine. Filipino food is simply Filipino food.
  

  4. I always tell people - it’s like an explosion in your mouth - the kind where you yes yummy and close your eyes at the same time
5. Yummy
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6. Somewhere between Chinese and Spanish, with Malaysian and American influences, with an island flavor" usually works. It obv doesn't give enough credit the **Filipino*ness of it all but it gets the point across.
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7. Filipino food is unique. It has its own flavor. You need to try it and I’m sure you’ll like it!
8. Asian soulfood!!!
9. "You eat it with rice" lol ...
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10. Everything is to be eaten with rice, and to be enjoyed with barehands..

11.  Something very unique because of the mixture of cultures that influenced it. It is an amalgam of tastes from those that the Filipinos has in contact with and somehow assimilated into our cuisine. Filipino food is simply Filipino food. We can say that it is influenced by this culture or that culture but we have somehow put our unique brand to every dish we produce.

12. Looks like and smells like garbage, but tastes like heaven

13.  Asia meets the Iberian Peninsula and Italy, corrupted by 1950's American food.

14. The perfect last meal before death row 

 

15. I don't think I can say it as well as Rexie https://youtu.be/m6Jk3qbtSF8

Here's the description of Filipino cuisine from Wikipedia

Filipino cuisine (Filipino: lutuing Pilipino/pagkaing Pilipino) is composed of the cuisines of more than a hundred distinct ethno-linguistic groups found throughout the Philippine archipelago. However, a majority of mainstream Filipino dishes that compose Filipino cuisine are from the cuisines of the various ethnolinguistic groups and tribes of the archipelago, including the Ilocano, Pangasinan, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bicolano, Visayan (Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray), Chavacano and Maranao ethno-linguistic groups. 

The style of food making and the food associated with it have evolved over many centuries from their Austronesian origins (shared with Malaysian and Indonesian cuisines) to a mixed cuisine of Indian, Chinese, Spanish and American influences, in line with the major waves of influence that had enriched the cultures of the archipelago, as well as others adapted to indigenous ingredients and the local palate.

Dishes range from the very simple, like a meal of fried salted fish and rice, to fish curry, chicken curry, complex paellas and cozidos of Iberian origin created for fiestas. Popular dishes include: lechón (whole roasted pig), longganisa (Philippine sausage), tapa (cured beef), torta (omelette), adobo (chicken or pork braised in garlic, vinegar, oil and soy sauce, or cooked until dry), dinuguan (pork blood stew), kaldereta (meat stewed in tomato sauce and liver paste), mechado (larded beef in soy and tomato sauce), pochero (beef and bananas in tomato sauce), afritada (chicken or pork and vegetables simmered in tomato sauce), kare-kare (oxtail and vegetables cooked in peanut sauce), pinakbet (kabocha squash, eggplant, beans, okra, and tomato stew flavored with shrimp paste), crispy pata (deep-fried pig's leg), hamonado (pork sweetened in pineapple sauce), sinigang (meat or seafood in sour broth), pancit (noodles), and lumpia (fresh or fried spring rolls).

Various food scholars have noted that Filipino cuisine is multi-faceted and is the most representative in the culinary world for food where "east meets west".

Meanwhile, enjoy this photo of my Peppered Steak in Oyster Sauce that I cooked recently.

Beef Tenderloin tips with sweet red peppers and sweet Vidalia onions in oyster/teriyaki sauce mix

I served it with steam rice and green papaya acharra (pickled) and leche flan for dessert. 

Here's more video of Rex Navarette on Filipino Cuisine.

Also happy to post what I purchased from Sea Food City today

Grilled Pompano, ampalaya, bagoong, buko pandan ice cream, spanish bread, butter mamom and enzymada

Here's one recipe for Pork and Chicken Adobo by Richard Gomez. Boiled eggs and Liver  are Optional. Adobo is one of the most popular Filipino dishes and recipes varies in different regions of the Philippines. Calamari ( squid/pusit) Adobo is also another one of my favorite Pinoy dish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBSQkZUHezo