To be an authentic food enthusiast, one has to have a vast experience on various dishes -- from the plain and simple to the unique and classy, up to the odd and the uncommon. To a food enthusiast, the culture of a place is completely described from the food they are known.
Of course, the Filipino culture has its share of popular authentic streetfood, prepared ihaw style (charcoal-cooked). Chicken feet (adidas) for example. Our Chinese historical influence gave birth to delicious local chicken feet, all but with a touch of Filipino taste. It was just lately when I tried tasting it, finally found out why my aunts from Germany look for it whenever they visit the Philippines. Perfectly-prepared chicken feet is very tasty, and the meat slides easily away from the feet bones when they touch your mouth, yum!
Then there's also my favorite -- isaw (chicken intestines) ! I have
also tried the pork intestine version of isaw, and it tastes great just the same. There's also chicken neck, chicken skin, chicken liver, chicken head (whew!), well actually almost all parts of the chicken becomes streetfood, with feathers as an exception of course (let's see you try to eat that).Next we have the popular balut eggs -- boiled duck eggs with nearly-developed embryos inside. Balut, which is also a delicacy in some other parts of Southeast Asia, is sold mostly during the night by vendors and is a well-known protein-rich pampalakas ng tuhod (knee-strengthener -- an idiom for something that gives more stamina), as claimed by our grandfathers and local drunkards. I eat balut every now and then, though honestly not all of it -- I still have to muster the courage to eat the embryo inside -- with the duckbill, underdeveloped feathers and all, waah!
The there's my recent discovery -- betamax (coagulated blood). It was just lately when I tried a morsel, and yes it was uniquely tasty, pretty much like tofu in texture and barbecuey in flavor.And there are a lot more of these stuff out there, still unknown to my tastebuds. Haven't even mentioned international delicacies worth citing (well, ok I love Japanese sashimi [raw tuna meat] -- I just can't bear not mentioning it here, haha!). Some people are disgusted about such unique food ideas.. well it's their choice. I just feel sorry as to why they deny and limit themselves the opportunity of being able to taste something unique as culture.
To a food enthusiast, food discovery is endless. Food discovery is an adventure.
Visit jameella mellanny for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection
