I am admittedly a very picky eater. I don't eat most filipino food or lechon and the beef is too hard to chew, hard to find good pork chops I can chew (I still have all my teeth). I don't go out to eat because of my condition, so my meals are at home. So I have narrowed my options primarily to salmon (from Belcris), roasted whole chicken with potatoes and carrots, (takes a lot of propane for two hours cooking), yellow chicken curry, or grilled chicken, or breaded fish. For lunch canned soup or beans or canned chili, an occasional tuna sandwich, or a once a month take out pizza. So eating is not something I look forward to, like it was elsewhere. Breakfast is my favorite meal and daily oatmeal, yogurt, papaya, juice, water. Any other fussy eaters out there?
Yep, I suspect that eating will just be another part of the adventure. I suspect fast food will play a significant role, at least initially.
It does, believe me. https://giphy.com/stickers/h4OGa0npayrJX2NRPT Gesendet von meinem M2101K6G mit Tapatalk
And even the "fast food" here is suspect. I've grown accustomed to the carenderia fried chicken and\or pork chops, (even if they are WAY WAY overcooked) both of which are preferred over Jollibee or McDonalds. 7-11 is an option, hot dogs, Shopao, sandwiches. Pat O- I agree with protein here is primarily chicken and fish, we also eat lots of eggs, potatoes, carrots, onion, and garlic. I keep talking with the wife about producing our own food: Chicken Rabbit Talapia Vegetable are easy to start, but pulling weeds in a literal pain (from hamstrings to neck).
I am also quite fussy about eating and struggle to eat to full at most local celebration meals. Cold spaghetti, cold, fatty meat on the bone and cold rice are not my favourites. Also not that fond of lechon, although it's better eaten the following day if you get a take home (which is normal). I really liked hog-roasts at home too, so I'm struggling to understand how they make a piece of pork so unappetizing (sic) here. I'm very fortunate that my wife knows my tastes/likes/dislikes and is very good at adapting local recipes and cooking up western style meals and also curries. Our son, who is now a teenager, is getting a bit hormonal though, and he refers to the adapted local meals as 'whitewashed'. No doubt he got that from his mates at school.
With many of my back teeth gone, you can imagine my issues here! But I now resole my shoes with beef and that works well. I was asked recently (by an expat) which Filipino foods I would miss most - I had to be honest and say "None". Any Filipino foods members would REALLY miss?
I cannot confirm Filipino food is bad in general. It all depends how and by whom it has been prepared. From my point of view there is nothing wrong with Sinigang, Pancit, Chop Suey. Just to name a few. If you buy fresh and quality ingredients and take some passion to prepare the meal it can be delicious. The Philippines are blessed with fresh vegetables and fish. Fruits as well. If you want you can prepare really nice meals. Hence I wouldn't come to the conclusion that Filipino cuisine is bad as a given fact. Of course, if you don't want to shop and cook by yourself and instead you are preferring to spend 85 Peso at an eatery or maybe 320 Peso at an so called restaurant you will receive greasy and cold rubbish. You get what you pay for. Take some time, spend some money, put some effort. Life can be great.
An Air Fryer is likely to be a cheaper alternative to a large oven, being small and well insulated they do tend to be cheaper to run than a large oven, also you can shave off around 10% of the cooking times for the same result, they come in various sizes and one of 5ltr plus will manage a whole Chicken, the use of tinfoil of basting is not required to keep the moisture in.
Growing Vegetables can be done easily there everything grows so fast including the weeds, however there are ways around this. Using a form of a polytunnel covered in shade netting on the south side of it (most plants DO NOT like direct sunlight) an ordinary garden net to the rest, will keep many of the pests at bay, using raised beds built in CHB's which are about the only thing they are good for anyway, takes away the back breaking work of weeding, especially if they are filled with a good loose growing medium with some added course sand, growing plants with this method allows for less spacing between them. This does require some initial financial investment to have this constructed, but the prices there in PH for Vegetables is verging on criminal, working smart with this and getting more than one crop a year there in PH it would not take all that long to pay for itself. Keeping a few Rabbits could go hand in glove with the above method using their droppings for fertilizer, they can be fed quite cheaply there using Napier grass, Banana leaves and the excess green tops from root vegetables produced in the Tunnel, providing the beds are above 2ft high a couple of Rabbits could live inside the tunnel. This is so easy not requiring a lot of work and so rewarding to do, going 100% organic is easily possible with this method if that is your thing? You would have to be AYFH not to appreciate this as a very good method and worth having a go with?
