good food, good friends

the taste and flavor of philippine cooking will always be something i will forever look for wherever i am. the girl from the jungle may leave the jungle... but the jungle will never leave the girl. thats what the old folks used to say.

its funny but today i was chatting with 5 very different friends who are now scattered all over the world. we talked about how we miss food from home. we talked about how we try to replicate the flavors of home and how much we need a filipino restaurant right this very minute!

each one of them do not know the other.

one is working in Saudi Arabia. he very much misses his family back home. for Eid, he visited his brother in law and they ordered filipino take out food in Riyadh and told me how it really tasted like Sr Pedro lechon manok (or roasted chicken). instantly, it took me back home. the smell of fresh, hot roasted chicken stuffed with lemongrass and spring onions. brushed outside with a secret concoction while it goes round and round the rotisserie. perfect with a steaming plate of rice and best eaten with the fingers!

another friend is from Lake Tahoe in California. she migrated to the states with with her family a few years ago. they are originally from the colorful island of cebu. cebu is well-known for a delicious dried fish delicacy called "danggit". deep-fried, "danggit" is crunchy and with just the right sea-saltiness to it that is instantly gratifying. best eaten with papaya salad or cucumber salad on the beach!

a good friend of mine who teaches english in a big university in Xiamen, China and married to a very nice, quiet gentleman from there told me she experiments with her cooking. she is from the same city as i am and we used to hung out together when we were young and single and without a care in the world. naturally, we almost have the same taste buds when it comes to local food. she told me she enjoys experimenting and had made some meatloaf (maybe with a bit of a filipino twist to it). her husband however does not like western food that much so she has them all to herself :D

another good friend who has been working as a nurse in Dublin, Ireland for over 9 years now confided to me about how he is now an avid cook when it comes to filipino food. we reminisced about the places we used to frequent when we were in high school and what kind of food our meager allowance can afford to buy from a nondescript stall. usually we had huge banana-cues and maja blanca! such good times! such good food!

a very pregnant long-time friend now living in Singapore reminisced about how we used to hung out at their house after school and her mother used to serve us pancakes or peanut butter sandwiches! we were in grade school then. we used to buy songhits every week and we flip through them while munching on pb&j sandwiches! we were so young and so happy!

when i was in Singapore, food wasnt much of a big deal since there was always someone who will cook filipino food at home or we could get some from a filipino restaurant. when i came to Gib, the closest i could get some asian food is from a chinese or thai restaurant.

sometimes i cook... but nothing still beats my dad's cooking :)