Eating Our Way Through Manila

When we come home, you may not recognize us because Matt and I may be ten pounds heavier. Manila has the widest variety of food of any developing country that we’ve been too. Luckily for Matt, the grocery store has about 3,000 bottles of cranberry juice on its shelves and all sorts of other comforts from home (including Wheat Thins). Also, unlike Thailand, Manila specializes in decadent chocolate desserts and other treats like cheesecake and tiramisu. To use the free internet at the café across the street from our house we have to buy something so we begrudgingly get a cake that’s layered with rich chocolate devil’s food cake and cheesecake and coated with chocolate chips and shavings.

The first time Matt and I attempted to cook on our gas stove we were confronted with the strong aroma of leaking gas. Initially, Matt laughed at my complaints of dizziness but before long we were both standing in the doorway of our apartment and running in and out of the kitchen to stir our pasta every few minutes. Needless to say we ate out every other night last week. Even though our street is just a side street, there are some really good restaurants. The highlights have been a greek salad across the street, Mr. Poon’s asparagus and beef, mango wrapped in prosciutto at an Italian place that made us cheeseless pizza, and a very good Indian restaurant.
Our most exciting discovery so far has been the organic farmer’s market that takes place every Saturday a block from our apartment. There was a nice mix of Filipino food, organic fruits and veggies, house plants and health foods. Before we came here we were wondering if we would have trouble finding peanut butter at the grocery store but we found organic sugarless peanut butter at the farmer’s market! We also sampled some really nice frozen yogurts with unrefined sugar and so forth. There were some good breads for sale too. To remind Matt of his roots there was a cow roasting on a spit. We actually tried the local dish, “Lechon,” which is basically a pig roasted on a spit. They serve it with plenty of skin and fat- “the good part.” Matt did think it was actually kind of tasty.

Our household help starts tomorrow and has stated that she is an aspiring chef. The teacher who recommended her to us stated, “we don’t ever think we will eat as good as we did with Mariz as our cook.” Mariz has already promised us Mango shakes when we get home from work and for dinner some fancy Shrimp dish that she was excited to cook for us. There was also talk of pancakes in the morning before work- we will see.

Another reason for you all to start looking at travel plans.