No Reservations: Philippines

EDIT after the show:

I have not felt homesick for the PI in a long, long time. Seeing all the food he featured just did. I don't want to give out spoilers but he made valid observations not only about the food (is a great if not the best representation of what a culture is) but of who Filipinos are.

It's not always easy being a "foreigner" here in NJ/NY. It's not like Cali where it's almost an extension of Manila. Because we have been away, we see the differences better. We actually see our culture. We are outside looking in and it just matters more. Will I eventually turn Filipino-Chinese-American? The identity crisis never stops. LOL.

Naku, I want to go to Jollibee this minute. I have also told my ahiya that we should eat sisig this Sunday. I'm suddenly hungry. Now, if only Max's would open already!!!

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People here have asked me what Filipino cuisine is and I never know what to tell them. It's not popular like J or K food. There aren't too many good Filipino restaurants here that I feel comfortable bringing non-Pinoys to. There's Cendrillon in Soho (which I think is Manhattan-ified Flip food) and Grill 21!!!! I have yet to try Kuma Inn (Good reviews so far). I hope this show will shed some light. Maybe it is what it is. An international mish mash of yummy goodness that need not be defined.

So it's tonight and here's what Tony had to say on his blog.

Hierarchy of Pork

I'm very nervous about tonight's Philippines show.

I'm all too aware of the fact that the country is made up of over seven THOUSAND islands and that I visited exactly two of them. The food is intensely regional ... I mean, even the difference between the food in Manila and Pampanga -- only a couple of hours away --is striking. So I missed ... a lot.

I'm very aware of how many Filipino fans we have -- and how enthusiastic they are about us (finally) covering their country. I wanted very badly to do a good job on this one. But I fear there's no way we got it "right."

Not that I didn't have a great time. I did.

For one thing, I settled a karmic debt of sorts: Augusto Elefano, who'd argued so fervently for his country of ancestry on the previous season's FAN-atic special had been sent home short of the prize after a brutal interrogation at my hands. Impressed by his zeal and feeling guilty about smashing his hopes and dreams I felt that Cebu would be good to see through his eyes. So we packed him, his wife and baby daughter onto a plane -- and sent them off into TV Land.

What we did get right, I'm quite sure, was making sure that the amazing, porky delights of "sisig" got plenty of camera time. If you've never had this divine mosaic of pig parts, chopped and served sizzling and crisp on one side on a screaming hot platter, then you've yet to have one of the world's best beer drinking dishes. And speaking of pig? It can now be said that of all the whole roasted pigs I've had all over the world, the slow roasted lechon I had on Cebu was the best. This puts the standings in the Hierarchy of Pork as follows:

#1. Philippines (ding! ding! ding!!)

#2. Bali

#3. Puerto Rico

If nothing else, I hope that homesick Filipinos living abroad get a glimpse of some of the food and scenery they've no doubt been missing. And for viewers who weren't previously familiar with the wide and tasty spectrum of flavors available over there, I hope the sight of me shoving a lot of very tasty stuff into my maw provides -- if nothing else -- inspiration to look further.