Kaina! (Let's Eat!)

In the Philippines meals are the main event, a race, a feast, and an important social and family ritual. As I've mentioned before most Filipinos partake in 5-7 meals today (three main meals and then several snacks). My impression is that Filipinos have an amazing love of life, which comes in the form of a laidback lifestyle, amazing artistic and musical talent, and most obviously a, perhaps unparalleled, gusto for good food. While in Manila visiting family David and I were busog (full) basically 24 hours a day. Each meal was large and long. The meal was the main activity and space to renew our relationships with our family members. We did other stuff in between the meals, like sit in traffic or visit tourist spots, but it was always clear that the most important time was spent sharing in meals. I myself, especially this past week, have been brave enough to try a lot of new foods while in the Philippines, including, shrimp heads, shark fin, and chicken feet!

I had been wanting to do a food entry for a while (indeed, a whole food blog could be done on Davao alone) but I'm sort of embarrassed to take pictures of food in restaurants. Luckily my partner David lacks this feeling of shame and let me borrow his foodie pics for my blog.

At Pearl Farm, a beach resort we went to in Davao, we had the most amazingly large buffet, which left our plates overflowing:

One day at Pearl Farm, instead of the buffet, I opted for chicken soup. I got chicken soup in a coconut shell, topped with a yummy bread baked on:


At another resort we went to. Villa Escudero, our buffet meal was taken in the shallow river. Here you will see kare kare (the yellow dish, but sometimes its orange too, it is a tasty peanut dish), lechon kiwali (grilled pork), pancit noodles (a common merienda snack) as well as grilled fish. I have been thoroughly enjoying the seafood while I've been here. Its everywhere and its always fresh! Although I haven't been brave enough to eat the fish head yet! Lastly, you'll see some grilled caramelized bananas, one of my favorite desserts or merienda snack here.


My love of Filipino food stems largely from the amazingly delicious fruit available. Mangoes never taste this good in the U.S.! And in Davao, I'm right at the source of the fruit, since banana, pomelo, and mango plantations and farms cover the island of Mindanao.

In terms of dessert, one of the most popular dishes is Halo-Halo. It means "mix mix" in Tagalog. It's basically full of lots of different desserts, including leche flan, jackfruit, banana, gelatin, sago, sweet beans, and rice krispies, topped with ice, cream, and ube ice cream. You mix it all up and enjoy!