Interestingly, although I've tried a variety of cuisines from chinese to indian to spanish to mexian to turkish, I've never tried Philippines food before...
Just tried it yesterday at Marina Square where my distant uncle held his 25th wedding anniversary dinner celebration. It was a buffet set up.
First, there's a soup with prawns and tomatoes. Quite strong lemongrass flavour and with a sour tinge. It's a bit like tom yam soup without the spiciness. I quite like it.
Tried two types of appetizers. One that seemed like green mango cubes, a variation from thai mango salad. One with soft brinjal flesh and a sour tinge.
Then there's a roast suckling pig which I found the skin not crispy enough. Meat's not too bad though. I quite like the roasted pork belly. A bit like chinese 'san cheng rou'. Tried to avoid most of the fat layers but the meat's not bad. Then there was this dish of beef chunks. Really like it. My favourite main course. The meat's really tender... There's a fish dish called stuffed milkfish. I don't know what milk fish is but it tastes a bit like sardines. Anyway, it's minced fish meat stuffed in a fish skin, so that it looks like a whole fish again. Very interesting dish.
Desserts were ok though. There was this ice kacang-like thing that was only ok. And a kueh that's quite like the nonya corn kuehs at bengawan solo.
Overall, phillippines food's not too bad for my tastebuds. Quite amusing when most of my parents' generation couldn't appreciate the food. Guess they have been too used to eating the common cuisines.
