Comments for I live in a Frying Pan.

Comment on What’s your excuse for not trying Filipino food? by Shumaila

Shumaila — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:15:30 +0000

Love what you do Arva! I am always curious about the Filipino foods section in the supermarkets but never knew any restaurants even existed…I am not surprised about the impressive amount of healthy ingredients in the cuisine- South East Asian cuisine beats them all!

Comment on What’s your excuse for not trying Filipino food? by filipinaaz.com

filipinaaz.com — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:04:21 +0000

oh my gosh! You are making me hungry. I love adobong kangkobg
But it is difficult to find one here in Arizona. Instead, I use spinach our bakchoy, I thought it was great.
The Fresh Lumpia, hmmm yummmm. Someone I know could make it as good as the home made one.
I miss pancit palabok. I've tried pancit palabok in Vallejo, Ca. It was not as great as the ones in Las Pinas, Manila. Nice Blog and great Photos too. Thanks for sharing.

Comment on What’s your excuse for not trying Filipino food? by InaFryingPan

InaFryingPan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:35:25 +0000

@nadia – Aha, another erudite victim to drag out on a Filipino food date! The world is begging you to give us some intel on Filipino food on your blog Nadia. (the world = me. but a very loud me.)

@Dima's Kitchen – Fingers crossed! Just sample what Didi ordered for me – safe bet before venturing out to the other dishes. I'd say the beef bicol express, the egg drop soup, the adobong kankong and the buco pandan drink are your safest bets, if you don't wanna go all out and order everything we did. Though I loved the lumpia sariwa too -peanut sauce on anything can seduce me. The pancit palabok is tricky – I'd order it again for sure, but I think people might fall either way on that one, sort of an acquired taste maybe.

@Didi – Corrections noted my shining Filipina guru! But dare this stupid student ask a question – my recollection of history (aka wikipedia. If there's something I suck at more than cooking, it's history.) says that the Spaniards ruled from 1521 (arrival of Ferdinand Magellan) to 1898 (Spanish-American War), which makes it 377 years? Or am I (wikipedia) off here…?

And dayam, it was so much more fun to say tuyo tuyo. Like halo halo. I love cute dual-syllable repetitions. They have this addictive drumbeat about them.
..but yeah, I'll go back and delete the second tuyo even though it'll BREAK MY HEART doing it. ah life.

Comment on What’s your excuse for not trying Filipino food? by InaFryingPan

InaFryingPan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:13:36 +0000

@dominik mj – I'm with Didi on this one, nothing like home cooking. I recently attended this unnamed event with Asian food. Fabulous flavours, gourmet celeb chef, the works. But somehow, we missed the real authentic stuff. For instance…a rendang is a rendang is a rendang. Serve it up to me on my plate like it is, that's all I care about. ;)

On a separate note, God I hate bones in my fish too.

Comment on What’s your excuse for not trying Filipino food? by InaFryingPan

InaFryingPan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:57:57 +0000

@Radhina – Yay for inspiration to try more! Do it, and share the knowledge of newfound Filipino dishes around!

@Sliceofmylyfe – Woo hoo! Better late than never! (If only my blog could change the world…I'd be betting on stocks of Filipino food supply companies right now.)

@Sally – now, now, white fluffy buns don't sound that bad do they…I love fluffy food. Oh and that purple yam, maybe PURPLE fluffy buns stuffed with ube (=purple yam. yay for my token tagalog words.) Anything with ube has to be amazing.

@Didi – I know. What was I DOING all those years. To fix it, I'm just going to have to take some extreme measures, like maybe eating through every Filipino dish in a month to get over my ignorance…? Anyone wanna join me? Can never have too much Buco Pandan I say…

Comment on What’s your excuse for not trying Filipino food? by Didi

Didi — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:16:11 +0000

I also will correct a few things :-) My history teacher and my dad will kill me. We were under Spanish rule for 333 years, American rule for 48 years and Japanese rule for around 5 years :D It's also just tuyo, salted dried fish, which is usually herring. Fermented fish is another thing called "Buro" in the province of Pampanga. It also stinks! hehehe!

Comment on What’s your excuse for not trying Filipino food? by Didi

Didi — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:54:05 +0000

I think that this is reflective of the profile of the Filipinos here. We don't have the "refined" Filipino restaurants because there is no market for it. Bulk of the Filipinos here are from the working class, who have average palates, looking for a taste of home. These people are not looking for a refined version of what they enjoy back home, but simply a taste of home to help alleviate the feelings of homesickness.

There are refined Filipino restaurants, but not here in the Middle East. You can find some in Manila, Philippines as well as in New York City and Los Angeles because there is a market for it. Filipinos, who have developed better palates along with the better lives they've built for themselves. So if that's what you are looking for, it is best to hop on a plane to Manila / NYC / LA to enjoy it.

I don't think there is nothing wrong with homely because, after all, all good cooking started from inside the home.

Comment on What’s your excuse for not trying Filipino food? by Dima's Kitchen

Dima's Kitchen — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:36:53 +0000

I have to say that I am not versed with Philippine's cuisine!! And admit that yes I have not gone out to find out more… The very few times I tried some preps, they were not exactly good, so maybe that's why I never went any further with this quest. But I trust your judgement and the pics look mouthwatering, so am sold, and will go try this place, maybe finally I can put this to rest!
Enjoyed reading your post Arva :)

Comment on What’s your excuse for not trying Filipino food? by nadia

nadia — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:17:41 +0000

Great post (and great research too)! I've been eating Filipino food since birth (albeit on and off, courtesy of mom) but some of them are my comfort food, like chicken adobo and that egg drop soup.

Comment on What’s your excuse for not trying Filipino food? by dominik mj

dominik mj — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:14:56 +0000

Strange – I almost never thought about these preconceptions. But there is only one, which makes me shy away of Pinoy cuisine: the restaurants are more like cafeterias, where you get some homely dishes – never really restaurant style food.

Sorry – I am not very much on the authentic trip – most of the times, I don’t like bones in my food, but I love refinement. Also I am not a big sucker for fish [only filets in good restaurants] – and fishy things are anyway a nightmare for me.

But honestly, I think it is a pity, that there is not one refined Filipino restaurant in the city [maybe even not in the Philippines?].