My Asian Adventure - Part Seven, Food Issues
Yes, it’s true, I have been mostly starving since I’ve been here...which, with my blood sugar issues, is definitely not a good thing. Let me see if I can explain why.
I have an overdeveloped sense of smell and when things smell bad to me it throws my appetite off. The smells here are very strong and mostly fish-like, whether it’s the local food or the tide being out, it’s all fishy and therefore stomach turning to me. Thankfully the longer I’m here the more I’m getting used to it, so I’m now able to eat in spite of the smells. Also, the local fare has a lot of fish/squid/random sea creatures so it’s like having my nose assaulted at every turn.
The food being mostly Asian of all types (Filipino, Korean, Thai, etc.), it doesn’t sit heavy on you or stay with you. No matter how much rice I eat, I’m having trouble feeling full and when I do feel full I’m hungry again in a few hours. Normally I eat about every 4-5 hours, but here I need to eat every 2-3 and I almost never feel full.
I never realized how much cheese I ate until I moved to the land of no cheese. The cheeses they have available here (unless you go to a specialty store and pay high prices) are cream cheese, American slices, and an inferior version of velveeta that is basically inedible. The cream cheese is exactly what you’d expect, which is thankfully very edible. There is no ranch dressing, although you can buy a thing that’s labeled “ranch” at the store, it is nothing like anything you would actually eat. The mayo is also questionable and I’ve been avoiding it as well.
The meats here are not what I’m used to either. The chicken is *awesome* but they are the thinnest chickens you’ve ever seen and even when you get a whole rotisserie one from the roadside vendor (which are delicious, btw) you get very little meat off of it. The meat on a stick places have things like livers and intestines on the sticks, ugh, gross. The pork is all served with the fat still on it so by the time I trim off the part I will eat, there’s very little food on my plate. There are a lot of sausages which are not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination, and I’ve seen spam quite a bit which is something I’m not willing to eat no matter how hungry I get. I’m not a big fish fan but there is an abundance of it here so it’s very limiting to me. Also, squid and eel are huge here and I’m completely out on those.
I finally found a health food store at the big mall over in Cebu City where I can buy protein bars. Granted they cost about $4 each, but it’s worth it to actually feel full and know that I’m getting enough protein. I’ve been eating a lot of peanuts, cashews, and pistachios lately which are helping with my protein intake also. We do cook at the house which is terrific, but since we usually work 10-hour days, by the time we get home and cook it’s quite late. On those nights we cook, eat, clean up then go to bed. Oh and did I mention that we work 6 days a week? :)
I know it won’t be like this forever and I’ll get to come back to civilization eventually. When I get there, Katie bar the door cuz I’m gonna be an eating fool! I’m drooling just thinking about it...
I have an overdeveloped sense of smell and when things smell bad to me it throws my appetite off. The smells here are very strong and mostly fish-like, whether it’s the local food or the tide being out, it’s all fishy and therefore stomach turning to me. Thankfully the longer I’m here the more I’m getting used to it, so I’m now able to eat in spite of the smells. Also, the local fare has a lot of fish/squid/random sea creatures so it’s like having my nose assaulted at every turn.
The food being mostly Asian of all types (Filipino, Korean, Thai, etc.), it doesn’t sit heavy on you or stay with you. No matter how much rice I eat, I’m having trouble feeling full and when I do feel full I’m hungry again in a few hours. Normally I eat about every 4-5 hours, but here I need to eat every 2-3 and I almost never feel full.
I never realized how much cheese I ate until I moved to the land of no cheese. The cheeses they have available here (unless you go to a specialty store and pay high prices) are cream cheese, American slices, and an inferior version of velveeta that is basically inedible. The cream cheese is exactly what you’d expect, which is thankfully very edible. There is no ranch dressing, although you can buy a thing that’s labeled “ranch” at the store, it is nothing like anything you would actually eat. The mayo is also questionable and I’ve been avoiding it as well.
The meats here are not what I’m used to either. The chicken is *awesome* but they are the thinnest chickens you’ve ever seen and even when you get a whole rotisserie one from the roadside vendor (which are delicious, btw) you get very little meat off of it. The meat on a stick places have things like livers and intestines on the sticks, ugh, gross. The pork is all served with the fat still on it so by the time I trim off the part I will eat, there’s very little food on my plate. There are a lot of sausages which are not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination, and I’ve seen spam quite a bit which is something I’m not willing to eat no matter how hungry I get. I’m not a big fish fan but there is an abundance of it here so it’s very limiting to me. Also, squid and eel are huge here and I’m completely out on those.
I finally found a health food store at the big mall over in Cebu City where I can buy protein bars. Granted they cost about $4 each, but it’s worth it to actually feel full and know that I’m getting enough protein. I’ve been eating a lot of peanuts, cashews, and pistachios lately which are helping with my protein intake also. We do cook at the house which is terrific, but since we usually work 10-hour days, by the time we get home and cook it’s quite late. On those nights we cook, eat, clean up then go to bed. Oh and did I mention that we work 6 days a week? :)
I know it won’t be like this forever and I’ll get to come back to civilization eventually. When I get there, Katie bar the door cuz I’m gonna be an eating fool! I’m drooling just thinking about it...
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