Food For the Gods

Food For the Gods is one of my favorite desserts, but it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized that no one outside the Philippines really knew what it was. Huh? It's not an American/European dessert? But we don't even grow dates or walnuts in the Philippines! 

Finding our inner Katniss at Arrowland

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be Robin Hood, Merida, or Katniss?  Archery isn't the kind of sport that you can just do in your back yard or street corner (unless you live on acres of land). I've always wanted to try it, but never really got the chance until our recent trip to Manila. Archery and the Philippines aren't really two words that I associate with each other, but since discovering Arrowland, we've decided that every trip to Manila is going to include a visit to Arrowland for the chance to live out our Hunger Games dreams (just the archery part, not the killing tribunes part)!

McDo Manila 2017

I've been eating at McDonald's Philippines since I was 12 (when they opened their first restaurant there), so this is not the first time I've blogged about McDo in the Philippines. Yup, we even have our own local nickname for it. Please note, it's not pronounced Mc-Doo or Mc-Doe or McDoh. The best I can come up with is Mc-Daw (rhymes with saw), except the vowel sound in "Daw" is extremely short (glottal stop), not drawn out the way it usually is in English. 

A few observations I've made over decades of eating and enjoying McDo:

1) Over the years, the menu has evolved from purely American burgers/fries/soda/milkshakes to more local menu items. My theory: in the beginning, McDonald's American-ness is what attracted customers, but over time, McDonald's had to keep up with local competitors.

2) Serving sizes are much smaller. A small size soda in the US would be a large size soda in the Philippines. A small size fries in the US would be a kiddie size fries in the Philippines.

3) Prices are much cheaper than in the US. A lot of that is due to the exchange rate, but I think McDonald's Philippines has to keep their prices lower in order to remain affordable for the masses. Most of their menu items are about 50 pesos or 1 US dollar, and I don't think there are any single items above PHP100 ($2), or any combo meals above PHP200 ($4). A plain soft serve ice cream cone is PHP10, or 20 cents!

McDonald's and learning about local food culture

I've gotten a lot of grief from family, friends, and strangers for my weird desire to check out the local McDonald's restaurants when we travel. Don't feed your kids junk! Eat real food! You can get McDonald's at home! There are so many local foods to try! First of all, don't let your experiences with US McDonald's restaurants shape your perception of McDonald's restaurants abroad -- I've found the ones abroad to have food that is far superior to any of the ones in the US. Second, some of these places serve their burgers with a ton of crisp lettuce and tomatoes, as well as side dishes like corn and tomatoes, so it's real and healthy.

The only one of those arguments that has any merit with me is the last one. I realize that every time I eat at McDonald's, I'm forgoing the opportunity to sample local cuisine. But I would argue that the local McDonald's food is, in a way, local cuisine. For better or worse, Western culture has permeated other cultures; it's not like I had to look very far to find a McDonald's! The local menu adaptations give me a glimpse of what foods the locals love. I, for one, find it fascinating to see how McDonald's has adapted to the local culture!

Here are some unique McDonald's menu items that we saw from our summer 2017 trip to:

Hong Kong

Bangkok

Manila

Enjoy!

Celebrating Philippine Independence Day

Today marks the 118th anniversary of Philippine Independence Day. On June 12, 1898, the revolutionary armies of the Philippines, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of the armies and first president of the Philippines, declared the Philippine's independence from Spain.

Northern California has such a large Filipino community, so it's a given that there would be Independence Day celebrations in the area. It has been a while since I've been to one of them, so I decided to take the family up to San Francisco to participate. Other than occasional trips to Goldilocks and Asian groceries for Filipino meals and snacks, I don't live the Filipino lifestyle that much. The kids are always eager for a chance to chow down on lumpia and pork barbecue, so they happily came along.

Art that's educational and fun: Art In Island 3D Museum

Art can do many things for many different people. It can inspire. It can educate. It can spur people to action. It can calm them down. It can do all of those things, but art doesn't have to do any of them to justify its existence. Sometimes all art has to do is entertain!

Entertainment, not education, was foremost on our minds when we visited Art in Island, a 3D art museum in Quezon City. Unlike most art museums, visitors are encouraged to touch and explore -- in fact, that's where all the fun comes from! But we also managed to learn a thing or two about optical illusions and how your brain works.

Things that suck (and rock) about being tall

Dear Pea

Yesterday I posted a photo of you on Facebook; it was taken yesterday at your dance concert.  I was so proud of your grace, your beauty and your height.... but I know being tall isn't something you're particularly enjoying at this moment in your life.  I know you hate being the tallest in your dance class, being as tall or taller than the 15, 16, 17 year olds at age not-quite-thirteen.  I know you wish you were tiny and petite like your friends, instead of big and gigantic (as you put it).

Believe me, I know.  You get your height from me, remember?  I was 12 once.  To make matters worse for a 5 feet, six inch adolescent (who eventually grew to reach 5' 8"), I grew up in the Philippines, where the average height for males is 5 feet, 4 1/2 inches, and the average height for females is 4 feet, 11 inches.  Back then, I felt just like you do now.

Del Monte Plantation, Philippines: home of the sweetest pineapples in the world

For last week's Travel Tuesday post, I salivated over the best chocolate on earth.  This week I'm traveling to the other side of the world to blog about a different kind of sweet treat: pineapples from the Del Monte Plantation in the Philippines.  Buying a pineapple in the US always a bit of a hit-and-miss venture; sometimes you'll end up with a sweet one, other times you'll end up with a fruit so tart it makes your face pucker.  I know many people who don't bother with fresh pineapples; they're too much trouble and too iffy -- but the pineapples we tasted on the Dole plantation were so good, I would have ripped the sharp rind off the fruit to get to that sweet, sweet flesh.

The Del Monte Plantation is located in the southern region of the Philippines, in the Bukidnon province.  The nearest big city is Cagayan de Oro (when I say "big", it's all relative: CDO's population is about 600,000).  We spent a few days in Cagayan de Oro in 2012 for a cousin's wedding, so my brother-in-law arranged a tour of the plantation with a cousin of his who works there.

How Typhoon Haiyan affects us

photo credit: CAFOD on Flickr

In the Philippines, typhoons are a way of life.  Every June, classes started.  Every June, the rains came.  Every June, my classmates and I would start hoping for typhoons.  We were too young to understand the implications.  Rain just meant relief from the scorching summer heat (frankly, I don't know any Filipino who doesn't love hearing the sound of raindrops falling on the roof, and every kid I know loved standing outside and taking a shower in the rain).  Rain meant the chance to skip school.  Midwestern US schoolchildren have their snow days, Manila schoolchildren have Typhoon Signal #2.  Signal #1 was always met with groans because we still had to go to school (and possibly had to face some flooding along the way).  Signal #2 was great, because we got to stay home for the day.  Signal #3 was even better because it meant school would be out for several days.  Like I said, we were just kids.

Camiguin Island

Camiguin Island (as viewed from neighboring White Island), Philippines.  Image source: Wikipedia Commons

Boracay Island, one of the crown jewels in the Philippine archipelago, has once again landed on a Best Beaches list -- this time it's TripAdvisor's 2013 Traveler's Choice Awards for Best Beaches in the World.  With all the global attention it's getting, even though it will never be as crowded or touristy as Venice Beach or Waikiki Beach, it would be a stretch to describe Boracay as "remote", especially if you first saw it fifteen, twenty or more years ago (as I did).  For a truly remote island, you'll have to look elsewhere -- say, Camiguin Island.  We visited Camiguin last December, and it really gave us city slickers/ suburbanites a refreshing taste of a slower, unspoiled life.

White Island, Camiguin

Aerial view of Camiguin Island & White Island. Image source: Wikipedia commons

I'm happy to see the Philippines' Boracay Island once again receiving world reknown, this time as Travel + Leisure's 5th Most Romantic Island in the World for 2013.  Having been there several times, I don't need any travel magazines to tell me what I already know: that Boracay's powder-white sand, turquoise blue waters, lush greenery, world-class resorts and unspoiled nature make it the one of the best island beaches in the world.  But it's nice to hear the rest of the world admit it :)

Unfortunately, we weren't able to visit Boracay this time around, because while we were in the Philippines last month, a typhoon had grounded all planes to the nearest airport and suspended all ferry rides to the island on the day we were scheduled to fly there.  We spent a miserable day at the airport, being shuttled back and forth from terminal to airplane, trapped in the cabin, waiting for the clearance to depart that never came.  The typhoon was scheduled to last several days, so we figured that even if we were cleared to fly the next day, we'd be spending our entire Boracay trip watching raindrops pour and drip off our hotel room window -- and in the end, we made the decision to cancel our trip.

Fortunately, there are 7,107 islands in the Philippines (plus or minus a few, depending on whether it's low tide or high tide), and Boracay isn't the only jewel in our archipelago -- and we managed to find another one that (almost) drowned out our disappointment at not going to Boracay.