Day 7(cont...) and 8: Experimental Eating
Posted by Brandon Lagao | Posted in The Prodigal Lumpia | Posted on 5/10/2009 07:41:00 PM
I had another great night last night. I went to dinner with 3 of the SMB promo girls and had a seafood buffet on the beach...pretty cool. It was a little awkward because of the language barrier, but I got to learn a lot about college life here and the mannerisms of filipinos. I've decided when I get back I'm going to learn Tagalog for sure. I thought it would be more like spanish, but not really. After dinner I had a drink at Summers Place. They have the best beers because they are "double chill", which means they are kept cool at below zero. I chatted with Loraine for a good hour or so about how she ended up in Boracay, filipino marriage, the education system, her family, etc...
Then I headed to Hey Jude to kill some time. I ended up meeting a cool bloke named Jay and watched the Arsenal/Chelsea match at the bar. Being from Northern London, he naturally supports Arsenal. Even though they lost, I've still decided to become a supporter myself. I've been trying to decide on a team to follow for a few years now and after watching a bio on the team earlier in the day, I decided that meeting a supporter the same night must have been a sign.
Anyways, Jay happens to have been traveling all over Asia for the past 8 months. He has been getting jobs as a dive instructor at each place to stay financially on top of things. After Hey Jude we started walking towards our cottages that happened to be close to each other and ended up stopping off at some outdoor lounge that was pretty busy with people. We met some more Filipina's while we were there and ended up eating their food, haha.
For some reason yesterday happened to be the day I did a lot of "Experimental Eating". For lunch I had a Shawarma, which is like a middle eastern thing. Since there are a lot of Muslim vendors here I think that's why they have a few Shawarma stands on the beach path. It was basically like a gyro, but not as good, and I had no idea what the meat was. Then I had a BananaCue, which was a plantain with melted brown sugar and deep dried on a skewer. There are a popular snack here because they are pretty cheap. I've seen them back home but never tried one...not bad, but would be better with an actual banana i think. And lastly, to top it all off, I was talked into trying my first ever Balot by Jay and a couple of kids selling them. If you don't know what it is, watch Bizarre Foods or something. It's basically a duck egg that has an 18 day old duck embryo inside. It's a snack here in the PI, that most people find delicious. Umm, I wouldn't call it delicious, but I handled it fine. It basically tastes like a juicy hard boiled egg, with a hint of poultry. I have to be honest though, I didn't really savor it like Andrew Zimmern did his first time, it was more like I shoved it in my mouth and chewed as fast as I could so I wouldn't feel the feathers or beak.
Lastly, I visited D'Talipapa today which is basically an outdoor market. They have an endless supply of souvenirs that pretty much consist of the same stuff: shirts, bracelets, little decorations that say Boracay, and other random stuff. Its like the same stuff as you see in Mexico...there must be an international "souvenir" supplier because how the heck would they have the same souvenir stuff thousands of miles away?! They also have a food market there full of seafood, fresh fruits, and meats. At one point I almost threw up from the smell, so I just held my breath until I got out of there. The also have a bunch of cooking services that offer to cook whatever you buy..pretty cool. Also, here in the Philippines, you can try to bargain for everything, just like in Mexico. And just like in Mexico, I'm still no good at it. I negotiate way too hard for these people! I'm not sure they are used to people low-balling them as bad as I do, but that's what I do cause its worth a try! The only problem is that I actually wanted what I was bargaining for. So now, before I leave, I'm going to have to swallow my pride and go back there and try again. I'm sure i'll figure something out.
Then I headed to Hey Jude to kill some time. I ended up meeting a cool bloke named Jay and watched the Arsenal/Chelsea match at the bar. Being from Northern London, he naturally supports Arsenal. Even though they lost, I've still decided to become a supporter myself. I've been trying to decide on a team to follow for a few years now and after watching a bio on the team earlier in the day, I decided that meeting a supporter the same night must have been a sign.
Anyways, Jay happens to have been traveling all over Asia for the past 8 months. He has been getting jobs as a dive instructor at each place to stay financially on top of things. After Hey Jude we started walking towards our cottages that happened to be close to each other and ended up stopping off at some outdoor lounge that was pretty busy with people. We met some more Filipina's while we were there and ended up eating their food, haha.
For some reason yesterday happened to be the day I did a lot of "Experimental Eating". For lunch I had a Shawarma, which is like a middle eastern thing. Since there are a lot of Muslim vendors here I think that's why they have a few Shawarma stands on the beach path. It was basically like a gyro, but not as good, and I had no idea what the meat was. Then I had a BananaCue, which was a plantain with melted brown sugar and deep dried on a skewer. There are a popular snack here because they are pretty cheap. I've seen them back home but never tried one...not bad, but would be better with an actual banana i think. And lastly, to top it all off, I was talked into trying my first ever Balot by Jay and a couple of kids selling them. If you don't know what it is, watch Bizarre Foods or something. It's basically a duck egg that has an 18 day old duck embryo inside. It's a snack here in the PI, that most people find delicious. Umm, I wouldn't call it delicious, but I handled it fine. It basically tastes like a juicy hard boiled egg, with a hint of poultry. I have to be honest though, I didn't really savor it like Andrew Zimmern did his first time, it was more like I shoved it in my mouth and chewed as fast as I could so I wouldn't feel the feathers or beak.
Lastly, I visited D'Talipapa today which is basically an outdoor market. They have an endless supply of souvenirs that pretty much consist of the same stuff: shirts, bracelets, little decorations that say Boracay, and other random stuff. Its like the same stuff as you see in Mexico...there must be an international "souvenir" supplier because how the heck would they have the same souvenir stuff thousands of miles away?! They also have a food market there full of seafood, fresh fruits, and meats. At one point I almost threw up from the smell, so I just held my breath until I got out of there. The also have a bunch of cooking services that offer to cook whatever you buy..pretty cool. Also, here in the Philippines, you can try to bargain for everything, just like in Mexico. And just like in Mexico, I'm still no good at it. I negotiate way too hard for these people! I'm not sure they are used to people low-balling them as bad as I do, but that's what I do cause its worth a try! The only problem is that I actually wanted what I was bargaining for. So now, before I leave, I'm going to have to swallow my pride and go back there and try again. I'm sure i'll figure something out.
I had Balut too. For sure you can feel the beak and feather crunch when you eat it, but its not that bad. Did you drink the juice?
schwarma is supposed to be lamb.
I figured you to be too conservative to try balut. Yeah, I sucked the juice out first, not bad.
Phil, I honestly have no idea what the meat was. It was cut like a gyro, which is lamb, but it was colored red like a lot of the meats out here. It cured like that so its sweeter i guess.