Cebu on a Stick

Okay, now to really important matters: how is the food in the Philippines?

Art, music, architecture, climate, mannerisms - all of these have their place, but really, what can compare for sheer weight (no pun intended) with the cuisine of a place? A man is what he eats, after all.

There's a reason Philippine cuisine has yet to take the world by storm the way Chinese, Thai, or any number of other Asian cuisines have; it's kind of boring. It's mostly meat stews over rice or fish or meat grilled over coals. Tasty enough, but not anything to really excite people. The emphasis on meat and the lack of creative vegetables exclude the health-conscious, and the lack of spiciness leaves out all the people who so gratefully dig into Thai or Indian curries.

Absent is the ginger, lemongrass, coconut milk, star anise and chilies which are so prevalent in the rest of southeast Asia. There are a few dishes which I find interesting enough to make myself, but the emphasis on heartiness over vivid flavors isn't really my style.

There is also the propensity to grill absolutely everything and serve it on a stick - even things that one cannot possibly eat on a stick, such as small fish replete with bones and scales.

For dessert their favorites seem to be leche flan (the Spanish answer to creme caramel), halo-halo (an inelegant but refreshing mix of fruits, gelatin, and ice cream) and banana Q, which is basically a banana coated in sugar then caramelized over a fire.

Also the ketchup is made of bananas, but honestly I wouldn't have known if they hadn't told me - it looks and tastes the same.

Et Tu, Brute?

Originality, thy name is not pinoy...

Apparently this is a big problem. Someone has a good idea, and immediately they become swamped by ten competitors and nobody can establish a successful niche.

Just another small example, about a year ago they opened up a zipline on the mountain of Busay just north of the city, and less than a year later there are already three. How many ziplines can one town support?

Living For Today

The street I currently live on is lined with small, shabby little shops (though 'shops' might be too grand a term - perhaps 'stall' would be better) of the little-bit-of-everything variety, selling eggs and vegetables as well as offering internet and printing services, not to mention selling rum, bread, and anything else that happens to be around.

One shop in particular is festooned with tiny plastic packets of shampoo, good for a single use. I pointed this out to my roommate and he said "That's how it is here. I buy whole bottles of shampoo and people think I'm crazy."

Later, I went to a pharmacy to refill my aspirin.

"A bottle of aspirin, please."

The pharmacist looked at me. "We don't have bottles. We have boxes."

"How many pills are in one box?"

"A thousand".

"Uhh...." Apparently the thing to do is order pills individually. I ended up getting 20; only 1.65 pesos apiece.

Obviously this makes some economic sense. A family living on five dollars a day isn't going to drop seven dollars on a bottle of oil, even if that would be more efficient in the long run.

One of the hidden costs of poverty.

Election part II

So the election is over and it looks like front-runner 'Noynoy' is the winner.

Coming in second was Jose Estrada, the tough-guy actor who was president during the late 1990s and is generally considered to have been a disaster for the country. I guess you can fool some of the people all of the time.

Elsewhere, reports of harassment, violence and vote-buying were rampant. Apparently in some places votes were going for as little as 100 pesos (about $2.20) each.

Like Argentina, the Philippines has a no-liquor-sales-the-day-before-the-elections law, which is unusual considering that, unlike Argentina, voting is not mandatory in the Philippines. I thought this wouldn't affetc me until the cashier at the grocery store wouldn't let me buy a root beer ("It says 'beer' right on the label!"). Isn't democracy great?

Noynow takes on Gibo!

What do you suppose this is a list of?:

Noynoy, Dodong, Gibo, JC, Erap, Brother Eddie, Manny, Dick, Nick and...Jamby.

Perhaps the cast if a Latin American ensemble telenovela? Maybe a chldren's show/

Those are the 'official' nicknames of the 11 candidates for the presidency of the Philippines.

As of now, Begnigno Aquino III (Nownoy) appears to be ahead, although his conservative rival Gilberto Teodoro (Gibo) is mounting a strong challenge.

Politics in the Philippines is a family affair, Noynoy is the son of a president, while Gibo is his second cousin.

The walls are absolutely plastered with campaign posters of every kind, not only for president but for senator and congressman. There have been motorcades and torchlight processions. It's pretty exctiing, and yet every Filipino I've talked to said he wasn't going to vote. Curious...

Getting One's Phl

So my arrival in Cebu was not terribly fortuitous. After about 20 hours in the air I finally arrived at Mactan International Airport, only to discover that my host believed I was arriving on May 5, and as such he was not at the airport to greet me.

He was also not at his house, though his neighbors all seemed to know him and I spent several hours sitting on my luggage and chatting with the hordes of children who hung around the coin-operated internet cafe at all hours of the night.

Eventually we did meet up and he showed me his house. It has the decaying, unkempt feel common to the long-term bachelor, but my room is comfortable enough, the neighborhood is very safe (it's near an army base) and the price was right.

Some quick observations:

- It is again very hot.

- Roosters are everywhere. And they crow all day long.

- the water has so much chlorine in the tap water there's a permanent smell of the swimming pool

- The basic layout of the Filipino street seems to be about the same as it was in Vietnam - narrow sidewalks and 'shops' which are basically converted garages. Npt nearly as much traffic though.