i'm getting skinny

Sounds like you should go out to eat more often.

"Step in" to the kitchen & dictate what & how you want your food prepared (seperate dishes for you is so required)...e.g : I hate flabby chunks of fat with the meats being stewed/cooked so I stepped in & got my partner to prepare food with my ISO standards with extra spices/herbs...also I dislike Filipino spaghetti that has sweet condensed milk mixed & with a miserable amount of cheese...so that too has been adjusted to my ISO standards. I'm very happy now as it has worked out & I enjoy my slightly tweeked dishes & I find that my partner actually enjoys it too.
So do "Step in" you'll be amazed at the changes that can be made.
Omho

You are obviously not a dietitian. I know what you mean about the meat and even when you get beef here from overseas looks like it needs soaking for a year or two to build it up to the size we were used to. Malunguay is the little round leaves and that is the tree that saves Philippinos from extinction. It is a natural medicine and nutrient. If you have too much you can get the runs! Most meat and fish is overcooked here so almost indigestible.
We are lucky to live in a plantation area near Davao so fruits and vegetables are nowhere near as bad. In fact very nice. If you don't like rice you will get skinny. It is what makes all the Filipino women fat. And of course the blossoming bakery industry is destroying their health. Their digestion is not suited to gluten at all. There is no logic in their eating practices but that's life.
All the best for Christmas and New Year!!
Cheers from John

The OP just about sums up the food here. I tend to eat a separate meal of what is considered as a western diet. What I receive is not western but it's a big improvement on the local food.

I do eat rice but not in the vast quantities eaten by the locals. I live in a very rural area so vegetables are in good supply. There is very little cash is available for the chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc. that are used in the west so anything bought from the local market is organic by default. In the supermarket, potatoes can be bought individually wrapped and quite expensive. We are having a go at growing some western vegetables in our little food garden. If successful we intend to widen the scope of the garden to include things that are not readily available here, like beetroot.

I too do not understand why the tomatoes here are not allowed to ripen. The green tomatoes are very bitter. Back home they would be good only for making chutney.

The local foods are also very sweet. Local bread tends to have an excessive amount of sugar added. An example of how sweet things are here; a big brand for spaghetti sauce comes in three varieties: Original, with 9g of sugar, Sweet, with 12g of sugar and Filipino Style with 18g of sugar.  I do not have a sweet tooth and so find myself seeking out products with the lowest sugar content. If sugar content is not specified on the packaging then it is very likely to be very sweet. Poor dental health and Diabetes are common here. I wonder why?

The OP has played down the terrible smell of the dried fish. It is awful, very strong and, when it's being cooked, makes everything else smell the same.

The diet here is very narrow the meals do not vary much. The supermarkets do not help. There is a very limited range of foods. Some things, like mustard, are available very occasionally. The cheeses that are widely available here are of no specific type and taste like plastic.

However if you stick with what the locals buy, there are many different varieties of a limited number of different things available in the larger stores, e.g. corned beef, canned sardines and hot dog (not real sausages).

There are very few places to eat out here in the sticks. However, the island is developing remarkably quickly and a few places are now open within 1 hour's drive that sell non traditional food. However, the proprietors always assume that I would like a burger. I enjoy a burger now and again but it is not my first choice of food. And I have come to understand that foreign meals can have different names here so one can get a surprise when the meal arrives.

The above sounds like a good moan. I am the foreigner here and have to fit in. Luckily my better half is very understanding and does her very best to provide varied meals that suit my tastes. All in all I have a reasonably good and varied diet. I appreciate the extra effort that she puts in to my meals.

I did miss a traditional British Christmas dinner this year. Next year, my house project should be fully developed with a properly equipped kitchen, which should make a Christmas dinner more likely. I will have to see if I can grow some Brussel sprouts and explore the shops for the ingredients for Sage & Onion Stuffing. Turkeys are raised here but they seem much smaller than the variety usual to the UK.

Glad I don't live there.  We haven't had those problems here, and my wife is a fabulous cook.

I'm not losing weight.

TeeJay4103 wrote:

Glad I don't live there.  We haven't had those problems here, and my wife is a fabulous cook.

I'm not losing weight.

Ditto to the above posters, never a problem for decent food here,,,,,,, well quality beef steaks yes, not found to date. Minced beef is fine for spaghetti bog instead of hotdogs and the better half can also now cook it with legos tomato paste, bay leaves, lots of garlic and onions etc, the difficulty is finding decent hard parmesan cheese here.
Agree TeeJay, I have not lost a kilogram and happily eat the local dishes though we tend to put a lot more veggies in the fare we cook, even mum and dad put extra veggies in when we go there much to the disgust of nieces and nephews who push them aside.

Cheers, Steve.

I spent 8 months in the Philippines and gained 14 pounds.  In the 6 months since returning to the USA I have lost 18 pounds.  More brown rice, whole wheat bread and less sugar in everything has made the difference.

SnR has all that stuff

Soonretired wrote:

in short, i have had meat here when i went to outback steakhouse 3 years ago in manila. and i have had meat here when i went to MacDonalds or Burger King or kentucky fried chicken. so maybe 10 times i have had meat in 4 years. wait, i did get quite a few cans of hormel chilli at the 'american store' in town at $4 a can. that is so good to get ahold of and find a 'meatball' size piece of beef in it !
 
anyway , i'm getting skinny.

Nice post, but if I read it a second time I would be skinny by the end of the post.

You mention Outback Steakhouse, many years ago I went there, not too bad for a chain. Other chains that are really good, Ruth Chris or Morton's, but you won't find them in the  Philippines. Living in Las Vegas all those years I've been to many great Steakhouses. Also I've eaten more Prime Rib in  one year than most people in a lifetime. Many Vegas Casino Buffets have Prime Rib & Crab legs. Actually it was cheaper to eat out, than cook at home, especially when you have a 2/1 coupon. My mailbox was always full of the casino coupons, many times you could find 2/1 coupons in the newspaper.

If & when the pandemic is over, I would recommend "The Filing Station" in Makati on Burgos Street. Western menu,  check it out on Google, I can't wait to go back.

I'm loaded with Hormel Chili, I mix  in a little Louisiana Hot Sauce & crushed Sky Flakes (Boo HooHoo no oyster crackers here.) Seems S&R has a good stock of Hormel Chili. Also at S&R the ground beef from Australia, price seems a little lower than ground 80/20 ground beef in the states.

First thing I did when moving here was buy a knock off Webber Grill from  at Ace Hardware, think I paid $20 USD, already starting to rust (made in China from scrap US hubcaps?)

I have to be careful with my diet if not I can gain weight a lot  in the PH ! It is difficult to be skinny in this country except if you live in a very remote area or maybe a slum.

You can have all the western food you want but you will have to pay the price. My wife is looking at internet for French recipes and she will modify the ingredients if we cannot find them in the market.

But the best food here is still the seafoods . Of course not the uga or dry fish 

BassMan_720 wrote:

The OP just about sums up the food here. I tend to eat a separate meal of what is considered as a western diet.

<snip>What I receive is not western but it's a big improvement on the local food.

<snip>I too do not understand why the tomatoes here are not allowed to ripen. The green tomatoes are very bitter. Back home they would be good only for making chutney.

<snip>I did miss a traditional British Christmas dinner this year. Next year, my house project should be fully developed with a properly equipped kitchen, which should make a Christmas dinner more likely. I will have to see if I can grow some Brussel sprouts and explore the shops for the ingredients for Sage & Onion Stuffing. Turkeys are raised here but they seem much smaller than the variety usual to the UK.

I too eat a Western diet while the family eats stuff, stuff = "things I would never consider eating" "EVER".

Speaking of Tomatoes, you probably missed my thread of  quite a while ago. In short I imported Beef Steak & Heritage Tomato seeds plus Vidalia Onion seeds. Reams of paperwork, fees, letters, license, shipping & customs. (clearance from two government agencies)

To grow these things you need the proper conditions under your control. So I bought two Mars Grow Tents and two powerful Led Grow Lights. The Tomato plants are now about 15 inches tall, some starting to flower (future tomatoes) The onions are showing small bulbs. All these veggies are being grown in our bedroom.

Yes a traditional Christmas Dinner (on New Years Eve). S&R actually had Butter Ball Turkeys at Thanksgiving. My wife planned a Western style Christmas Dinner, except S&R was out of Turkeys & Ricotta Cheese for Baked Lasagna. Woe is me, no stuffing. I can understand not even thinking about having Cranberry Sauce, Pumpkin or Apple Pie or Sweet Hawaiian Dinner Rolls

lasvegan wrote:

SnR has all that stuff

Well said and I appreciate lasvegan and when living in Manila was fine, our closest SnR store here is Pampanga some 4 hours drive and not available with lockdowns, find what we need, improvise and embellish, the internet gives us many quality products like black, red or basmati rice at a reasonable cost.
Live in the provinces and live.

Cheers, Steve.

Enzyte Bob wrote:

BassMan_720 wrote:

The OP just about sums up the food here. I tend to eat a separate meal of what is considered as a western diet.

<snip>What I receive is not western but it's a big improvement on the local food.

<snip>I too do not understand why the tomatoes here are not allowed to ripen. The green tomatoes are very bitter. Back home they would be good only for making chutney.

<snip>I did miss a traditional British Christmas dinner this year. Next year, my house project should be fully developed with a properly equipped kitchen, which should make a Christmas dinner more likely. I will have to see if I can grow some Brussel sprouts and explore the shops for the ingredients for Sage & Onion Stuffing. Turkeys are raised here but they seem much smaller than the variety usual to the UK.

I too eat a Western diet while the family eats stuff, stuff = "things I would never consider eating" "EVER".

Speaking of Tomatoes, you probably missed my thread of  quite a while ago. In short I imported Beef Steak & Heritage Tomato seeds plus Vidalia Onion seeds. Reams of paperwork, fees, letters, license, shipping & customs. (clearance from two government agencies)

To grow these things you need the proper conditions under your control. So I bought two Mars Grow Tents and two powerful Led Grow Lights. The Tomato plants are now about 15 inches tall, some starting to flower (future tomatoes) The onions are showing small bulbs. All these veggies are being grown in our bedroom.

Yes a traditional Christmas Dinner (on New Years Eve). S&R actually had Butter Ball Turkeys at Thanksgiving. My wife planned a Western style Christmas Dinner, except S&R was out of Turkeys & Ricotta Cheese for Baked Lasagna. Woe is me, no stuffing. I can understand not even thinking about having Cranberry Sauce, Pumpkin or Apple Pie or Sweet Hawaiian Dinner Rolls

I did follow your post on heirloom tomatoes and well done for achieving and putting into practice, I would also ask if as a science experiment you put some in the garden, trial? Difference? I have propagated from seed the local variety of what they call tomatoes with limited success,,,,,,, mostly looking like the rubbish you buy locally. Cherry tomatoes while available in Manila are not here and still looking. While easily grown and prolific in Oz are a rarity here,,,,,,, mind you we can't buy bitter gourd or secure malunggay leaves, cilli leaves even in the asian stores in Oz.

Cheers, Steve.

Another thing to deal with is MSG is added to EVERYTHING.  Magic Sarap is full of it.  I am very sensitive to it, so we rarely go out to eat.

My Filipina wife spent 2 days and nights in the hospital with likely Ciguatera Toxin poisoning.  She had been eating fish heads and fish eyes, which, along with Roe, liver, and intestines, has a concentrated amount of toxin.  Doing better now, but no more fish heads for her, at least in front of me.  Back  in the US, we use fish heads and guts for crab pots as bait.

What is up with HOT DOGS in the Philippines?  Instead of a deli, they have a really smelly kiosk in the grocery stores where hot dogs of different varieties are sold out in the open, not prepackaged like in the US. They are all that red food color pinkish red, a color not normally found in nature.  After seeing all of the other parts of pigs they eat, what is left to make hot dogs?

My wife got a gas range last year, and makes pizza, and all sort of desserts, including apple pie (homemade crust), cheesecake, baked spaghetti, Fettuccini, yellow cake (made from scratch, no cake mixes), and recently started making cassava cake. 

Too bad our island (Leyte) has no S&R or Landers, and no ferries to Cebu where they are located.  Can't find mozzarella cheese for over 6 months, so pizza is not the same.

bigpearl wrote:

I wrote:
To grow these things you need the proper conditions under your control. So I bought two Mars Grow Tents and two powerful Led Grow Lights. The Tomato plants are now about 15 inches tall, some starting to flower (future tomatoes) The onions are showing small bulbs. All these veggies are being grown in our bedroom.

Steve wrote:
I did follow your post on heirloom tomatoes and well done for achieving and putting into practice, I would also ask if as a science experiment you put some in the garden, trial? Difference? I have propagated from seed the local variety of what they call tomatoes with limited success,,,,,,, mostly looking like the rubbish you buy locally. Cherry tomatoes while available in Manila are not here and still looking. While easily grown and prolific in Oz are a rarity here,,,,,,, mind you we can't buy bitter gourd or secure malunggay leaves, cilli leaves even in the asian stores in Oz.

Cheers, Steve.

Hi Steve,

My gardening experience is as a greenhorn. But let me start in the beginning during the late 1980's I grew Medical Herb hahahaha.  It was mostly by accident as I saw a magazine  in an adult bookstore (High Times) and bought a copy. One thing lead to another resulting as a hobby that got out of control. I grew indoors under Metal Halide lights. I didn't know what I was doing but some plants don't care what you are doing, even if it's all wrong, so it was with my indoor garden.

35 years later in Las Vegas I  saw starter tomato plants at Walmart. I bought some, still didn't know what I was doing, planted them in a big pot.  I didn't take too much interest in them, the plant grew about nine feet tall and no tomatoes.  One thing I learned that 115 F. degrees is not going to work in an hot arid  place with 330 cloudless days of sunshine.

Since you cannot buy a decent tomato or sweet onion, I thought about growing my own. So I imported the seeds from the states. But to be successful, you need to be in a cooler climate than Manila, probably at a higher elevation.

Now we have a three story house, that occupies the lot completely (100%) no yard at all. So no garden or even soil.  During the pandemic I looked at hundreds of hours  of videos on you tube, first lights, then grow tents. Then spending hours determining what size lights, and prices. Then the same thing with grow tents. You don't need to use grow tents, but since I'm growing in the bedroom, grow tents is the only answer. The lights would be to bright to share the room without the tents.

I bought a dozen bags of 10 kilo's of loam soil. Loam soil contains: Vermicast (worm manure), coco peat, rice hull, carbonized rice hull, garden soil, which I mixed with perlite. I gather all my info from You Tube videos. The seeds were planted in 16 oz clear plastic cups so I can see the root development. A neat thing I did was use those ketchup/mustard squeeze bottles to water the small plants. The healthiest plants were transplanted in 8" black plastic grow bags (instead of flower pots), 100 for about $6 on Shoppee. Soon I will take the healthiest Beef Steak & Heirloom Plants (one each) and transplant them into 10 gallon square grow bags. Some people use 5  gallon buckets, I'm going to use square grow bags because the tents are square  and two bags will fit nicely. My tents are 70 cm square but they come in all sizes. The tents & lights were ordered from AliExpress, it's difficult to find the things I wanted in the Philippines.

As an experiment I took one slice of tomato from the supermarket and planted it about 1/8"
deep, within a week or so, six tomato plants popped up. Also took a whole onion from the supermarket and planted the bottom 1/4 inch into the soil, the rest of the onion is above ground. The onion grew stalks, I understand the stalks are new rings in the onion. I've seen You Tube videos of 10lb onions.

Buy the biggest tomato you can find and plant the slices, maybe you can have good tomatoes. Also from you tube videos I learned there are two types of tomatoes, determinate  & indeterminate. Determinate  grows to a certain height, has it's tomatoes and dies. Indeterminate  just grows and grows producing tomatoes.

yeah no S&R here either, i am way out in province,the newest, poorest, smallest province.
used to be just a small island belonging to leyte.
we have 4 atm machines and they are all in town 50 meters from one another. good thing too since they run out of money or go offline all the time, everyone wanders from machine to machine, when one stops working the whole long line all proceed down the street like a parade to join that long line and try their luck hahaa sometimes you hit 3-4 til you get some money,..sometimes we spend the night in a little "hotel" for 700pesos and try again in the morning because its a very long 2-3 hr bus ride home with all the stops at each brngy. and totally not worth going all the way home and back the next day,its really a full days work going to town.
we had a motorcycle and i could get there in 45 minutes but forced my wife to sell it when she was preggy i could not trust she would never drive when 8 mos preggy or when our 1st was a baby,if not she would have been driving around with a 6 month old sitting on the gas tank or hanging off the rear of the seat. and with all the motorcycle crashes around here and tuba drinking drivers its no place for a baby.
i didnt think anyone would say i down played the smell of dry fish LOL!
i DID  say it was like someone stepped in dog poo hahaa.
my wife tries and i do appreciate her efforts, i eat separately from everyone and different food but since covid we have run out of oatmeal and milk and butter and chili etc. its standing room only on the bus or at least it was, i have not left the house in a year. so not sure, but with everything locked down and covid creeping in closer to even this remote place i wouldn't pack myself in that sardine can with all those people getting on and off for 2-3 hours.
if i did i might get some things in town at "jelo's" thats where expats hang and shop and eat etc around here,..but i might go thru all that to find downtown looking like a ghost town and jelo's closed or empty shelves.

i'm glad others took my post well, i was afraid i might get a backlash of criticism and folks yelling at me "why you live here!"  "you should 'adjust' to native ways!" etc.
i meant it to have a tinge of humor in it despite it being true ( :

Soonretired wrote:

and rice,rice ,rice. this also in any condition or age, usually they make a big pot in the morning and its scooped out like ice cream all day for breakfast lunch and dinner, so rice comes in 'chunks' also.
cold dry chunks of rice scooped out and set beside the "fish" make breakfast,lunch and dinner.
its easier to eat rice when its in chunks anyway i guess because you can pick up big 4 or 5 inch chunks of it with your fingers and take a bite.

.i dont like 'fish' or "rice" I ate rice in america but it was hot and i liked the long grain and wild rice like in pilof or whatever its called. more that plain white rice. and when i did eat white rice it was hot and had butter melting on it with black pepper.

As another poster had suggested, I would also suggest that you "step in" to your kitchen.  Take control of what is being prepared in your kitchen and how it is prepared.

We prepare white jasmine rice almost everyday because the help prefer to have it for all 3 meals. My husband and kids eat it too, but not as often as our housekeeper and driver. I don't like white rice. I prefer brown / red / black rice. So, I or our housekeeper prepares a small batch of my preferred rice just for me once in a while. My son doesn't like rice.

I have given up on eating steaks because it's hard to find tender cuts and also I tend to overcook them. I don't buy pre-ground beef because it can be fatty. For ground beef, I buy sirloin beef at SM (but not the Bonus or store brand) and I have the sellers grind it up. I use it for spaghetti, shepherd's pie, embotido (Filipino meatloaf), homemade burgers and Filipino dishes like giniling.

Wow...I must be doing something right...I've gained too much weight here..and now i discovered a out of the way place to get actual lunch meat out in Poro Point in La Union
been having a blast here the last 3 years

lasvegan wrote:

SnR has all that stuff

I don't know if it's just I who feels like S&R has skimped on their pizza after the start of the pandemic. The size is the same but the crust seems a bit thinner.

Soonretired wrote:

.
   i think the parts that had actual meat like the ham areas and loins etc they cut into small cubes like the carrots in mixed vegetables and cook that in a big giant pan stirring it with a big spoon until its all chewy like rubber and inedible.
maybe they do that so nobody get 'a good part' while others get the chunks of bones and gristle.end result nobody gets any real "pork" out of the deal and the whole pig is wasted.
  same with a chicken its chopped up into unrecognizable chunks and you cant get a good bite of meat anywhere, its all work trying to chew and pick what you can off a random bone,never get a bite of chicken tho,nothing you can sink your teeth into and say it you got a bite of meat.soon its all gone and you feel like you had nothing to eat! whole chicken gone to waste.maybe they are just skinny too..

A few years ago, we hired a housekeeper. She didn't stay long and went back to her hometown in a couple of months.

What I remembered most during her time with us was when she cooked chicken adobo. It was mostly bony chicken parts like neck and ribs with very little meat (which I either discard or use as soup stock). It was like she intentionally carved these from a whole chicken and used it for adobo. We also had other chicken cuts she could have used, but she didn't. It was weird. I didn't ask her why she did it because she was new. I didn't want to offend her and risk her leaving because we really needed a housekeeper.

I mentioned this to my assistant. She said that the housekeeper probably has not worked as a housekeeper in Manila before, as she had claimed, if at all. And that the way the housekeeper prepared adobo is how she prepared it at her home with meat she can afford. Quite insightful.

I have given up on eating steaks because it's hard to find tender cuts and also I tend to overcook them. I don't buy pre-ground beef because it can be fatty. For ground beef, I buy sirloin beef at SM (but not the Bonus or store brand) and I have the sellers grind it up. I use it for spaghetti, shepherd's pie, embotido (Filipino meatloaf), homemade burgers and Filipino dishes like [i]giniling

_________________________________
wow, hahahaaa, funny. i'm not wealthy, i don't have "help" or "housekeepers", or "drivers"  to be concerned about their diets..lol.
you should be happy you are so lucky. i am just a poor guy from america trying to survive and eat and pay my visa extensions until i get SS and die.and stay smiling for my kids despite the abuse i have been thru here..its funny to me being a "rich american" to hear about your exclusive lifestyle. kind of reminds me of democrats in the US now, but i won't go there.
give your husband a big hug and always remember to be thankful for what you have been given ( :

i do want to say, being poor and all, you would think they have discovered the way to make the most of what they have, the opposite has been what i have seen. i appreciate and understand butchers more now.

Soonretired wrote:

give your husband a big hug and always remember to be thankful for what you have been given ( :

What do you mean by "thankful to what you have been given" in reference to my husband?

You don't know me, yet you judge me.

Can someone please enlighten me as to what the post meant or implied?

Some expats view the Philippines from within 50 feet of their front doors and then make generalizations of Filipinos and the country.

Fil-Am Mom wrote:

Soonretired wrote:

give your husband a big hug and always remember to be thankful for what you have been given ( :

What do you mean by "thankful to what you have been given" in reference to my husband?

You don't know me, yet you judge me.

Can someone please enlighten me as to what the post meant or implied?

While I am not the OP, can't  offer his thinking but I'm sure he will explain,,,,, we hope. I do hear you FAM especially in relation to ones station in life and the terms "luck or lucky". I have had that statement thrown at me many times over the years by assorted people, my simple response is "no luck involved to be lucky".
We all make our beds etc and live with what we created.
It matters little what country one chooses to live in as these statements are pretty normal all over the world.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

Fil-Am Mom wrote:

Soonretired wrote:

give your husband a big hug and always remember to be thankful for what you have been given ( :

What do you mean by "thankful to what you have been given" in reference to my husband?

You don't know me, yet you judge me.

Can someone please enlighten me as to what the post meant or implied?

sorry if you took it wrong i didnt mean to 'imply' anything.
just saying you are fortunate give the kids a hug too.

Fil-Am Mom wrote:

Soonretired wrote:

and rice,rice ,rice. this also in any condition or age, usually they make a big pot in the morning and its scooped out like ice cream all day for breakfast lunch and dinner, so rice comes in 'chunks' also.
cold dry chunks of rice scooped out and set beside the "fish" make breakfast,lunch and dinner.
its easier to eat rice when its in chunks anyway i guess because you can pick up big 4 or 5 inch chunks of it with your fingers and take a bite.

.i dont like 'fish' or "rice" I ate rice in america but it was hot and i liked the long grain and wild rice like in pilof or whatever its called. more that plain white rice. and when i did eat white rice it was hot and had butter melting on it with black pepper.

As another poster had suggested, I would also suggest that you "step in" to your kitchen.  Take control of what is being prepared in your kitchen and how it is prepared.

We prepare white jasmine rice almost everyday because the help prefer to have it for all 3 meals. My husband and kids eat it too, but not as often as our housekeeper and driver. I don't like white rice. I prefer brown / red / black rice. So, I or our housekeeper prepares a small batch of my preferred rice just for me once in a while. My son doesn't like rice.

I have given up on eating steaks because it's hard to find tender cuts and also I tend to overcook them. I don't buy pre-ground beef because it can be fatty. For ground beef, I buy sirloin beef at SM (but not the Bonus or store brand) and I have the sellers grind it up. I use it for spaghetti, shepherd's pie, embotido (Filipino meatloaf), homemade burgers and Filipino dishes like giniling.

To the OP. skinny is not our problem, diet is not our problem and I'm still overweight, must be all the alcohol and retirement/laziness.
To FAM, agree, maybe the old saying you are what you eat? While considered extravagant we only buy Basmati rice for daily consumption, black and red rice for some salad dishes etc. minced steak here we buy local and usually for spaghetti but I cook it the day before, let it cool in the refrigerator overnight and take all the fat off the next day, usually not too much and I have seen worse in Oz even buying premium minced beef. BTW the flavour is much better the next day. Parmesan cheese is a different story.

In the kitchen/house we share the cooking and cleaning rolls and after years of doing this know what we both like and don't,,,,, I would say 30% of our diet here is western, 20 to 30% Thai and Vietnamese and Indian same as we ate in Oz, the other local dishes we cook are what we both like and lots of salads also.
I purchased a great cook book 8 or 9 years ago when we lived in Manila "Pagkaing Pinoy" by Christie Lee and never looked back.
Perhaps it is because I am not fussy with what I eat no matter the country but like others have mentioned dried fish is not to be cooked in the house,,,,, ha, so is rare. Decent fish? Rare and we only buy frozen Dory and it's amazing how many variables we have discovered to cook decent fillets.

I am sure that if I didn't play an active roll in the kitchen I would be eating Adobo, Bulalo, Bangus, etc for the rest of my life,,,,,,,, love my better half's cooking and versatility, dry Adobo, Sisig (much better than the local variant), even Bulalo but not too much Sinigang. Last night we cooked shallow fried Dory coated in flour, egg and Japanese bread crumbs with yellow tatties (potato and pumpkin mashed with lots of butter) Steamed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and beans with a pepper gravy.
Western diets need input as well as contributions and love or you will end up eating a dollar a kilo rice with unfavourable GI levels.
I wish we could eat brown rices all the time whether basmati  or others but we both compromise as well as contribute.

We have talked about hired help and while very affordable realise that we,,,,,, especially me will gain more weight especially through these lock downs,,,,,, BTW I am overweight and not obese, 5'11'' and 86KGs,,,,,, better to be 75 to 78 KGs.

OMO but all that choose to live here have to make the best of what is available and hopefully improve our lives and those that live here as well as their existence and expectations, it takes time, patience and one heck of a lot of work. We all see so many things that may be wrong here or simply defy logic and most of my angst here is related to inefficiencies and availabilities but all related to western experiences and norms but guess what? I ain't moving and deal with the local tripe and ignorance to what could be.

Very sorry for the log winded rant but expressing my take and my humble but so far enjoyable life here. Foibles we can deal with and play the game, needs we acquire.


Cheers, Steve.

Soonretired wrote:

Fil-Am Mom wrote:

Soonretired wrote:

give your husband a big hug and always remember to be thankful for what you have been given ( :

What do you mean by "thankful to what you have been given" in reference to my husband?

You don't know me, yet you judge me.

Can someone please enlighten me as to what the post meant or implied?

sorry if you took it wrong i didnt mean to 'imply' anything.
just saying you are fortunate give the kids a hug too.

OMO but a little more grovelling or explanation for/to FAM? I also took umbrage at your comments, they seemed to be aimed at those that have and those that don't. Questioning anothers contribution at what appears to be a financial level?
As you know I and most here read your posts/contributions and have a fairly good grasp on your situation where you live and what you have created. Said it before but again, we all make our own beds.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

bigpearl wrote:

we only buy frozen Dory and it's amazing how many variables we have discovered to cook decent fillets.

OMG ! If you know how Dory are raised in Vietnam, you will immediately stop eating them 

Fil-Am Mom wrote:

<snip> We prepare white jasmine rice almost everyday because the help prefer to have it for all 3 meals. My husband and kids eat it too, but not as often as our housekeeper and driver. I don't like white rice. I prefer brown / red / black rice. So, I or our housekeeper prepares a small batch of my preferred rice just for me once in a while. My son doesn't like rice.

<snip> I have given up on eating steaks because it's hard to find tender cuts and also I tend to overcook them.

<snip> I don't buy pre-ground beef because it can be fatty. For ground beef, I buy sirloin beef at SM (but not the Bonus or store brand) and I have the sellers grind it up. I use it for spaghetti, shepherd's pie, embotido (Filipino meatloaf), homemade burgers and Filipino dishes like giniling.

My wife buys "Dinorado Rice", all rice is the same to me, as all Chinese people look alike to me. You can substitute any nationally in the place of Chinese.

Yes steaks, I like the idea to choose steaks like I did in the States. Fresh steaks on display, pointing your finger at a certain steaks and say I'll take that one and that one. Looking at frozen steaks at S&R does nothing to make me yearn for a steak. I don't find anything wrong with the S&R ground beef, I usually get 80/20 grass fed from Australia.

Today we went to the Supermarket at Pioneer Center, my wife was looking for a beef roast, but no luck. We eat a lot of rotisserie chicken, I bought one of those Ronco Rotisseries at a garage sale back in the states for $15, you know, "set it & forget it" They must have run a million infomercials in the states, funny I still enjoyed watching that infomercial over & over. Another bargain at a garage sale was a Kitchen Aid mixer for $15.

We also have a vertical rotisserie and a hot air fryer. I don't know why they call it a fryer, it's just a hot air oven. Our regular oven is hardly ever used.

We also have a housekeeper, she put on 15 lbs maybe more and our driver is Mr. Grab or Mr. Taxi.

bigpearl wrote:

TeeJay4103 wrote:

Glad I don't live there.  We haven't had those problems here, and my wife is a fabulous cook.

I'm not losing weight.

Ditto to the above posters, never a problem for decent food here,,,,,,, well quality beef steaks yes, not found to date. Minced beef is fine for spaghetti bog instead of hotdogs and the better half can also now cook it with legos tomato paste, bay leaves, lots of garlic and onions etc, the difficulty is finding decent hard parmesan cheese here.
Agree TeeJay, I have not lost a kilogram and happily eat the local dishes though we tend to put a lot more veggies in the fare we cook, even mum and dad put extra veggies in when we go there much to the disgust of nieces and nephews who push them aside.

Cheers, Steve.

We live fairly close to an S&R store and about 5 minutes from a Santi's deli store.  S&R is used for things like Hormel chili, some medicines and misc. items that can't be found at other local outlets.

A local store (with numerous outlets) called Santi's deli,  has a good selection of imported goods including meats and cheeses.  Like any deli, you pick the meat or cheese and they slice it for you and they also have a pretty good selection of steak, pork and fish as well as a large variety of fresh baked breads (without all the sugar).  It's not the cheapest place to buy when compared to local outlets like Robinsons grocery (and others), though it's surprisingly reasonable. 

We live about 5 minutes from the Aquinaldo hwy, though judging from the country setting from our front porch, you'd never know it.  Quiet, peaceful and a small barangay with some good people and neighbors.

As I stated above, my wife is a fabulous cook and we do eat a lot of Filipino dishes that are made to her specifications, cooked and spiced just right.  I have eaten these same dishes from others homes and at restaurants and I have to say that if my wife cooked the way they do, I most likely would not eat it.

Fil-Am Mom wrote:

Soonretired wrote:

.
   i think the parts that had actual meat like the ham areas and loins etc they cut into small cubes like the carrots in mixed vegetables and cook that in a big giant pan stirring it with a big spoon until its all chewy like rubber and inedible.
maybe they do that so nobody get 'a good part' while others get the chunks of bones and gristle.end result nobody gets any real "pork" out of the deal and the whole pig is wasted.
  same with a chicken its chopped up into unrecognizable chunks and you cant get a good bite of meat anywhere, its all work trying to chew and pick what you can off a random bone,never get a bite of chicken tho,nothing you can sink your teeth into and say it you got a bite of meat.soon its all gone and you feel like you had nothing to eat! whole chicken gone to waste.maybe they are just skinny too..

A few years ago, we hired a housekeeper. She didn't stay long and went back to her hometown in a couple of months.

What I remembered most during her time with us was when she cooked chicken adobo. It was mostly bony chicken parts like neck and ribs with very little meat (which I either discard or use as soup stock). It was like she intentionally carved these from a whole chicken and used it for adobo. We also had other chicken cuts she could have used, but she didn't. It was weird. I didn't ask her why she did it because she was new. I didn't want to offend her and risk her leaving because we really needed a housekeeper.

I mentioned this to my assistant. She said that the housekeeper probably has not worked as a housekeeper in Manila before, as she had claimed, if at all. And that the way the housekeeper prepared adobo is how she prepared it at her home with meat she can afford. Quite insightful.

Your mention of Chicken Adobo had me thinking of my wife's delicious chicken adobo.  One of the dishes prepared this year for family Christmas dinner was chicken adobo. It literally disappeared from the table.  I am obviously biased, but my wife is a great cook and her family both here and in the states and Canada go to her for "how to" lessons on cooking great tasting food. 
She uses the best part of the chicken in her adobo and when it's available she uses boneless breast cuts or thighs from a local Robinson's grocery.  Masarap!!

lol i should have moved near a robinsons or S&R it seems !

Soonretired wrote:

lol i should have moved near a robinsons or S&R it seems !

Sometimes I would agree but we are here and make the best of what's available and eat and drink very well, online shopping helps. Hopefully Robinsons will open here next year, said they would open this year but Covid,,,,,,,.

Food and choices have never been a problem, tinned beetroot would be good but we cook the locally grown when in season etc etc.

Our biggest problem here, like most is the inefficiencies and inept attitude of those in higher stations  (as you have personally experienced) but mostly large as well as small businesses inabilities to supply information on products and availability, back up services, warranties, outdated websites/contact details and the list goes on,,,,,,,,,, once purchased you are on your own unlike western countries. The food we eat and if we don't like we don't go there again but if you are investing large sums whether property, vehicles, home appliances it's somewhat frustrating.

As said we eat well but I'm also a participant/cook in the kitchen,,,, not too much soy or salt,,,,, add that later if you want, it's your life. As for Dory?  (from another member) We will keep eating, it can't be any worse than the carcinogens and cr*p in hotdogs or the 60 cigarettes a day or the copious amounts of JD I drink or the lack of exercise. Processed food? Our/my call but to us the local fish, shell fish, mollusks are extremely risky unless you cook the Sh1t out of them and then it's just rubber.

If I sat back and ate the diet my better half would/could serve up 8 or 9 years ago? Nope. High blood pressure, High bad Cholesterol levels, a common problem here. Bring on the vegetables.

You should stay where you are Soonretired given you recently got rid of another problem,,,,,,, will save lots of Pesos.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

Soonretired wrote:

I
wow, hahahaaa, funny. i'm not wealthy, i don't have "help" or "housekeepers", or "drivers"  to be concerned about their diets..lol.
you should be happy you are so lucky. i am just a poor guy from america trying to survive and eat and pay my visa extensions until i get SS and die.and stay smiling for my kids despite the abuse i have been thru here..its funny to me being a "rich american" to hear about your exclusive lifestyle. kind of reminds me of democrats in the US now, but i won't go there.
give your husband a big hug and always remember to be thankful for what you have been given ( :

I took offense at what you posted, implying that I now have this lifestyle because of my husband. Well, you're not the first one. I got to where I am now not because of financing from my husband, but due to hard work, smarts, and support from my parents.

We came here to the Philippines with a little less than US$16k to our name. I talked to my parents, and we all agreed that I take over the family business. We moved to the Philippines lived with my parents for 7 years until we moved in to our own house. I was fortunate to have had many opportunities come my way, which I gladly embraced. I had projects from as far north as Laoag and as far south as Gen San.

I needed a housekeeper because it was hard for me to focus at work when I'm too tired or sleepy.
For times when I didn't have a housekeeper, I needed to wake up before 4:30am  to keep the house in order and tend to kids. When I come home, I was often the one who prepares dinner because my husband often cooks food just for himself, for his greasy spicy pulutan. I would have to also mop the floors as he doesn't care to mop the greasy kitchen floor. Come Sunday, my only day off, I would be ironing and cleaning toilets in addition to my regular routine.

As for the driver, I hired one because I couldn't drive asI developed a phobia of driving here in the Philippines, after I was just inches away from being sandwiched between two buses on what I nicknamed the "Belfast funnel" (@las vegan is likely familiar with this street), a one way street where buses from either side of Quirino Highway and from a bus depot all converge and make multiple lane changes to get passengers.

By the way, why I mentioned about how I order my ground beef is more like a little tip. Pre-ground beef is fatty. Better to take a lean cut of beef and have it ground. Personally, I don't like ground beef except in dishes like spaghetti.  I like cooking beef. But as to eating it, whether lean or not, not really.

TeeJay4103 wrote:

Your mention of Chicken Adobo had me thinking of my wife's delicious chicken adobo.  One of the dishes prepared this year for family Christmas dinner was chicken adobo. It literally disappeared from the table.  I am obviously biased, but my wife is a great cook and her family both here and in the states and Canada go to her for "how to" lessons on cooking great tasting food. 
She uses the best part of the chicken in her adobo and when it's available she uses boneless breast cuts or thighs from a local Robinson's grocery.  Masarap!!

I also make chicken adobo, but with less soy sauce and with chicken breasts. It looks a bit paler than your regular adobo. The issue with chicken breasts is that they are less tender than other chicken cuts. And can become stringy when overcooked. So I soak the chicken overnight in milk before using it for adobo.

Soonretired wrote:

they dont eat vegetables here or salads either,there is a tree that attempts to grow that has little round leaves on it and everyone pulls branches off of it and puts them in 'fish soup' type stuff.
.

The little round leaves are called malunggay or moringa. It's actually very nutritious. I use it on omelettes.

One can also use malunggay to promote hair growth. My housekeeper used it for her thinning hair. It worked.

Soonretired wrote:

i saw a good size red snapper a few years ago and bought it and ate it with catsup, it was ok but the ketchup here is made from bananas and dyed red, not tomatoes, they dont get too many red tomatoes here, like the mangoes they are picked small and green and for some reason they are hollow, even the few red ones i have had were small and hollow inside, the seeds where there and air spaces and the outside 'shell' but there's no "meat of the tomatoe" like they say in that ketchup commercial.

Next time you go to a grocery / mini mart, look for and stock up on tomato ketchup. Most large grocery stores have Heinz and Del Monte. Smaller ones carry Del Monte. They come in a bottle or a large squeezable sachet.