renxkyoko's space Just another WordPress.com site

Hello !  Renxkyoko Iglesias here.

Ah, Philippine  cuisine  !  Where do I even begin ?  Last week,  a friend of mine  ” ordered ”  lumpia  (  meat eggrolls ) from yours truly, good for 20 people.  She’s  Guatemalan.  The truth is,  friends and co-workers have been ordering  trays of food from me for several years now, including 2 Persian friends whom I have been cooking for, for  their Thanksgiving, and believe it or not , Christmas parties.  The Persians  usually order  fried , vegetable rolls, beef stew ( caldereta ) ,  chicken adobo, leche flan ( egg custard ) and  a few desserts and salads.   It’s my underground business, but I don’t think  the government will be interested  in taxing  my  $ 75 earnings.  I do it as a favor. In fact, I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s labor intensive,  And if it’s just one tray of dish,  forget it.  I mean, after deductions, I get  what, a $ 5 profit ?     I    loath myself  when that happens.

Oh, wait, before anything else , here’s a video that I hope you can watch. I find it funny because I noticed it too when I was in the Philippines.  Just 3 minutes, folks, so please click, and be educated.

Compress ! !  I often heard that word in the Philippines. Ha ha ha !

Anyway, this is not what this post is all about. It’s Filipino cuisine.  Again, where do I begin ?

To start off……. I’ve been wondering why there are so few  Filipino restaurants  here in the US.  Filipinos are the second largest immigrant minority group in California,( after the Mexicans,)  and the third largest in the US, so where are the restaurants ?  My mother and I  have been discussing  the possible reasons and have come up with 1 million reasons for this anomaly.

a)  Filipinos who come to the US are not risk takers.  They do not come here to the US to open restaurants, in the first place.  I can say with almost 99 % certainty that Filipinos who come here are mostly professionals and college educated……. doctors, nurses, engineers, accountants, healthcare professionals, chemists,  etc.  Filipinos do not consider being  a ” chef ” as a career or a profession. Besides that, even with considerable savings at their disposal, Filipinos do not like to lose it all  on a venture that has a short lifespan,  5 years at most , if you’re lucky.  It’s preferable to toil away at a safe 9 to 5 job for a house, 2 cars, the kids’ education,  maybe for some rest and recreation in Rome and Paris , and a lifetime pension where they can spend the rest of their lives  smelling  roses ………….instead of worrying  about their restaurants  going under,  for  the rest  of their lives.  Filipinos are what my mother calls ” segurista ” ,meaning a person who makes sure things happen according to plan………… which is, oddly enough, the complete opposite of  the more common trait of Filipinos, the ” bahala na ” attitude, which means, whatever, come what may, if it will happen, it will happen.  (  this comes from Filipinos ‘ response to numerous  yearly natural disasters….. volcanic eruptions, eathquakes,  off- the- chart typhoons, floodings, dictators, colonizers, (  Spain and US ) you name it, Filipinos get it.   It’s fatalistic, but at the same time, having a positive attitude. Filipinos do not mope ! I guess Filipinos accept events that they cannot control….. but segurista for things they can .

Where was I ?  Oh, yeah, Filipino food…..

b)    Filipino food sucks.   Not true, not true at all.  Filipino food can be a bit funky,  but  oh, so flavorful and savory , umami ! !  The taste is bold and  audacious.  Example :  Chocolate soup, or blood soup.  I mean, who will order that in a restaurant, besides Filipinos ?  Filipinos eat that with  gusto, with, of course, rice or , believe it or not, bread . They dunk the bread in the soup, folks.  Oh, do I hear , Eeeeeew !   My breakfast in England for 3 days included  blood sausage,  and in Spain,  morcilla  .  In Romania, they also have blood soup, just like in the Philippines which  Bizzare Foods show’s Andrew Zimmern duly noted. Oh, wait,  they eat  blood in Romania ?  Just kidding.  Thumbs up to you, Romanians.

c)    Filipinos prefer to cook at home, and family home-style cooking.   Why will they go to a restaurant to eat food they  cook at home , everyday, and swearing, their moms cook it better, anyways ? They prefer to eat something different.  Don’t get me wrong…. Filipinos love dining out…. in fact , in the Philippines, restaurants are always full,  diners wait to get seated, or  they just make reservations ( 2 weeks at Vikings ) if they don’t want to wait.. Food courts are everywhere,  not to mention, the ubiquitous  street food , and numerous ” carinderias “. ( Carinderias are low – tiered eateries , usually located  at  low- income areas , schools and universities,  where customers point at the food they want to eat. They also call them ” turo – turo“……… turo means point, so it’s point-point . ( Have I mentioned Filipinos like to repeat words ? ) Unfortunately,  most Filipino restaurants here in the US are turo-turo style, with food Filipinos cook at home,  and  to be honest,  they don’t look appetizing , especially to non – Filipinos.  Blood soup, anyone ?  What in the world , is that mud-looking dish ?

Below is a carinderia in the Philippines. Not much to look at, but the food is soooooooo delicious ( and cheap !!!!!!! )

842 words…… time to sign off, and to be continued …… 9, 997 reasons to go.

And please check out my anime/manga/video games blogsite @ http://2megaworthitwordpresscomblog.wordpress.com/    I have new entry, a review of RWBY, an anime created by an American developer, Rooster Teeth.  Yay, homegrown.

Thanks for reading. Peace.