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  • Philippines Thread

    So what do you think of it?

  • #2
    Re: Philippines Thread

    Eh, Tita Lynn and Adrian:
    You like start one Filipino thread or wat?

    Miulang
    "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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    • #3
      Re: Philippines Thread

      discrimination! discrimination!

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Philippines Thread

        wat da hell? bastos! sira-ulu anoba? you mental or wat? why so many questions one afta onnada? Sssshhhh!!!!!

        auntie lynn
        Be AKAMAI ~ KOKUA Hawai`i!
        Philippians 4:13 --- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

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        • #5
          Re: Philippines Thread

          UNIQUELY FILIPINO

          The following is from a British journalist stationed in the Philippines.
          His observations are so hilarious!!!! This was written in 1999.
          Matter of Taste by Matthew Sutherland


          I have now been in this country for over six years, and consider myself in most respects well assimilated. However, there is one key step on the road to full asimilation, which I have yet to take, and that's to eat BALUT. The day any of you sees me eating balut, please call immigration and ask them to issue me a Filipino passport. Because at that point there will be no turning back. BALUT, for those still blissfully ignorant non-Pinoys out there, is a fertilized duck egg. It is commonly sold with salt in a piece of newspaper, much like English fish and chips, by street vendors usually after dark, presumably so you can't see how gross it is. It's meant to be an aphrodisiac, although I can't imagine anything more likely to dispel sexual desire than crunching on a partially formed baby duck swimming in noxious fluid. The embryo in the egg comes in varying stages of development, but basically it is not considered macho to eat one without fully discernable feathers, beak, and claws. Some say these crunchy bits are the best. Others prefer just to drink the so-called 'soup', the vile, pungent liquid that surrounds the aforementioned feathery fetus...excuse me; I have to go and throw up now. I'll be back in a minute.

          Food dominates the life of the Filipino. People here just love to eat. They eat at least eight times a day. These eight official meals are called, in order: breakfast, snacks, lunch, merienda, pica-pica, pulutan, dinner, and no-one-saw-me-take-that-cookie-from-the-fridge-so-it-doesn't-count The short gaps in between these mealtimes are spent eating Sky Flakes from the open packet that sits on every desktop. You're never far from food in the Philippines. If you doubt this, next time you're driving home from work, try this game. See how long you can drive without seeing food and I don't mean A distant restaurant, or a picture of food. I mean a man on the sidewalk frying fish balls, or a man walking through the traffic selling nuts or candy. I bet it's less than one minute.

          Here are some other things I've noticed about food in the Philippines. Firstly, a meal is not a meal without rice - even breakfast. In the UK, I could go a whole year without eating rice. Second, it's impossible to drink without eating. A bottle of San Miguel just isn't the same without gambas or beef tapa. Third, no one ventures more than two paces from their House without baon and a container of something cold to drink. You might as well ask a Filipino to leave home without his pants on. And lastly, where I come from, you eat with a knife and fork. Here, you eat with a spoon and fork. You try eating rice swimming in fish sauce with a knife.

          One really nice thing about Filipino food culture is that people always ask you to SHARE their food. In my office, if you catch anyone attacking their baon, they will always go, "Sir! KAIN TAYO!" ("Let's eat!"). This confused me, until I realized that they didn't actually expect me to sit down and start munching on their boneless bangus. In fact, the
          polite response is something like, "No thanks, I just ate." But the principle is sound - if you have food on your plate, you are expected to share it, however hungry you are, with those who may be even hungrier. I think that's great. In fact, this is frequently even taken one step further. Many Filipinos use "Have you eaten yet?" ("KUMAIN KA NA?") as a general greeting, irrespective of time of day or location.

          Some foreigners think Filipino food is fairly dull compared to other Asian cuisines. Actually lots of it is very good: Spicy dishes like Bicol Express (strange, a dish named after a train); anything cooked with coconut milk; anything KINILAW; and anything ADOBO. And it's hard to beat the sheer wanton, cholesterolic frenzy of a good old-fashioned LECHON de leche feast. Dig a pit, light a fire, add 50 pounds of animal fat on a stick, and cook until crisp. Mmm, mmm... you can actually feel your arteries constricting with each successive mouthful. I also share one key Pinoy trait ---a sweet tooth. I am thus the only foreigner I know who does not complain about sweet bread, sweet burgers, sweet spaghetti, sweet banana ketchup, and so on. I am a man who likes to put jam on his pizza. Try it!

          It's the weird food you want to avoid. In addition to duck fetus in the half-shell, items to avoid in the Philippines include pig's blood soup DINUGUAN); bull's testicle soup, the strangely-named "SOUP NUMBER FIVE" (I dread to think what numbers one through four are); and the ubiquitous,stinky shrimp paste, BAGOONG, and it's equally stinky sister, PATIS. Filipinos are so addicted to these latter items that they will even risk arrest or deportation trying to smuggle them into countries like Australia and the USA, which wisely ban the importation of items you can smell from more than 100 paces.

          Then there's the small matter of the blue ice cream. I have never been able to get my brain around eating blue food; the ubiquitous UBE leaves me cold. And lastly on the subject of weird food, beware: that KALDERETANG KAMBING (goat) could well be KALDERETANG ASO (dog)...

          The Filipino, of course, has a well-developed sense of food. Here's a typical Pinoy food joke: "I'm on a seafood diet. "What's a seafooddiet?" "When I see food, I eat it!" Filipinos also eat strange bits of animals --- the feet, the head, the guts, etc., usually barbecued on a stick. These have been given witty names, like "ADIDAS" (chicken's feet); "KURBATA" (either just chicken's neck, or "neck and thigh" as in "neck-tie"); "WALKMAN" (pigs ears); "PAL" (chicken wings); "HELMET" (chicken head); "IUD" (chicken intestines), and BETAMAX" (video-cassette-like blocks of animal blood). Yum, yum. Bon appetit.
          Reggie aka pinakboy
          Reggie's Kaukau Time! blog
          Raw Eats Veggie Videos
          Recipe Tube TV!
          Deep Fried Recipes TV!

          checkem out!!

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Philippines Thread

            continuation...


            "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches" -- (Proverbs 22:1) WHEN I arrived in the Philippines from the UK six years ago, one of the first cultural differences to strike me was names. The subject has provided a continuing source of amazement and amusement ever since. The first unusual thing, from an English perspective, is that everyone here has a nickname. In the staid and boring United Kingdom, we have nicknames in kindergarten, but when we move into adulthood we tend, I am glad to say, to lose them. The second thing that struck me is that Philippine names for both girls and boys tend to be what we in the UK would regard as overbearingly cutesy for anyone over about five. Fifty-five-year-olds colleague put it. Where I come from, a boy with a
            nickname like Boy Blue or Honey Boy would be beaten to death at school by pre adolescent bullies, and never make it to adulthood. So, probably, would girls with names like Babes, Lovely, Precious, Peachy or Apples. Yuk, ech ech.

            Here, however, no one bats an eyelid. Then I noticed how many people have what I have come to call "door-bell names". These are nicknames that sound like -well, doorbells. There are millions of them. Bing, Bong, Ding, and Dong are some of the more common. They can be, and frequently are, used in even more door-bell-like combinations such as Bing-Bong, Ding-Dong, Ting-Ting, and so on. Even our newly appointed chief of police has a doorbell name Ping. None of these doorbell names exist where I come from, and hence sound unusually amusing to my untutored foreign ear. Someone once told me that one of the Bings, when asked why he was called Bing, replied, "because my brother is called Bong". Faultless logic. Dong, of course, is a particularly funny one for me, as where I come from "dong" is a slang word for well; perhaps "talong" is the best Tagalog equivalent.

            Repeating names was another novelty to me, having never before encountered people with names like Len-Len, Let-Let, Mai-Mai, or Ning-Ning. The secretary I inherited on my arrival had an unusual one: Leck-Leck. Such names are then frequently further refined by using the "squared" symbol, as in Len2 or Mai2. This had me very confused for a while. Then there is the trend for parents to stick to a theme when naming their children. This can be as simple as making them all begin with the same letter, as in Jun, Jimmy, Janice, and Joy. More imaginative parents shoot for more sophisticated forms of assonance or rhyme, as in Biboy, Boboy, Buboy, Baboy (notice the names get worse the more kids there are-best to be born early or you could end up being a Baboy).

            Even better, parents can create whole families of, say, desserts (Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Honey Pie) or flowers (Rose, Daffodil, Tulip). The main advantage of such combinations is that they look great painted across your trunk if you're a cab driver. That's another thing I'd never seen before coming to Manila -- taxis with the driver's kids' names on the trunk. Another whole eye-opening field for the foreign visitor is the phenomenon of the "composite" name. This includes names like Jejomar (for Jesus, Joseph and Mary), and the remarkable Luzviminda (for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, believe it or not). That's a bit like me being called something like "Engscowani" (for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Between you and me, I'm glad I'm not. And how could I forget to mention the fabulous concept of the randomly inserted letter 'h'. Quite what this device is supposed to achieve, I have not yet figured out, but I think it is designed to give a touch of class to an otherwise only averagely weird name. It results in creations like Jhun, Lhenn, Ghemma, and Jhimmy. Or how about Jhun-Jhun (Jhun2)? How boring to come from a country like the UK full of people with names like John Smith. How wonderful to come from a country where imagination and exoticism rule the world of names.

            Even the towns here have weird names; my favorite is the unbelievably named town of Sexmoan (ironically close to Olongapo and Angeles). Where else in the world could that really be true? Where else in the world could the head of the Church really be called Cardinal Sin? Where else but the Philippines! Note: Philippines has a senator named Joker, and it is his legal name.

            Reggie aka pinakboy
            Reggie's Kaukau Time! blog
            Raw Eats Veggie Videos
            Recipe Tube TV!
            Deep Fried Recipes TV!

            checkem out!!

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Philippines Thread

              One really nice thing about Filipino food culture is that people always ask you to SHARE their food. In my office, if you catch anyone attacking their baon, they will always go, "Sir! KAIN TAYO!" ("Let's eat!"). This confused me, until I realized that they didn't actually expect me to sit down and start munching on their boneless bangus. In fact, the
              polite response is something like, "No thanks, I just ate." But the principle is sound - if you have food on your plate, you are expected to share it, however hungry you are, with those who may be even hungrier. I think that's great. In fact, this is frequently even taken one step further. Many Filipinos use "Have you eaten yet?" ("KUMAIN KA NA?") as a general greeting, irrespective of time of day or location.
              Oooopps.. I just got upset at my girlfriend about a month ago about that.

              Everytime I see her, I feel like we should be talking about something more interesting than her common question of: WHAT DID YOU EAT TODAY?

              I just think its the most boring question you could ever ask someone.. and then to discuss it?

              Anyhow, I got really upset because it was about the 300th time she's asked me that in my life that and I couldn't take that particular question another time.

              Now she no longer asks me that.. hmm..

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Philippines Thread

                Here, however, no one bats an eyelid. Then I noticed how many people have what I have come to call "door-bell names". These are nicknames that sound like -well, doorbells. There are millions of them. Bing, Bong, Ding, and Dong are some of the more common. They can be, and frequently are, used in even more door-bell-like combinations such as Bing-Bong, Ding-Dong, Ting-Ting, and so on. Even our newly appointed chief of police has a doorbell name Ping. None of these doorbell names exist where I come from, and hence sound unusually amusing to my untutored foreign ear. Someone once told me that one of the Bings, when asked why he was called Bing, replied, "because my brother is called Bong". Faultless logic. Dong, of course, is a particularly funny one for me, as where I come from "dong" is a slang word for well; perhaps "talong" is the best Tagalog equivalent.

                Repeating names was another novelty to me, having never before encountered people with names like Len-Len, Let-Let, Mai-Mai, or Ning-Ning. The secretary I inherited on my arrival had an unusual one: Leck-Leck. Such names are then frequently further refined by using the "squared" symbol, as in Len2 or Mai2. This had me very confused for a while. Then there is the trend for parents to stick to a theme when naming their children. This can be as simple as making them all begin with the same letter, as in Jun, Jimmy, Janice, and Joy. More imaginative parents shoot for more sophisticated forms of assonance or rhyme, as in Biboy, Boboy, Buboy, Baboy (notice the names get worse the more kids there are-best to be born early or you could end up being a Baboy).
                Yeah, the names! So funny!

                Bing Bing and Pinky and all kinds of funny stuff! Yeah, my girlfriend says them without batting an eye.

                One other thing I find funny about most Filipinos.. mention that you wouldn't mind checking out the island of Siquihor (sp?).. and they'll look at you with amazement, wonderment, and a little bit of shock.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Philippines Thread

                  Originally posted by Tiger Beer
                  Yeah, the names! So funny!

                  Bing Bing and Pinky and all kinds of funny stuff! Yeah, my girlfriend says them without batting an eye.

                  One other thing I find funny about most Filipinos.. mention that you wouldn't mind checking out the island of Siquihor (sp?).. and they'll look at you with amazement, wonderment, and a little bit of shock.
                  yah most filipinos have never ventured their outer islands... so they do look at u a certain way as to why you want to go there.
                  hehehe
                  Reggie aka pinakboy
                  Reggie's Kaukau Time! blog
                  Raw Eats Veggie Videos
                  Recipe Tube TV!
                  Deep Fried Recipes TV!

                  checkem out!!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Philippines Thread

                    Originally posted by pinakboy
                    yah most filipinos have never ventured their outer islands... so they do look at u a certain way as to why you want to go there.
                    hehehe
                    I noticed that in general. Most Filipinos are shocked if you know anything about the Philippines.. even if you know the capital of Manila.. they are shocked. "How do you know that?" and then they assume you must have had some Filipina girlfriend in the past to know that (its funny how much they work on assumptions).

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                    • #11
                      Re: Philippines Thread

                      Originally posted by Tiger Beer
                      I noticed that in general. Most Filipinos are shocked if you know anything about the Philippines.. even if you know the capital of Manila.. they are shocked. "How do you know that?" and then they assume you must have had some Filipina girlfriend in the past to know that (its funny how much they work on assumptions).
                      try telling an a filipina that knows how to cook, "i love pinakbet, but i can't find a good restaurant that prepares it!" then make a sad sighing face
                      she'll say "u know pinakbet??" and just knod ur head.

                      guarantee u'll be invited for dinner!! LOL
                      Reggie aka pinakboy
                      Reggie's Kaukau Time! blog
                      Raw Eats Veggie Videos
                      Recipe Tube TV!
                      Deep Fried Recipes TV!

                      checkem out!!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Philippines Thread

                        i dont like flips. cuz they are taking over my home land hahahahahaha. nah just kidding filipinos are nice...
                        really nice
                        i mean they are nice.
                        frealz.

                        i freaked out when i realized most of the filipinos i met where all nice. as a people , their pretty nice.
                        Ebb And Flow

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                        • #13
                          Re: Philippines Thread

                          that was a super funny article from that british guy.. ''when asked why his name was bing , he said , cuz my brothers name is bong.''
                          Ebb And Flow

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                          • #14
                            Re: Philippines Thread

                            Another one..

                            My Pinay girlfriend.. (when we lived in San Francisco).. sometimes her pinay friend's son/daughter would have a birthday - and they'd invite all of the adult friends to celebrate it.

                            Always hard to get use to because generally in the U.S., we would perhaps invite the children's friends.. not the parent's friends..

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Philippines Thread

                              Originally posted by Tiger Beer
                              Another one..

                              My Pinay girlfriend.. (when we lived in San Francisco).. sometimes her pinay friend's son/daughter would have a birthday - and they'd invite all of the adult friends to celebrate it.

                              Always hard to get use to because generally in the U.S., we would perhaps invite the children's friends.. not the parent's friends..
                              Yeah, but the adults are the ones who buy the presents! One other unusual thing I noticed (and I don't know if it happens in the Philippines, but I know it does happen in Hawai'i): a wedding, which usually means the parents of the bride and groom get to foot the bill, often has many "sponsors", and they're listed on the wedding invite along with the names of the parents of the couple. Kinda neat...

                              We were walking around a lakefront park up here in Seattle yesterday, and we stumbled upon a large group of Filipinos attending a "Tagalog Circle" picnic. The coolest thing was a woman who was obviously headed to the picnic, who passed by us carrying a tray of sushi!

                              Miulang
                              Last edited by Miulang; August 14, 2005, 07:56 AM.
                              "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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