For the most part, I like Filipino food. Kim’s mom’s adobo is unbelievable, I really like kare-kare (ox tail in peanut sauce) and I’ve eaten my share of lechon, nilaga, siopao, and sinagang– not to mention the 300 metric tons of pansit and lumpia I have consumed in the last two years.
Still, there are a few thing I haven’t worked up the courage to try yet: Balut, for instance, continues to intimidate to me. A boiled egg with a half-developed duck (or chicken) inside will take some time before it registers in my brain as “yummy” but I will try it eventually. I am told that it is the ultimate in late-night study food (like Filipino Red Bull).
Dinuguan, on the other hand, doesn’t seem quite as repulsive to me as it once did. At this point, dinuguan just doesn’t look appetizing to me in the slightest (I think it looks like mud..), but I’ve grown to accept the idea that cooked blood can be a delicious meal. All of this having been said, there are even more disgusting things that are not uncommon to the Philippine pallette– stuff Fil-Ams won’t even touch. But for me, the greatest offense acted out by the Philippine people against my American culinary sensibilities is not even a traditional dish. I can honestly say that, if given the choice between an aborted poultry fetus and spaghetti made with hotdogs and ketchup, that baby duck doesn’t stand a chance in hell.
The following commercial is from Jollibee, a fast food chain in the Philippines that bears the distinction of being the only local restaurant chain in the world to outsell McDonald’s 2 to 1.
