Filipino food is not just Jollibee. Jollibee and other Filipinized American food is a small fraction of what the ordinary Filipinos eat. A third of our cuisine is comprised of rice and whatever can be bought from the streets from food vendors along the bangketa or from the carinderia, if you can’t cook it yourself. Sadly, the streetfood featured here is still heavy on meat, unlike in the north where there is abundance of vegetables.

Anyway, this food vlogger gravitates toward the more exotic food like betamax (skewered coagulated pig’s blood), isaw (skewered chicken intestines) and a host of other animal body parts that I didn’t think were edible. I don’t think I will try them in this lifetime, I’m squeamish like that.

However, Sonny, the food vlogger, and I agree on sisig, that late-night drinking food made of pork cheeks/face with lots of chilis, onions, cooked on high heat and served on a sizzling plate and topped with raw egg. There is an art to mixing sisig and the condiments once the sizzling plate arrives at your table. This was shown to me by drinking buddies in college and by my bandmates post-college.

If you’re well traveled, you would notice that some of these streetfood are not unique to the Philippines. Sonny even said he ate a similar skewered chicken butt in Taiwan. Actually, many streetfood in Taiwan (the ones I encountered in Jiufen) are similar to the ones I find in Binondo or Sta. Cruz, Manila.

I say that this is only a third of the Filipino cuisine because there’s another third that foreigners skip or look over: the fusion Spanish-Chinese-Malay food scattered across the archipelago. That’s why I adore Chris Zou, the Chinese Canadian TikToker who got famous for ranting about expensive hand soaps 🤣. He loves sinigang prepared for him by his Filipino Canadian friends.

Another level of Filipino food is what I had for dinner tonight at Taupe by Chef Francis Tolentino, in the pop-up restaurant at Balmori Suites at Rockwell called Chef’s Table. I think it was a seven-course meal and everything was delicious. It was spot-on. The ceviche was 👌. My friends and I met Chef Tolentino and we complimented him for the great food. His staff was superb in servicing us. The sea urchin/uni between macarons was lovely. I didn’t care if I would itch the entire night (I did though) because it was good.

The horrible thing about this whole affair was I drove for 3 hrs to get there. I left my house at 3 pm and I arrived at Power Plant at a little past 6 pm.

It’s hard to attend Christmas dinners these days. ☠️