Exploring Southeast Asia's Most Unappreciated Cuisine
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- čas přidán 20. 05. 2024
- The Philippines is the world’s 12th-largest country; an island paradise surrounded by the world’s great culinary cultures and the native home to plants like the coconut. So why is Filipino cuisine so unknown- and more than that, hated?
This week, we’re exploring Bangkok’s Pinoy subculture, visiting the best restaurants and navigating the migrant enclave to find the story of what Filipino food really is, why it’s so misunderstood, and how it became perceived as the black sheep of Southeast Asia.
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0:00 - Introduction
1:23 - The History of Filipino Food
3:43 - First Feast
6:44 - Dish by Dish Through 5000 Years
9:47 - The Hidden Gem
13:48 - Why Does the World Hate Filipino Food?
16:37 - The Core of the Problem
18:39 - Pridi Banomyong
20:10 - Second Feast
23:16 - Challenges
27:14 - Palengke
28:39 - Flavors
33:25 - Halo Halo
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Video Credits:
• Kamayan: The Ultimate ...
• Cooking Rotisserie Chi...
• Kamayan Feast
• New York City Walking ...
• Philippines in 4K
• Philippines WORST Stre...
• Is Jollibee Worth the ...
• Anthony Bourdain on fo...
• The Philippines' Geogr...
• 10 Most Beautiful Isla...
• MANILA's BLUMENTRITT W...
• What is an American Gr...
• Visiting a Philippines...
• The Peopling of the Pa...
• "Kinilaw" Catch and Ea...
• AIR TUAK | NIRA KELAPA...
• The Philippine Nationa...
• Philippines Street Foo...
• Ceviche
• Passion fruit Ceviche ...
• GRABE!! GANITONG STYLE...
• I flew to the Philippi...
• Filipino Taqueria.. Fl...
• Steve hates Filipino f...
• Philippines WORST Stre...
• Bizarre Filipino Food ...
• Top 10 Most Beautiful ...
• Americans try JOLLIBEE...
• Crispy Fried Chicken |...
• FILIPINO STREET FOOD |...
• Street scenes along Pe...
• Sinigang Na Baboy Reci...
• Philippines Street Foo...
• [Story 79] Finally, a ...
• Local Street Scenes fr...
• Filipino Family Invite...
• Manila During American...
• EL NIDO Walking Tour |...
• Manila During American...
• Uncovering the Hidden ...
• Bad Saint Is the Most ...
• FIRST TIME trying PAND...
• Finding The Best Pizza...
• Beef Caldereta, SIMPOL!
• Local Street Scenes fr...
• The Harsh Reality: 'Pa...
• Tondo: Manila's larges...
• No-Go Zones - World’s ...
• Outnumbered By Guns In...
• Sad reality in the Phi...
• Metro Manila Drive 4k ...
• Toto Inasal Bangkok T...
Locations pinned below. Thanks for your patience with this one- I know it's been a couple of weeks since we've posted a new video; first time we've ever taken a full two weeks off between videos and that wasn't the plan, but some health issues came up that had to be dealt with. Thankfully, I'm more-or-less back to normal and cleared to resume a full schedule so we're back on track to hit the ground running again. Appreciate all of your support!
This week's pins:
-Kalamansi Kafe: maps.app.goo.gl/J5x8QzKvjxQwfnR19
-New Mabuhay (would recommend calling in advance so Delia can prepare the food you want to try): maps.app.goo.gl/6jhNPPvohmKYTGsR6
-Toto Inasal (only briefly mentioned in this video, not visited, but worth a trip specifically for their grilled chicken for sure): maps.app.goo.gl/cmHuNQzCADQpYCEa8
-Lola's Kitchen: maps.app.goo.gl/3TVA5fxm2nTjWcCF9
Cheers and have a great week.
Calamansi is Philippines's local citrus fruit. You'll never find them in other countries.
this video is so well researched and well put together but i know there's only so much you cam discuss in one episode as it is hard for a country's food with 7,641 islands to all be featured even in several episodes. i have been watching foreigners, especially in the US, eating Filipino food, and i have noticed that most of them are familiar with a few dishes like LUMPIA, ADOBO and SISIG..and sone know more, and that is mainly because Filipinos themselves request them to taste Filipino food, and fastfood restaurants like jollibee and chowking or mang inasal help, too.
man this is well documented. thank you for showcasing our filipino food!
@@juliusandrada9425 it’s literally in the video
now to be fair, our idea of feasting comes mainly from south america (since they were part of the spanish colonies and we traded with them a lot), but where south america treated it as something you do on special occasions, we borrowed a page out of north america's book and made it something we would have as often as possible, finding any kind of excuse to feast whenever we can, this is also part of why the philippines has so many national holidays, government issued holidays, cross-cultural holidays, and cross-ethnic holidays, despite being primarily a catholic/christian country we will gladly spend ramadan or any other muslim holiday with our southern counterparts just to eat well and get drunk together.
we always try to find a reason however lofty to have a blow out and feast like no tomorrow, whereas our american friends prefer to just feast for no other reason than because they can. american fastfood empowers them a lot too so i cant blame them, a large coke here is a small coke in america, and a large coke in america is 4 to 5 times the volume of our large drinks.
and unlike most western cultures, who are for the most part fine with not finishing their food, we often like to bring home anything unfinished and have it later that day or the next day.
also i dont know about other cultures but in the philippines we consider it rude both to those who are eating, and any spectators, if someone isn't joining in for the feast. we try to be as considerate and accommodating as possible to any guests for no other reason than to make things less awkward and have fun.
As a Filipino, I actually don't mind the Filipino cuisine's "rogue" status. It just makes it unique and cooler in my eyes. Like an identity that could never be stolen.
Its not Rogue, when hundreds of vloggers are creating hype over the most mundane of dishes. Putting the spotlight on the most lame dishes that are better off banned.
@@eduardochavacanomundane for filipinos but ofcourse for foreigners, it is different. What do you mean banned?
@@eduardochavacano wrong
@@eduardochavacano you are right. I am a filipino but I believe that our cuisine is really mediocre when compared to japanese, thai, vietnamese, chinese and any other asian cuisine. Most filipinos are just too naive and poor to admit that our cuisine is bad because they lack the knowledge of other cuisine
@@eduardochavacano can you show me data proving that, and in comparison with cuisines from other countries? It has to show that Filipino cuisine is significantly high in vlogging than Thai, Chinese, and French cuisens, etc.
I don't know if it's just me, but as a Filipino who is not in the restaurant business, I'm not really affected by the lack of "fame" of our cuisine. If a foreigner says our food is not that good I'll just shrug and say - "That's ok. I brought tupperware." 😅😅
Hahaha. Exactly.
Yeah... I'm fine with Filipino food staying at homes. I don't really care if it catches the world's attention or not. What I only wish is that carinderias should be better at their portions and ingredients, but that's the most authentic that we could get outside our homes.
I feel you😂
You are smart and eco friendly. Because you dont bring plastic bags.
Same sentiment.
As a Mexican the more I see this video the more I feel a unity with our long distance brothers also conquered by Spain the Filipinos, our countries look very similar in several aspects, even in culture and I know even in names and customs, that family unity, that delicious food, crime and that poverty that keeps us humble, we have so many good and bad aspects so similar that show our similarity, I wish the relations between our countries could be closer again, a greeting to all our dear Filipino brothers ❤.
🇵🇭🤝🇲🇽
Fun fact the most common last name in the Philippines are:
dela Cruz
García
Reyes
Ramos
Mendoza
Santos
Flores
Gonzalez
While Mexico last names
Hernández
García
Martínez
González
López
Rodríguez
Pérez
Sánchez
All of the last names mentioned in Mexico common family name are very common family names in the Philippines. It's like Philippines and Mexico are relatives. 😁
cousins 🙌
Yes we are very very similar in so many ways and we love your food like it was an addiction now with Mexican foods
our cousins on the other side of the world
As a Filipina I don't actually mind if it's "underappreciated" or even disliked or hated lol I'll eat it because it's good, I'll cook it because I like it. If anyone doesn't like it, it's a reflection of their taste, not my culture
Same,we don't need any foreigner to like our food.We love it,doesn't matter they like it or not.
Agreed. I cook for my family and friends because I love cooking and I love them. That's pretty much it. Everything else being thrown around in these discussions falls outside of that and I don't care what those opinions are. I do not need to see someone on a cooking competition show try to make an objectively "best" adobo or kare kare. That misses the point entirely.
@@AllanEdwin It feels nice for something we made or is linked to us by culture to be appreciated by others. But I agree, it's fine if our cuisine never becomes famous or some people dislike it. That's just the way of life, you can't please everybody. What matters most is those who do appreciate it and the ones willing to take a chance. We shouldn't seek the approval of strangers anyways.
Foreigner's, especially those from the west, have no right to call other food bland. If there is bland here it's their food in their home country and their taste buds.
I was introduced to Filipino food when I married a lovely, young Filipina 50 years ago. Growing up in the Midwest USA in the 50s and 60s did not prepare me well for the switch to a new, completely foreign cuisine. I've grown to love most of it, and our kids consider it their comfort food they grew up with. With Mrs. Rick having officially achieving the coveted Filipina Lola title 15 years ago, I can proudly and loudly say that I have my own expert Filipina Lola cooking our food for us. 😍😍
I hope you're still together
@@benginaldclocker2891he just said his wife of 50 years is now officially a lola. And he’s a lolo.. dude reading comprehension please
@@markv1974pinoy kasi mga bubo hahaha
@@benginaldclocker2891 Yes, still cooking together.
@@TheOriginalRickit would be funny if one of your grandkids was named morty 😂 i mean, you're a cool grand dad anyway. ❤
Loving this! As a Bornean, I used to have a somewhat dismissive impression of Filipino food until I made more Filipino friends and tried foods properly home cooked by the diaspora here. Today it’s probably among my favourites cuisines of Southeast Asia.
Give me a thick dinuguan any day!
I hope you aren't Muslim Dinuguan is usually made with pork meat and pork blood.
@@The_Average_CZcams_Enjoyer I’m definitely not Muslim, and I’ve eaten plenty of dinuguan on many occasions. 😁 lechon, crispy pata and sisig is extremely popular among the local populace in Borneo because of similarities to indigenous cuisines and cooking styles.
@@johnmaynardinBorneo it’s an open secret here there are some Muslims that eat Lechon, Crispy pata, sisig and diniguan. I can’t blame them Filipino has one of the best Pork dishes in the world.
Beef lechon is more delicious😂😂😂😂😂
@@rannarann9316 I never tried beef, I've tried goat but still haven't with the beef. Maybe i should try it in the future.
One of the best documentaries I have watched about Filipino cuisine (if not the best). As a Filipino myself, I do agree that the best Filipino foods can't be found in restaurants but in Pinoy gatherings and home cooked-meals. Even in the Philippines, I think I can only count with my fingers those who can serve real and authentic food :) What's interesting on this video is that it took the trouble to explain the implication of our complicated history to what is the Filipino cuisine today. I really liked this part. Kudos to the whole team!
thank you!
i totally agree 100%
Igado cooked for a family celebration hits different to the ones in carinderia. If you see your uncles cooking with a cig and gin on hand, you know it gonna slap.
I think that rule about the food being good if you see the uncle cooking with a cig and liquor on hand probably applies to almost any country in the world@@jared16795
The reason Thai cuisine went global is because it was planned to go global - see "culinary diplomacy" and "Global Thai". And a large part of that is the standardization of dishes so that no matter which Thai restaurant you ate at in the world, your Pad Thai would taste pretty much the same. This video considers the advantage of every Filipino family having their own version of home-cooked food, but does not consider the disadvantage of the difficulty of globally launching a cuisine when the 'cuisine' does not have a set of standard definitions. (Tell me your recipe for adobo and every Filipino will tell you you're dead wrong and that their grandmother has a better recipe.) I believe that's part of the reason why Filipino cuisine is unappreciated.
Yes, that's true the Thai government heavily invested in the promotion and standardization of Thai cuisine in the early 2000's. They provided incentives and training to people who wanted to start a restaurant business.
Filipinos are free-spirited. They can't be placed in a box and have them all do one thing the same way. AND, Filipinos don't care if their food is under-appreciated or under-rated. Reserve that for singing and dancing and performing but when it comes to cooking and eating, they just don't give a damn.
True...very true.
thats a non sense reason. Thai have different flavors too of the same dish..Thai became popular because of media too. Same with tourism. Imagine Thai at one point was the most popular beach destination in south east asia considering the presence of Indonesia and Philippines(which compromised of many islands). It does not makes sense
Thai food are palatable to the taste of foreigners because their food are fresh, full of veggies unlike typical Filipino food which have bad smell, salty, oily, sour etc. Not good for health.
The Filipino Cuisine is having a hard time going mainstream internationally because you cannot pin down a basic recipe, due to the fact that you have several islands to contend with and they all have their own take or version of any certain dish. Take, for example, Adobo. You can find Adobo anywhere all over the Philippines across the islands. however, depending where you are, it might be cooked with coconut or no soy sauce or with something else the cook could find in their kitchen. So if you ask, how to cook adobo, there will be several versions. not like perhaps Italian, where pizza is pizza, spaghetti is spaghetti. (please don't take offense, just example) it's easily identifiable as Italian. You can't mistake those two things as coming from another country. but with Filipino, due to the fact that we were a melting pot of so many cultures, it's not uniquely ours but still somehow uniquely ours. in a way, I would like to keep our food the best kept open secret. it would be your honor and privilege if you were invited to our table. 😉 if you never came across our food in your lifetime, then you never really lived . 🤣🤣🤣
True. It is a tribe culture thing, amplified by family exclusivity when it comes to food.
@@jayzenstyle i guess you have no awareness that Indonesia has 14,000 islands and yet they have Iconic dishes like the Rendang, Sambal, Satay, Kulma, etc. You also need to be told to read about China who has over 23 provinces and hundreds of ethnic minorities. But Chinese Food is world famous. The next time you want to be loud about the Philippines being a melt pot, name one city that has a synagogue, name at least 3 Indians in your senate or congress. Point is, Malaysia and Singapore is a melting pot. Philippines is just a pot melting. Learning the cultures of your neighboring countries will help you make more intelligent statements about your own culture.
@@eduardochavacano that's plenty of assumptions pulled from nowhere, I guess you failed at basic english comprehension from roughly one sentence of a comment of mine.
I simply agreed on one point about the reason why Filipino cuisine isn't widely known.
The tribalism, along with the family exclusivity(I hope you know the definition of this before you throw a strawman fallacy at me) has caused the recipes to stay within localized areas and nothing more.
Add that to the colonial oppression of the past deeming the cuisine 'inferior', and what you get is a greatly introverted food culture that only the locals enjoy and rarely share with foreigners because of the bad colonial history.
Heck the tribal animosity is still alive even today, with the Luzonians, Visayans and Mindanaoans bickering about civility and politics. Don't expect the food culture to proliferate with multiple societal issues yet to be fixed.
I'm glad your Indonesia has dealt with the nationalism identity issue properly, but that's way outside the point to begin with. But of course, that's how strawman fallacies work.
@@eduardochavacanoIf you don't know anything about history nor understand hos comment, please educate yourself. Philippines is the only colonized country in Asia with lot, tons of influences from diff country all over the world. Imagine how many techniques, fusion tastes our dishes acquires? Every Filipino dish have hundreds of version depending where province you tried that dish. It's not like about the food in your country that every dish you have, you just have one taste to remember.😂
@@chiannaguilar9934 Can you try to point out something on what was posted that you want to rebutt or discuss. You can't. Because it is too much effort to be rational. An idea was presented and you could argued against it. But you are more interest in simply taking offense as if you were able to comprehend the little note. Thanks anyway, for trying. Be well.
Filipino food and culture is widely misunderstood. It's even misunderstood by Filipino people. You can see this when the couple starts arguing about the origin of kinilaw. It's precolonial native dish, but the husband believes it's an adaptation of Japanese sushi. People think Filipino adobo is related to Spanish adobo. However, it's a precolonial dish. The Spanish started calling it 'adobo' do to it's resemblance to their dish, and the name stuck. I think the most salient point you make is that in much of Asia, there is a big emphasis on restaurant culture that doesn't exist at that level in the Philippines. I think your work of putting out well researched history like this is important. It helps bring a lot of context to a place that is so widely misunderstood and overlooked.
In old dictionaries like Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala, the Tagalog word for Spanish "adobar" is "quilao/kilaw", which is also the term where "kinilaw" originated...
@@kzm-cb5mryou are wrong, adobo already existed b4 the Spaniards. Adobo don't have a Spanish influence. Adobar means to marinate, yes. But pre colonial adobo, you don't need to marinate the meat. They cook it slowly with salt and vinegar. Another name of adobo in southern Visayas and Mindanao, is 'Tinabal' you do the same with fish but different name. It's called, 'Inun-unan' so stop acting like you know. You just read it somewhere else.
@@GoodManners143who is wrong? No one in this thread claimed there was any Spanish influence.
@@u2bst1nks I'm replying with the other guy, he mentioned 'Adobar' a Spanish word which means to marinate. 🫢
@@GoodManners143Yes but they didn't claim that it has any influence to Adobo. They only stated that Adobar is Quilao/Kilaw in Tagalog.
I absolutely love how you actually pinpointed the reason. The Philippines is not a culture where people eat out. We eat at home. Restaurants and street food are for convenience and the novelty (hence they're primarily foreign food - western food, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc.), not because people eat there for daily meals. Yet westerners somehow expect that since other parts of Asia are mostly about street food, that our street food should be similar as well. Except it's not.
Then there's the way that popular media depicts it as exotic. Most foreigners I know, when I ask them about Filipino food, all they know is balut, from Fear Factor. Since repeated multiple times and expanded to other more exotic dishes, throughout the years. Which is actually ironic, because Filipino food is actually relatively tame, a large part of it is American and Spanish-influenced. In comparison to mainland Asian cuisines where things CAN get extremely extreme, especially with the regular use of bush meat which rarely or never happens in the Philippines. Insects, for example, are regularly eaten in mainland Southeast Asia and East Asia, whereas in the Philippines, I can only think of one regional cuisine that offers it, and even then, few people actually eat it.
I have seen people who when trying Filipino food for the first time, would act extremely scared that they would barely give it a chance. The most hilarious example was a vlogger I watched like a few years back who was offered leche flan. She put a tiny part of it on her spoon, like so tiny you can barely see it, then tasted it, made a face, and said no thank you. For those who don't know, leche flan is LITERALLY creme caramel. Her stereotype was so strong, it couldn't even get over the fact that she was basically eating one of the most common European desserts.
Yeah I ended up cutting a 3 min segment where I just ranted about this subject and especially the “look how disgusting foreigners are” element of so many videos- usually about Balut. It is everything wrong with food youtube
I’m not familiar with this vlogger. Who is she?
@@shuichikurama1760 Just one of those "I DID NOT EXPECT THIS!" type of vloggers a long time ago.
Honestly, people who are afraid to eat the food where they are traveling, and act so childish, probably should just stay home!
Maybe she thought it was another russian fat curd delicacy.
As a filipino who is enjoying our food. I don't really mind if foreigners are just recently exploring our food or ignoring it. I don't need validation 😅
Yep as long as i ate it and taste it myself, I wouldn't care if people like or dislike my food. 🤣
Even certain European cuisines are underappreciated. Do these Europeans pay attention to it? I suppose not, so we Filipinos should do the same and not mind at all.
As a filipino, i would have to disagree with ‘’we don’t need validation’’ 😅 too many i observe we give special treatment for outsiders than our own
Agree 100%
Yet, many Filipinos are intrigued by foreigners doing videos on their visits to the Phillipines. See how many comments start with their identity as Filipinos in almost every one of these videos. One could even see a "mob mentality" occur when the negativity triggers sensitive locals. So you don't need validation? That ain't so! You may speak for yourself, but Filipinos are obviously dying for validation of their culture. The numbers don't lie.😎
OTR: "Filipino food has its own completely unique... it's not mild, but it's not overpowering in any one direction. That's the interesting thing about Filipino food, it's its own flavor profile."
YES. 100% YES.
It's not like our neighbours which have a tendency to go spicy hot. Filipino food is a reflection of its mixed cultural heritage, brought by its history of being melting pot of other cultures through migration, colonization, and trade.
I would characterize my country's main dishes as more umami based, with the snacks and desserts tending to the sweet side of things. Even the common daing varieties or the sour sinigangs or the spicy Bicolano foods end up being savory at the end. And these main dishes are always best eaten with rice, which balances out the rich flavours of these dishes.
The perception that Filipino foods are sweet is due to the popularity of local fastfood chains. But when the foreign tourist goes beyond that, our food pretty much hits those umami notes.
Lastly, the best Filipino foods aren't found in restaurants. It's always *always* found cooked in homes, and served during special feasting occasions like birthdays to town fiestas. And unless foreigners participate in these feasts, they only barely scratch the surface of authentic Filipino cuisine. In a way, we keep the best to ourselves, which isn't being selfish at all but rather a way of reserving our best for feasting with others - for sharing. And when a foreigner partakes in our home cooked meals or fiestas, it means they are truly welcomed by us Filipinos. "Tara na" or better yet "Kain!" as we invite others to join us in our meals.
Great episode!
This is a great comment, thank you for taking the time!
I suppose I could add that the Filipino flavor profile enjoys counterpoints: pitting strong or mild flavors against each other in a dish or a meal. It's why you pair champorado with salted fish, dinuguan with puto, or green mango with bagoong. It's why we have cheese ice cream, ensaimada is topped with cheese or stuffed with bacon, why pancit is drizzled with calamansi, pork barbeque is paired with a vinegar dip, lumpiang Shanghai has sweet and sour sauce, sinigang is both savory and tangy, same goes for bistek tagalog, and so on. It's like a built-in palette cleanser so you'll keep eating until stuffed.
I'm sure "Counterpoint" is not unique to Filipino cuisine (e.g. french lemon butter sauce and japanese pickled ginger with sushi) but it sure seems to be everywhere in Filipino food.
@@mara3874 oh yes definitely agree on that!
when foreigners get invited to a family celebration at somebody's home, yes they eat, something new something different, but what they're going to remember and associate with that experience, was how they were treated, how much fun and laughter was around that table, how the kids took to the new "uncle or aunt", how they went home with pabaon, how they got to sing karaoke for the first time in their lives, how they were included in all the games and pictures, and with a standing invitation to come back next time.
Bruh. My appetite rn while I'm attending university is so low but whenever I go home to eat my parent's home cooked meals, I'm eating a lot of food.
I am an US expat who lives in the Philippines and have lived here for over a decade. The meal you had at New Mabuhay, is one where every dish you were served is cooked here in our house and cooked well. There are many other dishes he have of course, but this is what life is like and the food is great. Sometimes the presentation is lacking but the flavors... 🙂 Yeah, the flavors are great. And there are regional differences. My wife makes a pinakbet with coconut milk rather than bagoong which is out of this world. But yes, it's the home cooking and not the street stalls. Sure you can get BBQ port, or lechon manok from the stalls. And they will be good. But it really is the home cooking. Where I live, GenSan, tuna is the king. There are dozens of kinilaw recipes with each family having its own take on it. Last night, at a dinner on the evening of Undas (All Saints Day), a neighbor brought his tuna kinilaw. It is very different from my wife's and just as delicious in its own way. You mentioned sisig. Sisig can be a challenge for the foreigner. The concept that there isn't anything from the pig, other than the squeal, that isn't eaten, makes for some more than chewy bites. And there is a fish sisig that depending on who is making it is even more of a challenge as it can include fish tail.
When you come to Philippines, add GenSan and we will feed you! And if you do you will find out that there are wonderful gulay (vegetable) dishes, such as my wife's lumpia, talong smashed with garlic, kangkong braised/sauteed with garlic. Of course there are dishes with meat and fish. And then there is my brother-in-law's Ilonggo style valenciana, my wife's Ilonggo style pork pochero, afritada, tuna belly cooked over coals, and finally biko for dessert.
this sounds so good omg. im from cebu and now im i wanna go to gensan!
Have you already tried paksiw na isda?
@@leezaa480, :-) Oo
I always prefer biko over mango sticky rice
I live in GenSan and I hate tuna but my mom loves tuna that she makes grilled tuna, tuna kinilaw, tuna sashimi and mind you I love Japanese food but if it's tuna then it's a no for me.
For any tuna lovers out there if you wanna go out here don't. I'm telling you rn you're just gonna get sick of tuna real quick .
Also, I wouldn't be suprised if they made tuna ice cream bc in Davao city (3hrs away from here) has made crocodile and ostrich ice cream from the egg! crazy, I know.
My mom also ate a baby shark like an actual baby shark (it was cooked of course) when we went to Siargao and I'm not even kidding and If you think abt it like this should be sold like in a black market or something but they got that from a local wet market and mind you she just told me that it tastes like chicken. 🙃
I had no idea Filipino food was looked down on.
I grew up on and near US Navy bases on the East Coast. Our churches were like 50% Filipino and there were Filipino restaurants. When we had church picnics and grills, the hotdogs and hamburgers would be piled up and uneaten - everyone, EVERYONE, went for the food brought by the Filipino church ladies. THE BEST.
It's been 30 years and I still miss it.
As a Peruvian I had no idea our flag dish (ceviche) was inspired by Filipino culture. I ought to thank the filipinos for this! Also, in Arequipa, a region in Peru, one of the most famous dishes is called "Adobo"
Not only that, but if you are familiar with the fashion garment (Manton de Manila) that originally started from the indigenous (Alampay shawls) in Manila, then it spread to other parts of the Spanish empire.
It is not. It was made the natives long before the Spaniars came, it just used something other than lemon for the curing
peru and the philippines are the only places in the world where "ceviche" was independently developed. Mexican and Guamanian ceviche were adaptations of the Filipino prototype.
I'm half Filipino/Thai, and your video just provided so much context to my experience with Filipino food, why my late father was obsessed with home cooked meals and why the best meals I have in Cebu are the home cooked ones.
❤
How you Joking 😒😒😒😒
You're not thai/Filipino Tell the Truth
That’s the Chinese side. Always eating good while spending least. It’s cool to try uncles and aunties variation/style cooking. Cebuanos food is so good. I also have a palette for ilocano cooking.
@@Helios824bruh
@@Helios824bro you are not a human. Tell us the truth that you're a devil
One of the hardest to get into restaurants in Melbourne is a Filipino resto called Serai. As an aussie married to a Filipina who doesn't like to cook, but loves home dishes, I've been cooking for two years now and I'm obsessed with Filipino food and flavours and while I love all types of Asian cuisine, I'm definitely sold on Filipino food. It definitely isn't boring!
Chef Ross Magnaye is the real deal man. The dude is a visionary.
Should you visit Perth, be sure to visit my uncle's Filipino restaurant, the place is called Tagpuan.
I've eaten at Serai. Honestly, I enjoyed the food at Barkada more.
Booking a dine in at SERAI restaurant can be challenging due to high demand, but the amazing flavors make it worth the effort
The narrative is explicit, the writer/s and researchers are on point and well prepared, it feels like they are Filipino themselves. Magnificent! ❤
This is one of the best documentaries I have come across on the internet not only for the Philippines, but as a documentary itself. As a native there are so much hidden history that Filipinos themselves don't know about, and I appreciate you enlightening not only them but foreigners as well of our history. It is so interesting how our long history of oppression has made us into shells of our former culture, one could only hope that the culture our ancestors tried so hard to defend could continue on prosperously and not be forgotten.
Can someone please tell Amazon Prime or some TV network to throw money at these guys to take their show global? It's great content, diligently researched with heart and soul. Thanks for doing this!
I think they have a patreon and collect money that way but its better than most things on the food network for sure
@@benpellegrom6488people still watch the food network?
There is a little filipino restaurant in Frankfurt, Germany. It is not far from the fair area (Frankfurter Messe), which is quite an international place. I encourage everyone who comes to Frankfurt to visit the place for a quite different dinner experience!
This is one of the most insightful takes on Filipino cuisine that I have heard. This is an excellent perspective of why our local cuisine doesn’t get a good foothold in other countries. It is food meant for the home rather than restaurants. That IS truly very Filipino.
As a filipina, I really don't care if Filipino Cuisines are not popular. As long as some people/foreigners enjoy and loved it. I am happy for them that they discover a new cuisine in their life and I'll be thinking that they got the privilege to be invited in a filipino home/family & party and they probably have a filipino neighbors that keep sending them food in every celebration they have like birthday. And to people who view filipino food as bad and not good, you guys missing out something and unlucky to not yet get invited in a filipino home. I just feel that we don't need validation of the world that our food is delicious. For us filipino and some people see it as delicious and I am ok with that. I just shrugged if some people doesn't like it. Or not suited for their taste buds. They are the one who's missing out something anyway.
I think you nailed it in this video. Some of the best Filipino foods come out during fiestas, parties, Christmas, etc. The stuff you buy on the streets, the everyday food, are the cheap and quick stuff that the working class people in the country can afford. Parties are very important to us, and we do it a lot, and the food is the thing we look forward to in every party. Every host will put their reputation on the line at a party, it’s a serious business behind all the laughter and fun lol.
No adobo in parties or fiesta, only food items that are worth presenting to the world.
Ahhahaha so so true. Reputations are on the line during get-togethers, as to wich tito or tita makes the best Menudo, Caldereta or Lechon Paksiw! 😅
From what I heard, people in the countryside would even go in debt to make sure they can serve up a decent feast.
@@TaLeng2023that is some nasty side of the Filipino culture I can attest to that.
@@DamionAlexander it's the "Bahala na" attitude.
There seems to be an advent of Filipino food of some sort going on atm in the USA where there’s a lot of Filipino Americans, and it’s also making headway in countries with significant Filipino population like Australia. I wouldn’t go as fas as to say it’s my favorite cuisine in Southeast Asia, but I do like pork/chicken adobo, Bicol express, lechon, and bulalo.
Probably not a coincidence that these dishes are similar with some of the things we have in Indonesia, but our palate is different which is why we like stronger spices and more pungent flavors. This is one of the reasons why it’s easier for me to appreciate Thai, Malaysian, and Myanmar food. But then again, I also LOVE Vietnamese food, which is the total opposite of of our cuisine with its subtle flavors. One thing that I notice is that, yes, the Filipinos don’t have that kind of pride that the rest of Southeast Asians have with our respective cuisine. In Thailand, Thai food is king. Likewise in Vietnam and Indonesia. From roadside stalls to fancy restaurants, we are passionate about our own food.
But overseas Filipinos rediscovering the food of their homeland might be a boon, as people back home might come to appreciate their own food better. I do think that the best ingredient of any Filipino meal is the Filipinos themselves, and I do love my friendly and fun-loving brethren. Let me make a toast (with our common rice wine) to insular Southeast Asia brotherhood! Cheers! 🇮🇩 🍻 🇵🇭
Love the comment but rice wine? I’m going straight for the tuak!
@@OTRontheroad hey, I’m not going to take that from a guy who had friggin’ Coca Cola with kaldereta and tortang talong 😤 Come over to my neck of the woods and I’ll treat you to baram (what we call rice wine here)! 🥂
Lol I'm pretty sure anyone who watches the channel assumes I'm just mainlining Coke and coffee- it's honestly just for filming day. Just pounding caffeine to power through.@@KilanEatsandDrinks
@@OTRontheroad hey man, you gotta do what you gotta do. If carbonated beverage with caffeine is whats keeping the video coming, then by all means, mainline away! 😁
the abundance of filipino food content is because foreigners noticed there are a lot of filipino viewers, and 3rd world countries are the easiest people to click bait, so they capitalized on this for easy money...
Respect on doing a candid , authentic history of #FilipinoFood👑
You're ballsy enough to ask the question why Filipino is not mainstream yet... and the answer you get is... it's complicated.
Cool to see the Filipino Expats in Bangkok! ✨👍
If you travel to Southern Philippines, you'll find different versions of those foods you ate... and many other regional dishes. You have to try banana ubod (core of banana stump) with chicken, adobong kangkong, salad na pako (an edible fern) or ginataang langka with bulad (dried fish). There's so much more to Filipino cuisine if you explore further south.
I love it when you referred to what the common tourists were exposed to in our cuisines "what they are familiar with, but not what we Filipinos eat". That is so true. Our culture and our nature, being hospitable, we will serve you what we think you will eat. We want you fed because that is being hospitable. One of the top 3 questions asked by a Filipino to a friend they haven't seen in a while is "kumain ka na?" or have you eaten. Filipino home feasts have one core rule - "eat all you must". One of the great things about our cuisine, coming from mixed influences, is that it pairs well with wine. Probably the most wine-friendly of all Asian cuisines.
Re wine, that actually...makes a lot of sense. I'll have to test that theory soon.
True, particularly the Spanish influenced dishes of the Philippines also known as "Fiesta Cuisine"..
wine, try it with lumpia and a sweet and sour sauce. its golden.
@@OTRontheroad We did a lechon-wine pairing and tasting event once in Cebu. It was so much fun.
I have to agree with our food dishes always goes very well with wine. And that is also why most of our foods can also be paired with beers as pulutan. Almost all of the food also good for pulutan or if not pulutan can be eaten for hangover relief
Filipino cuisine is so good. The home cooked meals are great. Had a Filipino friend in college and he invited me to his parents house and it was some of the best food I've ever had in college. I also frequent Chicago a lot, and some of the best restaurants I've been to were Filipino. Indianapolis has a good Filipino food truck that my friends swear by, but have yet to go to it.
Got a bit nervous about the beginning thinking it was gonna be the same schtick about the awesomeness of adobo, lumpia and kaldereta etc., but I so appreciate y'all going for the underbelly. This also covers a lot of my own complex relationship with Filipino food for all the reasons stated. I've mentioned many times before how despite being Filipino, it is not my favorite cuisine but to the extent of eating the same tired dishes everyone already knows and even disparages. I also praise the fact that there's channels like FEATR and a slew of young adults being willing to explore the indigenous and highly regional cuisines, which ignited my interest to be more open to true Filipino food.
I really wish that Filipino food took off in the West, in the same way every other migrant restaurant did - simply serving food in a dedicated homestyle, dine-in setting. My caveat being I don't live in a particularly vibrant Filipino community, so if it does exist, it's my dream to sit and eat in one. I don't want to see this food forever be defined by questionable carinderias, or compulsorily turned into fusion or gourmet just to appease the "foreigners." I made a similar comment on another video about Filipino-fusion food served in a French style. I applaud those kinds of chefs for their hard work, education and creativity, but it becomes a slippery slope. Losing the essence of Filipino foods to the masses who'd almost never be able to afford Michelin stars.
Meanwhile, the best food I've tasted so far was in homes, but of course they'd have to be decent cooks too lol. I will never forget a 100% fresh vegetable dish my tita cooked when I visited her. Greens, sweet corn and squash flowers simmered in a clear broth. But it wasn't dinengdeng. Not a hint of meat or seafood. Only flavored with salt instead of bagoong, so it truly highlighted the sweetness of the vegetables and rice. Very plain, but very good. And of course, there's more complex preparations of fresh meat, seafood and veggies across the Philippines that don't necessarily involve dousing in oil and heavy sauce. That's the kind of stuff to look out for.
also, the reason why Filipino is so hidden is that we haven't codified recipes - every family has its own take on it;
also also, Filipinos are great assimilationists, so when we move abroad, on top of being too busy to put up restaurants (which, to your point, is a risky venture), we just love to take on the culture of where we find ourselves
That is not unique to Filipinos at all... every family has their own recipe. Are you telling me that every Indian mother makes the same exact curry?... Are you telling me that every Italian grandmother makes the same exact spaghetti?... Family recipes exist in every country.
Wow, I never knew Filipino food had such a bad rap. I grew up on a few basic Filipino staples thought to my mom by our Filipino neighbors. Adobo, pancit, lumpia… all family favorites. I was super excited when a Filipino grocery opened on main street in my little Midwest town. The only restaurant closure that I was bummed about during the pandemic was a little Filipino place. I definitely need to make it out to the Philippines at some point. Also, that adobo manok looks exactly like the adobo I grew up.
Adobo, pancit, lumpia - ALL ARE DONE SO MUCH BETTER BY OTHER CULTURES.
Thing is there's a strain of Filipino who pathologically diminishes any Pinoy cultural aspect out of frustration with their living conditions / things going on with them psychologically, and they're highly overrepresented among online Filipinos. Fair warning you may get a couple of them in your replies.
@@MarkasTZM exactly, those immitation Chinese dishes are mostly mediocre and the hype on social media is super cringe. But good Filipino food exist. Some are actually very good, when you get sick of very sophisticated dishes from China or Thailand. I make videos on food. So to be fair, Filipino food has potentials for recognition. Unless the masses dont stop raving about the Egg Rolls of Shanghai or the Pancit from Cantonese China or the Adobo which is dog food in the Ming dynasty.
@@syncswimI have seen a whole channel dedicated to just slander Philippines, saying the filipinos are the dumbest people in SEA while pointing out a study from 1979. Also criticizing the food as the worst in the world. Calling the women gold diggers and scammers.
The channel is called the philippine or filipino truth or something. I suspect the channel is owned by a pinoy but I might be wrong. Saw it a few weeks ago and was disgusted by the malicious content and the amount of incels from foreign countries commenting on the channel specially the ones about the women is just insane to me. I used to have no problems with foreigners dating filipinas, specially the one who are willing to adapt to the culture but that channel and its subscribers are just vile, these foreigners are racists.
They belittle the filipinos, feeling superior to them while at the same time saying how they sleep around the country because the women are only good for one night. INSANE.
Hopefully the philippines can come up with something to prevent these predators from harming the women. The most disgusting part is the filipinos are commenting that they agree and I did too on some points the video made, but talk about the filipino victim mentality, to agree with something that is generally untrue. A generalize prejudice against their whole country, belittling their culture and heritage, its blatant racism.
Dedicating a whole channel and calling it the "truth" while pointing out so called "facts" about the Philippines based on that creators opinions. That person might be an expat or something, hurt by a filipina. Or just mentally unstable, cause who in the world would create a whole channel just to pour hate on a whole country.
I might be turning against these passportbros movement after all. These people have no respect for other people, maybe the western women are right, these are incels and worthless piece of sh*t that have no game in the west so they come to asia to harm the women, because the amount of foreigners commenting on that channel is disgustingly high, talking about filipinas.
I don't know of you have seen the channel, I just reported the channel for hateful and racist content and moved on. I just remebered it now that you pointed something out in this comment.
@@syncswimoh yeah, the channel I mentioned have a a video calling the filipino food as the #1WORST food in the world, that's why I remembered it because I was watching this and saw your comment.
You said it best.... so many of my friends had asked about Filipino food, and why the food culture is so different that it's SE Asian neighbors. Filipinos are so accommodating, that when people turned their noses up to our food, we just said, "OK, you'll get burgers, fries, and fried things". Best quote - "It's what YOU want, not what THEY eat"!
@@AsianSPhaving grown up in Southern California in the US, I was lucky to get exposed to a little bit of Filipino culture, but looking back I realize now how strikingly quiet the Filipino community was. They’d hold their own cultural shows, but they didn’t really advertise…and until I met my fiancé in person some 20 years later, I’d never really been introduced to Filipino cuisine.
That hospitality and accommodating mindset is lovely but it does have its flip side though. It’s infuriating in relationships, lol. My fiancé was both excited to show me the food he grew up with, but also so accommodating in what I wanted to do that at even the slightest hint of maybe possibly potentially not wanting to he changed directions. Add the family in and it’s a constant barrage of, “are you ok with this?”, “do you want to?”, “don’t want to do something you don’t want to,” etc. I absolutely love em to death but decision fatigue from the not wanting to impose is real, lol.
I finally had to tell them, “I know it’s not what y’all normally do, but _please impose_ . You’re not going to hurt my feelings and I’m not going to make fun of your food. If I absolutely don’t want to try something, I will tell you honestly and politely, and if you’re not sure whether the ingredients will turn me off, don’t tell me until _after_ I’ve tried it. I love you, y’all are my chosen family, _I want to learn!_ ”
Oh my, apparently that’s all they needed to hear, LOL. From that point on it went from, “food.” to, “FOOOOOD!!!” And, aside from one or two minor, “Eh…I’m not quite there yet, but eventually…” reactions I’ve had to a few dishes (mainly those that have an obvious ingredient borne out of American Army food assistance origins, like the similar-to-American-cheese-but-not, and most depressing to my new family, about a third of the ingredients in Halo Halo) I’ve loved every bit of it.
@@AsianSP I think you should be careful about using words like self-aggrandizement followed by “unlike in other asian countries” unless it's your own words. It is also a judgment and and drag other countries down without facts. It’s a characteristic of “crab mentality”
The term “Soft power”, it is soft because it is free from force. If it is forced, it is not soft power, but HARD power. You should research this matter further.
“in short we don’t play hard to our soft power”
Sorry, I thought it is the opposite. The Philippines has a habit of forcing “HARD SALE” on its own culture. I give a factual example, Filipino teachers abroad force their students to watch videos with Filipino contents and upload these contents on CZcams. For example, Chinese student reacts to Pinoy celebs, MU performance, tiktok, drama., Thai student react…to culture of the Philippines, SB19, jollibee series, pinoy artist perform…, Vice Ganda… blah blah (these videos are about dancing The changing looks of celebs, the way Pinoy beauty queens walk on stage, etc. What does it have to do with the subjects they teach?) Seriously, are there any Asian countries that do this? They try to hard sell everything, language, music, food, etc. These examples are just a few, there are other examples in the country that can lead to the implication that the Philippines “force our very own culture to others”.
@@AsianSPYou seem to have a very superficial understanding of this matter, the more you say, the more it supports my argument.
play hard but never use power/authority force/coerce! Have you ever seen Korea force us to consume K-pop? Have you ever seen Japan force us to watch anime? never! We consume it based on our own decision and conscience. (but actually there is a process of power that controls our thoughts and actions.)
I encourage you to research the term “technology of power” further.
The example I gave is obvious: The way we are doing it is using power/authority to make them consume. (Those people didn't choose it themselves. and realize that they themselves are being directed), which is meet the definition of hard power, the use of traditional power, unlike soft power, which is considered the technology of power, without coercion. those people are not aware that power is being used against them. I’d like to give a contemporary example, the BL series, which is currently being adopted by the Philippines. I won't explain further, but I hope you get the idea.
Philosophically and factually, we live in the era of post-modernism. (Please research More on postmodernism) The old methods are ineffective in this era. Things that are hard sale like we are doing are being done so blatantly, contrary to what you're trying to say, we don't force them and make them feel uncomfortable. You said that we don't force others like other Asian countries but the fact is the opposite.
It’s not true.. It’s what filipinos want.. most filipino kids when they go out they want Jollibee or other fast foods so the family will follow what their kids want.. some kids will more likely to eat fast food than filipino food and they just really want fast food stuff even the older filipinos.. also if foreigner goes to street they will most likely to see kwek kwek, calamares, fried isaw, kanto chicken thats how in the videos says that we like greasy stuff because thats what most filipinos really liked.. so it’s not the foreign who cause this tradition.. It’s us filipino.. The influence of Jollibee made an impact.. most city have jollibee near to each other and fast food neigboring another fast food but all business is really making money because of us not the few foreigners.. It’s really not because of foreigner but because from us Filipino..
I watched this video and immediately sent it to my mom, sister, husband, and favorite foodie friends… This is probably the best attempt at explaining and presenting Filipino food in a way that is not judgmental or condescending at all (which seems that way with a lot of other videos on CZcams, unfortunately). I especially appreciate the research done into the history of Filipino food, I have nothing to nitpick on, your explanation was accurate and spot on! :) I even chuckled when Mang Romy said kinilaw was of Japanese origin and you looked like you wanted to explain but didn’t want to make it seem like you were explaining Filipino food to a Filipino (because I know how defensive we can get about our culture😂). I’ve really liked your other videos and when this popped up on my feed, I was ready to defend my food and my culture. I’m happy to say, I can put my pitchfork down😂
Thank you for the research and for putting in much thought and care into this video, you didn’t just say you liked the food, you put into words why. And that’s something even I’ve struggled to explain to others, as people around me say I’m a “foodie” but question why I don’t eat Filipino food when I go out to eat.
I’m actually Filipino-American, born in the US but lived in the Philippines for half of my life and all of my growing years. Coming back to the US, I’ve been trying to find food similar to what I grew up with so I can show my Taiwanese-American husband what real Filipino food is like (not just Jollibee and Pinoy BBQ although those are delicious too haha), but my search has not been fruitful. We even live in the greater LA area and you’d think authentic and delicious Filipino food would be plentiful but that hasn’t been the case (except for Kuya Lord’s in LA- man, I really love that place!) Maybe I’ll finally be able to show him how truly amazing Filipino food is, once we go back to the Philippines next year for my first trip back in 11 years, and his first trip ever.🥲
I’ve been telling him that there are probably 101 ways (or more!) to make adobo depending where you’re from, and that legit halo-halo isn’t all jelly and boba and ice cream like what’s being sold here lol. I saw the halo-halo you had in the video and gasped😮 The beans! Now that’s real halo-halo! Haha! That’s how my family has made it, my dad’s cousins have been running this halo-halo store that their mother had opened in 1933 (Aling Taleng’s Halo-Halo in Pagsanjan, Laguna) and it looks very similar to the halo-halo you had.
Again, this video is much appreciated. I’ll be bookmarking this and sending it to all my friends the next time they ask what’s so good about Filipino food. :)
Pinakbet is a regional dish from the Northern part of the country where I lived. FILIPINO foodies has a variety of versions of the same dish just like adobo.
But a lot of native dishes in each region. Ilocano, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bicol, Bacolod, and other local and regional dishes.
I love your documentary. Hope to see your vlogs eating here in the country with 81 provinces in 17 regions if the country.
I like your arguments. Thank you for loving our food from different Pinoys. Salamat po. ❤❤❤❤❤
You only featured the general Filipino cuisine but if you are in Philippines, every regions has its own unique and different cuisine to the other regions.
Yes it is true that we have several kinds of cuisine but i think the point of the video is to show some dishes that are already popular (with foreigners) and that can and should be mainstream. If not for the reason filipino dishes is always underappreciated that is why our food are not popular.
That is not unique to the Philippines at all... most countries on Earth have different regional dishes and cuisines.
@@reginaldmanioso8326Popular for Manila maybe
It's crazy, Filipino food here in Seattle is relatively vibrant actually.
What I like about our Food is that its not always the exact same taste or even ingredients in every household. Each household has their own recipe of the dish, mostly the recipe is passed down from generations before.
As a Filipino and as someone who cooks mainly Filipino cuisine, thank you for bringing this to light. Some hard truths here but I think you're spot on about how we approach our own cuisine. Thank you also for the history lesson as many Filipinos don't truly know or appreciate the history of our food.
Pork Sinigang is so criminally underrated! You must eat it especially on a rainy day
I really appreciated how you grounded your observations on the nature of Filipino food with both the Philippines's history and current conditions. Btw one major difference between Filipino cuisine and other SE Asian cuisines is we technically do not have a "royal cuisine" which would be the basis of what would become as Filipino food. Indeed, most of our food culture revolves on home cooking. Traditionally, a good host would not just bring guests to a restaurant, but rather wake up early at dawn to go the market and cook them a feast for days.
This is a fantastic point about the lack of a royal cuisine.
Tinola is just food for the rich or elite during the spanish era. Now tinola is what you eat when you are sick 😂😂😂😂😂
Our version of royal cuisine would be cooking for the mestizo hacendero. Think tomato based dishes that we serve during fiestas. OR, if we as a culture took the La Sulipena heirloom cuisine as national fine dining standard.
If you ever want to continue your journey here in the Philippines, the family NOT restaurant culture in terms of eating is 100% true. There are great instances of Filipino restaurants, especially in the Tagaytay area (Balaydako and Salakot come to mind) but they're usually marketed to richer people. Even then, the serving sizes are made for families and never lower. Despite these more "refined" versions, they are NOWHERE NEAR as good as the Filipino food your grandmother makes. The actual good Filipino restaurants and places to eat otherwise are marketed not towards foreign tourists, but *other Filipinos* visiting the area. With you as a foreigner, it might be best to have a contact in each of the regions you plan to visit... and I hope you do a lot of research because of the diversity of the different provinces. The north with the Cagayan and Region I being more vegetable oriented, the mountains of the CAR region being *really* into smoked meat, the plains of Region III being EXTREMELY good at everything (hence their "chef" stereotype), and the seafood prowess and diversity of Calabarzon being notable, and these are just *HALF* of Luzon. Visayas and Mindanao are EXTREMELY different and equally delicious!
I hope you bring a lot of people if you ever plan to, you're going to need them!
If you're into trying authentic Filipino dishes, here's a tip: many of the foods showcased here are kind of like remixes from other cuisines. But, if you're after the real deal, authentic Filipino dishes change a lot from one province to another in the Philippines. So, to get the full experience, it's worth exploring all the different provinces scattered across the country from north to south.
I'm truly impressed by this. I initially thought it would just be a series of slideshows, but to my surprise, it features real people and actual food. You've done an excellent job!
In Taiwan we still have the original form of adobo, pork preserved in salt and vinegar or wine. It's called siraw by the Pangcah, and tmmyan by the Altayal. Siraw likely came from the Proto-Austronesian word *sedaq, which originally meant fish, or what you eat with rice. It's cognate with sira in Ibaloi, sirá Pangasinan, and sirá’ in Bikol. The tagalog word for fish, isda maybe also a cognate, but the s and i or flipped due to metathesis.
Yes this has cognates all over the Philipines. suraq, sud-an etc. all refer to dishes you eat with rice
Sida/ulam/viand in ilocano although sida literally mean fish. We called lames if it is come from freshwater and ikan if its in the sea/ocean.
Same in Pampanga. I used to hear old folks say ask 'nanung asan yu'? Asan is fish in our language but the phrase means they are asking what's our ulam or dish/viand to accompany rice.
@@redoktober526 In the Paiwan language the marinated meat is called valeng. I wonder if it is a cognate for viand.
As a Bicolano who have been to Wulai, I love Atayal food and culture! Also O-kai singers! Hope I can learn more about Paiwan too! 🇵🇭🤍🇹🇼
This video is beautifully made. The editing, the ambiance, the settings, narration, the flow etc.
Wow! An actual filipino food docu with lots of research done! Well done! You just earned another sub!
What a surprise to see this topic from you guys! And thanks for delving into the complexities of the ‘marketing’ of Filipino food. For my part , I have mostly given up to make it the so-called ‘next big thing’… . It is what it is . instead, I now just selectively share it with those closest to me , and have a wonderful time at it! ;-)
When I’m overseas, however, I do try and patronize Filipino food businesses if I run across them, as I greatly admire what they’re doing to promote our culture .
Agree!
We really enjoyed how you presented the family argument about the origin of Pilipino dishes.
Educational as ever. Salutations de la France 🇨🇵👍 +1.
Personally I think our pancit palabok should be more mainstream! Especially for those people who like the less "fatty" stuff. Also sinigang as well. These are some of my favorite local dishes along with adobo. ❤
Thanks for this video! Honestly one of the saddest things for me was hearing my husband say that Filipino food wasn’t good. He lived in the Philippines for a year before we met. I was shocked and despised him a bit, but when I finally visited the PH for the first time I understood. The food was awful. I was actually really sad about the food situation and I couldn’t find anything that my grandma cooked for me growing up. I couldnt believe I couldn’t find ube halo halo either. It was one of the worst trips in my life because the food was so bad, but this video explains it well. When I visited my aunt her food was so delicious! Nothing beats homemade Filipino food and I hope we Filipinos can share that with the world❤️
Yes, I've noticed that Filipino food made in the USA, with USA ingredients, is 10x better than the same dishes made in the Phil
@@redpillsatori3020I think there's one part in the video that really summarizes this point well: That filipino food you find on the streets is mostly for quick cheap bites by the working class.
It rarely is gonna be better than what you find home cooked by moms and dads who take the time to find good quality fresh ingredients to impress their guests. Like sure you can head to Mang Inasal to have some filipino style chicken BBQ, but it will never be better than the chicken bbq you get at fiestas. Cooked by someone's shirtless tito as he chugs a pale pilsen or red horse.
Cant deny that with the US, depending on the State, you might have an easier time finding high quality meats and such compared to going to a filipino palengke that mostly caters to just regular filipinos wanting cheap but good enough ingredients to feed their family.
@@meep2015 "That filipino food you find on the streets is mostly for quick cheap bites by the working class."
That is not really an excuse for PH street food to be bad. Poorer countries like India or equally rich countries like Vietnam have miles better street food scene and their main customers are working class people. Before you call me out I am Filipino, I think our cuisine is underwhelming in comparison to our neighbors.
Maybe the street food you ate was in Manila, where veggies and fresh protein are pricey. Street food is meant to be affordable but if ingredients are expensive, short cuts are made.
Go to the provinces for food other than adobo, lumpia and pancit.
Cook him some hotdogs and unhealthy shit. He'll like it lol
This is the most in depth and most well researched food vlog about understanding filipino food that I ever encountered. I applaud the producer of this vlog. As a Filipino, I think the main reason why our food can't reach worldwide recognition is because it has too much variation of the same dish. As mentioned in this video, our country is composed of more than a thousand Islands. For example, the adobo dish varies from province to province and Island to Island. In my province in Ilocos we sometimes add pineapple bits to our adobo, but the southern version doesn't. Hence the taste varies from place to place. Even I never cooked the exact same tasting adobo in my life. So to really appreciate our food, you should at least try it 20x and from different places until you develop an acquired taste.
Just a note: the popular sizzling sisig is already an innovation. In many Pampanga homes, we still prepare different kinds of sisig - shrimps, oysters, banana blossoms, fish, chicken, and the old-style sisig babi which is not grilled. It is simply boiled and marinated in citrus, salt, onions and chillies. The essence of sisig is the sour marinade.
Yeah the grilled version was popularized by the Angeles City version of sisig
I love this channel. Thank you for showcasing my country’s food!
This is a wonderful video that tastefully (😋😂) showcases Filipino cuisine!
my husband is not a huge fan of all the dishes but he definitely enjoys the lumpia and pancit that my mother taught me how to make.
Watching your video makes me want to get back to cooking some of my childhood favorites ❤
This video perfectly describes the Filipino cuisine. I found it hard to explain to my foreign friends what Filipino cuisine is and now, I know how to describe it. Filipino food is always best enjoyed with the company of friends or family. Kudos to the well-researched production!
Filipino cuisine not making it mainstream, especially abroad simply because FILIPINOS are well adaptable. FILIPINOS in Italy 🇮🇹 are quite happy to indulge in pasta and pizza, whilst in America 🇺🇸 happy to dig in some burgers, chicken & and fries, then the UK 🇬🇧 for some fish and chips. FILIPINO palate is different than most Asian. FILIPINOS simply adapt, and home cooking is just simply a gastoronomic consolation prowress enjoyed by the family and invited guests, especially whenever there is an occasion. LUV ❤ from the 🇵🇭
First of all, thanks for what you and your team does. I learn cultures (through food) because of what you do. Second, appreciate a very honest view on our food culture. Great video! Looking forward to more. And yeah, looking forward to your visit here!
As a Filipino in Chicago, the food appreciation has been hitting the mainstream; especially when Kasama got their first Michelin star. There's been a slew of Filipino bakeries popping up as well. My local go to (Ruby's) is very well appreciated by non-filipinos
So happy my name got put up onscreen for the first time for an episode on Filipino food! My partner’s Filipina and we love to cook her food together - such a lovely coincidence ☺️
Being a Filipino, our cuisine is unique because of our Geographic location and our cultural influences. It's a blend of a lot of things from SEA, Chinese, Latino, Spanish, American and Japanese.
Another is that through those cultures, our foods are very family connected, which is why we have the saying; "The best Filipino food is at home".
Very well done with the video guys! Hope this'll open up more eyes to how unique our country is.
definitely unique, everyone aside from Filipino people are too civilized to eat pagpag
I do not like Filipino food I'm an expat, yuk.
So, it's a food for mongrels.
@@eddieBoxerbecause you were raised with mcdonalds diabetes pallete
That's the diabetic's innocent or naive definition of a nutritious food. !
Wow! This is an h onest to goodness Filipino cuisine review! It wasn't click-baiting. I even learned something from your video. Thank you!
I was married to a Filipina that was a fantastic cook as well as worked with many Filipinos. Love the food. And the times I got to spend there. With friends and family
Yep, that's right. If you want to truly taste Filipino cuisine, you MUST find someone to take you home and cook something for you in the Philippines, not just street foods or the karenderiyas because those are made to be cooked fast and by batches which lowers the quality of the food. That or find an authentic Filipino restaurant without any kind of twist in it, just pure Filipino and has a Filipino mother or father cooking, which is hard since most Filipino restaurants in other countries already adapted to fit that country's people's tastebuds.
Funny you mentioned cevichè as I had the same theory regading it's origin. Of course I was told that it was existing long before the galleon trade. But the thought persists that for a country practically surrounded by water wouldn't come up with such a dish is mind boggling.
I can’t express this enough, I have so much respect for Adam and the OTR team 🇵🇭
Bravo!!! i have been following your Investigative docus... as a Filipino thank you for introducing Filipino Food with such a wonderful and bright perspective!!! Your research and quips are impeccable!!!
I live in the US for a while now. And every time we eat out we always try different dishes because since we’re Filipino we can make our own dish at home. We wanna try other dishes that we can’t make ourselves. But now I understand why we have to showcase our dish around the world, it’s also our history and to show how diverse our culture is.
This is Spot on. unlike the other country, our local authentic food are not on display in street foods and fast foods if you find some karinderya its good but Authentic Filipino foods are usually being cooked at home. or in some special occasions like fiestas, Christmas etc. the reason why I always wanted to come home is because of the food.
the only dish we know worldwide is pagpag
@@ImGonnaOilYouUpThat's low of you. Pagpag are just eaten by people in the slums who are below the povety line, mostly in the cities of Metro Manila. Not the whole Philippines. They do it to survive. Most Filipinos doesn't even know what some of our countrymen has to eat just to survive until it was featured on our local news and documentaries. When the world started to know about it, people like you started to use it as insult which is very disrespectful and ignorant.
@@Kariktan214 "Pagpag are just eaten by people in the slums who are below the povety line"
Bro just described the Philippines lmfao
@@ImGonnaOilYouUpin indonesia they have ampo and bat soup😂😂😂
@@ImGonnaOilYouUp Are you from Southeast Asia? Singapore? If you're not from that country then stop insulting, your situation is just exactly same like us.
This vlog made me follow you!.Not because of you particularly featuring Filipino food, but because you did an accurate backgournd check. I didn't skipped and ad for this video. Salute to you and more power to your vlogs.
Thank you for this awesome documentary. You said it well and the details of the Philippine food and where it came from or started from. Thank you. 👍
This really made me tear up and I didn't expect it. You touched on so much of my frustration as a first generation Filipino American who has heard forever how Filipino cuisine was going to take over and it's 20 years or more later. I still can't explain how, sure, a few restaurants have authentic flavors but for *my* tastes it lacks vinegar and fat. And yes it feels bizarre explaining how food that is composed of cartilage, intestines, blood or has raisins, sweet corn, and toasted/flattened rice in it is delicious. How do I explain that last part... chocolate rice soup with dried grilled fish in it? Chicken Satay but not on sticks and it's oxtails instead... as that as kids we'd fight over who eats the intestine? But I agree with your assessment that those great meals are enjoyed at home and unfortunately the mainstream way of eating them in restaurants is to cook ahead then eat cafeteria style as if you're in school or a hospital (for me, it tastes "cold" or worse "reheated") or, as in my case, sit down with a menu of food that takes patience to have prepared, tastes good but is missing the vinegar or "guts" that would turn away non-Filipinos.
okay, I've lived in Philippines for almost half my life, but it was only watching CZcams in the US I've heard of people adding dried fish to champorado
I'm sad to hear that someone lied to you more than 20 years ago, because that will never happen. Philippine food, home-cooked or elsewhere, is simply not that good - as in tasty.
@@SamGarciait's traditional but definitely something more seen in provinces and even then usually only your grandpa/grandma does it occasionally.
Same experience here, have gone my entire life only hearing about it and only seeing it actually happen maybe once or twice.
@@SamGarcia in my family it would always be served together. 😅
I think Adobo is a world class dish. Nothing fancy, just a staple like pad kra pow in Thailand. And lechon and liempo, etc, some of the best pig you'll consume anywhere. Sizzling sisig, was seemingly made to be consumed with icy cold beer - the ultimate companion.
Thank you for this. What a high quality video 🥹
I am amazed how you did on this video featuring our cuisines. WOW! 💕💕💕
Thanks for this, OTR. Here is my take on why we are misunderstood:
1. Real filipino food takes a long time to prepare or cook (or both). Take the case of Binakol - the chicken soup that is cooked in bamboo. It takes hours to carefully cook the dish without burning the bamboo itself; but once you taste it, you'll never look at chicken soup the same way again.
2. Really good food (cooked in the homes you showcased) rely on the freshness and purity of the ingredients.
For example: Binakol and our versions of Tinola (Chicken soup, in general) depend on free-range, organic chicken. Perdue chicken won't work.
Another one: you showcased kilawin (or Kinilaw in other dialects); which depend on fresh fish.
Speaking of fresh fish: Sinabawan na isda is as simple as fish cooked in a wok full of water (with veggies, etc): no spices, no curries, no MSG... and it's flavorful!!!!
You guys have done a fantastic job, and I can only hope that I can create a material as good as yours. More power to you!
I object!
1. Really???? Go to ilocos. We prepare food in just 3 minutes😂😂😂😂😂
@@rannarann9316haha. Bagtit! Jay panagluto ti kinigtot ah ket wen. 😂
I agree. Up in the Cordilleras, there are lots of dishes that couldnt be prepared and served in restaurants because it takes time to prepare and really not practical to have it served in small portions.
“Pinikpikan”, our version of chicken soup has to be native chicken, prepared in a very precise way, mixed with fresh vegetables and has to be cooked with all the chicken parts included. You cannot cook pinikpikan with just the leg part. Cost-wise, very unstable. So yeah, you have to come to our house to taste our food. 😅
@@Jamie-dj6cl first paburek😂😂😂
@@Jamie-dj6cl nabayag nga agpinikpikan nu culls usarem haha
FEATR is a fantastic channel (in English, at that) that showcases the entire country's extremely diverse cuisine really well. As someone from Manila there's so much out there that's literally just a stone throw away that me nor most people I know have even heard of. I'd strongly suggest checking them out if you want to explore the cuisine and regional specialties outside of the mainstream stuff.
It really is frustrating that our cuisine is known specifically for just Jollibee, Balut, and if you really want to be an asshole, "Pagpag". Now, I fucking love Jollibee, but so many people viewing it as the definition of Filipino food is really stupid. It's like if you went to the US and ate exclusively at McDonalds and then called their food shit.
Seriously considering pagpag is pretty much at the same tier of dumbassery as thinking Chinese food is defined by gutter oil, Haitians live exclusively on dirt cookies, and that Ethiopians don't know what Ethiopian cuisine is.
I think Jollibee and Mcdonalds damaged the Filipino palate, particularly the children. Parents should expose their kids to a wider range of tastes, otherwise their concept of a delicious meal will always be fast food.
@@alexvtanyeah sure. But thats not his point bro
Agree. Unlike this dude who thinks he knows something about Filipino food culture. And Kalamansi kicked you out off the trail. Bulaklak? With kaffir leaf? How Pinoy is that. Their adobo looked like Shoyu ramen, btw… and
“Tara na”? Really? Dude’s a 🤡
FEATR is an epic CZcams channel💕
FEATR showing underrated Filipino cuisines is definitely my favorite part as someone born in Manila raised in Mindanao with Ilocano-Maguindanaon heritage my favorite videos are when they highlight the cuisines of the Maguindanao, Maranao and Tausug muslim tribes of the BARMM region in the Southern Philippines. Totally underrated and very different to the typical Filipino dishes Filipinos are familiar with.
Thank you for covering this documentary in depth ❤
Thank you for featuring our beautiful country Philippines . ❤🇵🇭😊
Philippines is very diverse in terms of foods. Growing up in Province of Romblon and coming from a middle class family, I thought rice only eat during lunch and dinner time because our breakfast usually consist of rootcrops, banana and kakanin with milk or coffe. We barely eat readmeat our diet only consist of fish and vegetable. Paksiw, Inihaw, Tinuya or sinabawan and dried are the common fish dishes while in vegatable are inaslum, monggo with different vegetable, and vegetable with coconut milk and pinakbet at most of the time we just boi the vegetable and eat.
As a Filipino, I could say that it takes a lot of effort to find a really good karinderya (hole in the wall type of restaurant) in the Philippines. I have experienced really bad ones. It is worth researching on.
But if you tried the fancier ones like in the mall, chances are you will get really delicious meals.
Great analysis! I really appreciate the insights. Thank you from the Philippines!
I’m super happy to stumble to this vlog. Thank you for explaining our foods precisely.. new sub here🙋🏻♀️
This is one of the most honest and in depth study of what Filipino food is. I am filipino that has a filipino food business here in the philippines and i get frustrated alot when foreigners will box in filipino food flavors in the few dishes that they had or worst just box filipino food as jollibee. Thank you for this. Because there has been tons of misconception with regards to our cuisine.
don't forget about regional cuisine! Each region has specific dishes that don't taste quite right unless you visit those places. Some parts of Mindana for example would have similar dishes to Malay and Indo cuisine. Bicol is known for their spicy food. Parts of Visayas too. I'm from Bacolod and I heard people say chicken inasal doesn't taste the same in Manila. Even the north has interesting dishes you can't find anywhere else in the country. Don't forget each ethnic groups' dishes too! Exploring and experiencing each regional cuisine might help to understand filipino cuisine a lot better. As a matter of fact, it's hard to get other regions cuisines unless you actively seek them out.
as a side note, here in Negros Occidental for example it is very common to find inasalan, kansi houses, batchoyan, pasalubong shops selling piaya.
Bacolod dishes are too sweet😅. Its like Panay/iloilo dishes with sugar 😅. But their desserts are yummy 😊.
@@markv1974 living up to the name of sugar bowl of the Philippines 😅 it's mostly sugarcane fields here after all
nah i never tasted spicy bicolano food here in bicol even the bicol express is not spicy. mas maanghang pa kinilaw na gawa ng lola ko hahaha pero masarap naman pagkain sa bicol, natong number one charut haha
@markv1974 what dishes? i'm from bacolod, and nothing really comes to mind as particularly sweet, but most of what comes to mind when i think of home is kbl, cansi, callos, and other soups/stews.
@@perthro593 piaya, napoleones and other sweets
Maybe I'm really sheltered, but I never knew that Filipino food was disliked by mainstream social media people. I love Filipino food! I love everything about your video and just subscribed! Love the B-rolls and the history and interviews you conduct! Keep up the great work, I'm excited to go through the rest of your videos!
Thanks for featuring the Filipino food! You are so right in your observations and descriptions to the cuisine - which I never thought of before, like putting your word in my mouth 😀😀😊
That last part, when you were saying that Filipino food is meaty, I think a good way to describe it is “malinamnam”. That’s the Filipino word for savory, but it can also mean filling, comforting, satisfying, which are all good adjectives to describe Filipino food.
I am Filipino, and I think this the thing that Filip8no food lacks-BALANCE. A cuisine where there is always a protein overload and vegetable is treated as a garnish.
@@alexvtan Is this lack of balance a current generation thing, though? My parent's generation seemed to eat a lot more vegetables and seafood than beef, pork and chicken. Growing up, home cooked meals were usually soups or stews with some animal protein and lots of vegetables. Every meal had vegetables and fruit at the table. Foods like lumpia, lechon, marinated bbq's, etc were "party" foods when celebrating birthdays, anniversaries or holidays or at picnics.
@@marit4sj214 Yes, it is. This has been observed in pretty much every part of the world where meat progressively became more accessible.
@@alexvtan It is what it is, food doesn't need to have balance ratio of meat and vegetabless to be recognized. It just need to be delicious or unique. Like barbeque and steak, without garnish and mashpotato it is still a steak and did you tried to eat caviar, it is not delicious but became popular because it is for rich people.
Appreciation recognitions from other countries was not really matter unless if you seaking for validation from others. Lets just enjoy whar we love to eat.
@@loropascua7243Balance is must in gastronomy. It is a wholistic experience. Try eating steak without the sidings then you would realise that it needs something to break richness of the meat.
Like the country and the people, filipino cuisine endures
Thank you for not only covering the food but also gave a sort of history lesson as well. You did our cuisine justice
I wish this video was longer. It’s so well produced and I love the bits of history in relation to the food.
I love how you featured Filipino dishes with such artistry. Thank you.
Absolute gem of a video. Filipino cuisine is complex, primal & more homey but you are absolutely right, it has withstood the quick to put together, colourful & marketable cuisines of the world.
Things are changing with the new generation of Filipinos outlook both abroad and in the country with cuisine slowly in transition. I can't wait for it to slowly hit alternative mainstream.
Hoping you can do a series of visiting the Philippines and help bringing so many unheard dishes to the limelight. !
Thank you 😊
As I red the comments section.
Many Filipinos also proud and happy that you enjoyed our culture and highlighting or pointing out the hardships we are facing why we can't push our food in global stage. Thank you very much! MARAMING SALAMAT PO
Great documentary, you gave justice to our hidden gems - Filipino cuisine ❤
I have literally never clicked on a video so fast. It popped up in my subscription feeds as posted 1 minute ago which I have never seen. I was just thinking that I love your channel and love learning about Thai food and culture but wanted to see you branch out other interesting cultures like the Burmese episode. I also love Filipino food and was lucky to have Filipino friends throughout my life who shared their food with me. Getting a hold of legit homemade lumpia, adobo and pancit was such a blessing I didn't even know at the time I was getting. This was great to see the history of the food and see all the different dishes I miss eating because like you talked about even in busy cities in the US it's still hard to find Filipino food. Thank you for the perspective and showing all the yummy food and history. Keep up the great work.
Thanks so much!
I'm Filipino and grew up around an area in the US that has way more Filipinos than anywhere else in the country, so I'm probably biased when I say that I have not heard anybody say that they hate Filipino food. I've met a whole lot of folks that have not heard of our cuisine let alone tried it but to say that a group of people hate our food is unheard of to me.
I agree that it's underhyped. It really is a unique cuisine.
the best articale mate.... keep it up!!!
i have never seen one of your videos before and i saw this in the side bar and got curious. I love food history and food anthropology, but i have no desire to go into the field. So seeing something like this that's so well done and long enough to have a meal to is pretty great. Keep up the good work, I'll be checking out some other videos