My Asian Adventure - Part Four, Food
The food here is very hit or miss for me. I’m sort of meh about fish in general, and there’s an awful lot of it. Go figure, we live on an island. Thankfully there’s a lot of chicken, and sometimes pork and beef available, so I’m not completely starving. The chicken is all free range, so it’s much more flavorful than anything we can get in the stores back home. The fruits and veggies are all the freshest *ever* and there are new and unusual things for us to try. So far, we like the local produce a lot. They are crazy for the mango, and there is almost a whole aisle at the store devoted to it.
The snack foods are mostly foreign and the Pringles section at the grocery store had the strangest flavor options I’ve ever seen. Seaweed, prawn, and crab are just a few. Eric says seaweed is good…I’m hesitant but I’ll probably try it eventually and will report back. They have a lot of “cracklins” out here which I can only assume are pork rinds like we have back home.
The Asian food is truly incredible (ya think? lol) and I’ve already experienced the very best Pad Thai I’ve ever had in my mouth. Omg I thought I was gonna die from happy, it was soooo good. We also had Filipino food and I gotta tell you after waiting 20 years to eat lumpia, pancit, and adobo again...my tummy had a serious happy. I hear the Korean food is really good here and I’m looking forward to checking it out. The kim chee from the mini mart by the house that Mike brought home was excellent. Nom nom nom.
As random as this sounds, Italian food, and more specifically pizza, is hugely popular here. There’s actually a whole aisle at the grocery store of nothing but pasta and tomato sauces. We tried some veggie pizza today and it was super thin crust but quite good. I never thought to put artichoke hearts or zucchini on pizza before, but it worked brilliantly. I’m taking notes so I can incorporate ideas into my cooking when I get back.
Another oddity is that burgers are a big deal here. They don’t taste like anything you’ve had before because they use strange spices in the meat patties and the cheese isn’t what you’re used to. Get this, they have this thing called banana catsup here that is apparently sort of sweet and a little more like jelly and less like actual catsup. Mike was so excited to try it when we were at the store that he bought this huge bottle. Now that he’s tried it, he’s jazzed he got the large size.
Speaking of the grocery store, that was a crazy experience. They have the produce prepackaged in plastic so you have to just pick a package and hope for the best. So far, we’ve had excellent luck tho. They have whole fish all laid out on ice and even have whole squid laying there staring at you. Creepy. Mike said there are pig legs in the pork section but I missed them somehow. I was pleasantly surprised at how many familiar products or at least familiar brand names I found although the packaging is much different here. Not a lot of things are in glass, they’re mostly in plastic and pouches. Also, the milk and juices are all in cartons on the unrefrigerated shelves but we’ve tried them now and it’s all good. It seems like a good idea because the milk lives much longer that way, and Eric tells me that’s how they do it in Mexico too.
I don't think we're in Kansas anymore... :)
The snack foods are mostly foreign and the Pringles section at the grocery store had the strangest flavor options I’ve ever seen. Seaweed, prawn, and crab are just a few. Eric says seaweed is good…I’m hesitant but I’ll probably try it eventually and will report back. They have a lot of “cracklins” out here which I can only assume are pork rinds like we have back home.
The Asian food is truly incredible (ya think? lol) and I’ve already experienced the very best Pad Thai I’ve ever had in my mouth. Omg I thought I was gonna die from happy, it was soooo good. We also had Filipino food and I gotta tell you after waiting 20 years to eat lumpia, pancit, and adobo again...my tummy had a serious happy. I hear the Korean food is really good here and I’m looking forward to checking it out. The kim chee from the mini mart by the house that Mike brought home was excellent. Nom nom nom.
As random as this sounds, Italian food, and more specifically pizza, is hugely popular here. There’s actually a whole aisle at the grocery store of nothing but pasta and tomato sauces. We tried some veggie pizza today and it was super thin crust but quite good. I never thought to put artichoke hearts or zucchini on pizza before, but it worked brilliantly. I’m taking notes so I can incorporate ideas into my cooking when I get back.
Another oddity is that burgers are a big deal here. They don’t taste like anything you’ve had before because they use strange spices in the meat patties and the cheese isn’t what you’re used to. Get this, they have this thing called banana catsup here that is apparently sort of sweet and a little more like jelly and less like actual catsup. Mike was so excited to try it when we were at the store that he bought this huge bottle. Now that he’s tried it, he’s jazzed he got the large size.
Speaking of the grocery store, that was a crazy experience. They have the produce prepackaged in plastic so you have to just pick a package and hope for the best. So far, we’ve had excellent luck tho. They have whole fish all laid out on ice and even have whole squid laying there staring at you. Creepy. Mike said there are pig legs in the pork section but I missed them somehow. I was pleasantly surprised at how many familiar products or at least familiar brand names I found although the packaging is much different here. Not a lot of things are in glass, they’re mostly in plastic and pouches. Also, the milk and juices are all in cartons on the unrefrigerated shelves but we’ve tried them now and it’s all good. It seems like a good idea because the milk lives much longer that way, and Eric tells me that’s how they do it in Mexico too.
I don't think we're in Kansas anymore... :)
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