So I escaped from Papua New Guinea without anyone else stealing anything from me and had an absolutely lovely five hour flight on Philippine Airlines out of PNG to Manila. There was a driver from the Fairmont Makati at the airport to met me and by just after 1:15 local time, I was at the hotel and ensconsed in a lovely corner room.
At 3:30, I ordered a GRAB (the Asian version of Uber) to meet Nel who was going to be my guide for a street food tour in Mandaluyong City, about 20 minutes from my hotel. I arrived right at 4:00 and Nel provided me with a brief introduction of what we would be eating and some history of the food culture in Manila (which has been heavily influenced by the myriad of conquerors in this country, including the Chinese and the Spanish). We then we set off to find a Manila version of a Tuk Tuk, which turned out to be a motorcycle with a roofed sidecar, which we were going to take up the street to our first destination.
The ride turned out to be a riot and we even passed a guy selling bananas from a cart attached to his motorcycle. However, I was glad that the ride was only a couple minutes long because talk about a bumpy ride….
Anyway, once we reached our destination, Nel introduced me to a couple ladies running a small street shop called Mr. Suomai and the only food they serve is a Philippine version of shumai (one of the very popular Chinese dim sum dishes). Now I LOVE shumai and these ladies made some fabulous suomai (as pronounced by the Filipinos). We had a choice of pork and shrimp, beef (never seen that before), chicken and chicken and pork. I opted for the pork and shrimp and it was fabulous. In addition, I was served some gulaman, a sweet almost tea like mixture with gelatin and it was incredibly delicious. I would have been happy if we had just stayed here.
We then walked around the corner to an apparently well known establishment called Don Benitos, where Nel picked up a box of cassava cakes that I was going to try after eating at the next stop. So with cassava cakes in hand, we walked back down the street to a restaurant that I can only describe as the “skewer innards” restaurant (no idea what the actual name of the restaurant was).
So once Nel ordered the skewers and we took a seat, Nel walked me through the popular Filipino pass time of dipping their meat into sauces, including “banana ketchup”, which Nel said I should try with my skewers. Apparently, Filipinos do not have a lot of tomatoes so someone came up with the bright idea of using bananas (which they have a lot of) as a base for ketchup. Not sure about the red colour, but the ketchup on my table definitely had a banana/sweet taste to it.
Anyway, in addition to the banana ketchup, Nel had me mix vinegar, lime, chilies and soy sauce to make a second dipping sauce. And as we waited for the meat skewers to appear, a band started playing nearby. We went to take a look and it turns out that the store on the corner was having its grand opening and it had some local kids playing music. The music even attracted a group of folks in full costume who had been marching in the Manila Gay Pride Parade. And of course, I had to run over and have my picture taken with these fabulous people who appeared very excited that I wanted a pic with them. (Happy Pride Month folks!!!)
So after the photos Nel and I went back to the table and our skewers were brought out a few minutes later. There were six skewers and Nel selected each one I was to try without telling me what the skewers were. First up was God awful. Jelly like and spongy … turns out it was a pig’s ear. Uh no thanks. Second up was another yuck … chicken livers. I have had these before and hated them then and still hate them. Third was my favourite. A bit chewy, but something I grew up on … chicken gizzards. I ate the entire skewer. Fourth up turned out to also be pretty good … chicken intestines. This apparently is a favourite in the Philippines. Fifth almost made me gag … pig intestines. It had a horrible and I mean HORRIBLE after taste. The final skewer was just regular pork and it was delicious.
Nel then pulled out the cassava cakes, which were covered in cheese. (Apparently cheese on top of food is a big deal here.). Anyway, I tried the cassava cake and was on the fence with the first taste and then decided no after the second taste. The texture was jelly like and just not for me.
From here, we crossed the street to a store where Nel purchased a box of puto, which is steamed rice cakes made of fermented rice. These rice cakes were each a different colour and were flavoured with pandan (green leaf), cheese (yellow), ube (purple yam) and mascobado (brown and made with molasses). We were going to take this with us to our next stop.
Now in order to get to our next stop, we had to take a “jeepney” down the street and near to where we started. So what is a jeepney? Well as Nel explained to me, jeepneys are an iconic form of public transportation all over the Philippines. The vehicles are made from surplus military jeeps from World War II and continue in use today. Each “jeepney” is individually owned and as a result, the jeepney have unique designs and colourful exteriors to reflect their owners’ taste.
We ended up in what I can only describe as a silver bullet. Nel and I were the only ones in the jeepney for the first couple blocks, but the driver slowed down and picked up a third passenger as we made our way down the street. And when it was time to get out, Nel pounded on the roof, the driver stopped, we hopped out and he continued on down the street. The ride cost pennies (not sure the exact amount), but was super fun.
Anyway, once we hopped out, we walked about a block down the street to Sutukil, which was part pool hall and part bar serving beer and pulutan, small finger foods that are often eaten with beer. Nel and I found a table in the back room and I was quickly served a San Miguel beer (fabulous) and shortly after that a plate of pulutan. Now this pulutan was made of lightly fried jalapeño peppers and cheese and lightly fried jalapeño peppers and ground up porks head (seriously).
I tried the jalapeño and cheese and it was pretty darn good, but the jalapeño and pork was WAY too spicy for me and I ended up only eating one. However, I went back to the well for the jalapeño and cheese a couple more times as I drank the beer.
Then it was time to try the puto. I selected the pandan, which was good, but not necessarily great. However, the second selection, cheese, was spectacular and had an almost corn bread flavour. It was delicious. The other two flavours, ube and mascobado were OK, but if I had to order them, I would put the cheese first, the pandan second, the mascobado third and the ube last. Not a fan of the ube.
Our last stop was back to the main road and across the street to Ben’s Halo Halo ice cream. Now halo-holo means “mix mix” in Tagalog (a language in the Philippines) and the reason for the name is that after the dish, which is made of crush ice, evaporated milk, and fruits, corn, jellies and ube, is served, you are expected to mix all the ingredients together before eating. The dish is very popular in the Philippines especially during the hot and humid summer months.
Anyway, I ended up with the original halo halo and I ate about half of it before the sweetness of the mixture overwhelmed me. I was done.
So at this point, Nel and I crossed the street and walked a couple blocks back to where we had first met. We said our goodbyes, I ordered a GRAB and was back at the hotel by 7:15. Tomorrow, I was supposed to go to Anilao Beach to go snorkeling, but there is currently a low pressure system off the coast of Manila that is causing dangerous currents and rough water so the tour company advised against going. Instead, they offered to take me to Hidden Valley Hot Springs, which includes hot springs, cold pools and waterfalls. It’s not the day of snorkeling I had hoped for, but I’ll take a day of lounging around … so off to the hot springs tomorrow.