Best Posts in Thread: Food Here

Dave, I would venture a guess that the supposed "lack of interest" in small scale agricultural ventures amongst the Duma-Info crowd has several likely causes:
1. Many retirees with sufficient existing income can't be arsed to put effort/energy/money into any type of business;
2. Small scale agriculture typically is labour intensive, and since retiree/work isn't the most logical combination people might be put off by that prospect.
3. Some might be convinced to try as a hobby, but to be honest, the climate here makes me sweat like a pig within a few minutes of physical work, and I am sure I'm not the only one to prefer a laid back lifestyle.

 

If you are a regular at the Red Table likely you will know German Peter his GF runs the food counter there, when I first moved to Valencia and started to go to the RT I used to see him all the time, one night we were there both sitting on our own at separate tables, I sent him over a Beer and this was the start of our friendship, unfortunately at this time he only had around 10 words in his English vocabulary, however we did manage to communicate by drawing pictures, he was a carpenter and I was close to starting my own house build so we had lots of common ground to speak of.

Peter did his best to study English and in less than a year he had mastered enough to sit with any group talking English and give a good account of himself, he worked with me for a time when I was building the house and I gained a lot of knowledge through him, actually I may not have managed to complete my build without him?

 

Well, Arbour - for me by far the best restaurant in the region - recently put s lamb roast on its menue. It's absolutely deliciius. Low snd slow roasted it cimes on a bed of well prepared vegetables and if you choose the right wine it gives you an outstanding dining experience.

Check Arbour restaurant at Hibbard Avenue. They are, of course, on Facebook. There is a picture of the lamb dish.

Well worth to give it a go. And a visit at Arbour always pays back.

 

I agree with you wholeheartedly, cooking at home is the best way to go there in PH, you are correct about the availability of fresh Veg there, only it comes at a very high price, sometimes the quality is also a little suspect, for instance if you were to find a good thick walled Bell Pepper you will pay a very high price for this, see my other post here about growing these yourself, even with a limited amount of room this can be done.

I had written about this here on DI before, I was using a Cold Smoke Generator cheap to buy from Shopee, using only a cardboard box I was able to smoke my own Bacon and Fish, this gives so much added flavour to many dishes, such as a Fish Soup, or a type of Carbonara I made using the Bacon and Blue Cheese, this is to die for, just about any type of sawdust is adequate for this even that from Coco wood, here in UK I have an Air Fryer this being just perfect for roasting Veggies adding some Rosemary and a little Garlic salt these make fine eating.

Even eating out here in UK is often a disappointment to me, so very high priced and mostly the food is no better than I have at home?

 

That's a very good idea.

I assume there is no need to compile a list. Just collect and keep your shopping bills in Scotland for a certain period and once here you can easily compare any given item with the local rates here in Dumaguete. Not only food but as well all kind of groceries, hygienic items, cleaning stuff and so on.

Can't wait to see the results. Whatever will be the outcome we should celebrate it with a few beers.

 

From what you have to say here this has prompted me to make up a shopping list before my trip to PH noting prices here for most basic commodities and then do a direct comparison for the same goods there, I am of the idea it will be near double there? Btw something that you do get here and not available there is; Genuine special offers, it being hardly possible not have at least one item in the trolley that does not come at a special price?

Actually I would say by owning our insulated property there and having a low energy bill, I would suggest we could live as a family of 4 for less than £1000 a month this to include the running costs of our car and private schooling for our son, we mostly eat at home.

Now here in UK this would not be possible, the cost to run my house alone before we even wash a dish is around £600, running a bought and paid for car will be around another £200 so a rough guesstimate must be close to £800, a months food shop would be close to £500 and odd treat once or twice a month would run to another £100, so this would suggest a basic lifestyle in the Philippines to be that bit less in cost than here in UK, this may not be all that accurate and only an idea in my head?

But it must be remembered I am a Scotsman and we are not guilty of throwing out money around.

 

Carrots, potatoes and onions, I do wonder about the price of them there in PH, I remember this being mentioned here on DI last year and onions being priced at 10 times of that in the UK, I can buy a Kilo of Carrots here in UK for 60P=P40 it is even less than that if you are OK with misshaped ones and you can get 1.5kg for this same price, onions and potatoes being at a similar price, I'm giving Aldi prices, however even the higher priced Supermarkets here keep the prices of these 3 items as low as possible, sometimes they are sold as a Loss Leader to attract customers.
25yrs ago I would do a weeks food shop for my family of 4 for less than £100, today by working smarter I could do that same shop and not be spending much more than this, for example cutting out Heinz brands can be a big saving, a tin of their baked beans is around P100 and yet in Aldi you can have 4 tins of their own brand for that same price and by adding a squirt of tomato puree to them they are as good as it gets, mind you working family's are unlikely to have much time for this? it used to annoy me when I was working you tend to shop at weekends and all the old Fecking coffin dodgers would also be there blocking the aisles, they should ban these cupid auld stunts on the weekends, the same should be applied these disabled Feckers they get all the good parking spaces and the working folk have to haul a full trolley of shopping half way over the parking area, naw easy when it is P!shing Doon wi Rain as often happens here in Scotland.

Now eating out here is a different kettle of different fish, the price of this must be around 400% more than it was 25yrs ago? perhaps fast take away food is killing them?

 

I am just laughing.

Indeed I was yesterday for lunch at Arbour and indeed I had the Beef Cheeks.

Absolutely delicious, tender, cooked to perfection. It had been low and slow cooked for about 12 hours and you really taste it.

I had it with a dark beer, Porter, from Apolong and it matched the taste of beef, sauce and vegetables very well.

Another outstanding dining experience at Arbour. Certainly not the last one.

 

I've found fish and meat to be wildly different the world over. Fresh caught or farm raised fish - I know which I prefer. The pork here is quite good, one time off the coast of Guatemala while on a tug boat we discovered our freezer had died and all of the meat was ruined. We pulled into a small port bought a side of pork and thought all is good. Once we put some cuts into a frying pan it smelled like a garbage can on fire- dumped the entire 140 lbs over the side and went to an offshore oil rig to be resupplied. Who knows what that pig was fed/processed to make it smell like that, no-one wanted to find out what it tasted like.
After growing up in the midwest USA don't even get me started on what passes for beef in this country!
The PI is blessed with fresh tropical fruit and veggies, can not do any better. Fresh fish for the most part, decent pork and chicken, dairy sucks - it's all in the prep.
When we travel around the PI we probably eat 95% of our meals in carinderias, simple food but stick mostly with the veggies and at least its real food.
People ask me in my home country what Filipino food is like and anymore I reply - how many Filipino restaurants have you ever seen in the US? Question asked and answered.

 

I could not say for definite where things are going wrong with your seed sowing most things will germinate in just about any medium even damp kitchen roll, seeds should be stored at a cool temp I keep my extra seed in an airtight container in the fridge, now if they are germinating and then not progressing that could also be down to heat stress.

If I was to build raised beds I would use CHB's and build them close to the height of a Kitchen countertop, It goes without saying all areas should be in reach without bending too far, likely it will be your partner that is attending to these so her furthest reach should be considered, the bottom third of the bed, should be filled with rubble and drainage holes must be provided at the very bottom as you do not want a tank that gets waterlogged.

You will be aware of the portable Gazebos/ Canopy's that are in use there, this is how I would have my frame built, may I suggest you get a hold of German Peter he knows a couple of Pinoys him and I trained them both, you cannot make a Silk purse out of a Sows Ear but they are better than average, they are employed 6 days a week but may be able to work Sundays, one is actually working for Peter and likely he would stop his job for day or so to get you going, failing that wait till I come over, one of these guys is good at welding with a Flux core mig he will do a far superior job than anyone with a stick welder.

The site for this should not be close to a wall it is already shaded on both the roof and south side, too much shading gives long leggy growth and the plants just keel over.

Top soil is readily available there and a truck load of 3.5 cube is around P2K, sand is about the same price but only around 10% is required to mix with the soil.

There you have it most of your problems solved.