Food Unknown: Why is Filipino cuisine not more popular worldwide?

the Philippines a nation of over 7,000 islands known for their fantastic beaches friendly locals and colonial past but definitely not their food while neighboring Asian countries enjoy popularity overseas Filipino dishes either go unknown or are treated with suspicion in this special road less traveled series I'm going to explore the world's most underappreciated cuisine and find out if that unpopularity is justified it's a mission that is going to lead me across Liu's owns diverse landscape from stunning rice terraces to remote tribal villages to outlandish burial grounds all on a quest to find that next great Filipino dish with some hits and misses in between along the way I'll venture thriving markets muck-up work routines and learn jungle commando cooking but I must heed caution don't push too deep or look too far marijuana feels what marijuana feel it is a cuisine adventure extraordinaire starting right here in the gritty sultry traffic choke capital city Manila our world is full of fascinating dishes culturally important rich in stories but only a few have seen the limelight I'm Jonathon leg and in this series I'm focusing my travels around the world's most underappreciated cuisines oh my god have they failed the market are they about to emerge or are they just plain back it will be a global journey of pleasant surprises and dangerous mishaps and stunning locations on a quest to uncover there I get it food unknown to get a grip on a country's food you must first start with its produce meat and fish it's the foundation and if there's a problem with the cuisine the first thing to check is the quality of the ingredients I make my way to kuvasz farmers market for a ground-up inspection bustling pungent and colorful with a little dollop of heebie-jeebie three quick tips for a market like this you want to have small chains hey you want to wear shoes that don't soak up all the fish juice on the floor that and you want to be able to identify fresh fish from stuff that's been on ice for several days should smell like the ocean or the river not fishy should have bright clear eyes looking at it too and when you peel back the gills it should be bright red or pink inside anything else at that the market is a great place to score fresh seafood or simply hunt curiosities I've seen morays in the water before snorkeling and scuba diving but I never got a close-up of the teeth you can see they're curved inwards so that the prey can't escape and neither with your figure out it was cooperative effort to bite my own finger looks like a sci-fi movie holy cannoli whoo [Music] and pass that a bright neighborhood produce and right there is the dama anything you buy anywhere here you could take over there cook it up and eat it fresh the market boasts a veritable bounty of fresh seafood meat and vegetables if there's an issue with the food it's definitely not due to lack of ingredients on the way home I make one pit stop I must try the country's most infamous delicacy like ripping off a band-aid fast I want to get it out of the way early and this must be Baloo delicious I've had a lot of Fear Factor type foods in my life tarantula Cobra hearts water beetles worms it's a two week old fetal duck egg consumed raw or boiled I got mine boiled because I'm not ready for Salmonella right out of the gate okay these little feathers it's not so bad I mean kind of tastes like an egg mixed with feathers Oh God [Music] there I get it wrong like muskox technically it's not that bad but I had the experience I'm done no thank you body by balut balut fortified I make my way through the frenetic City buzzing pulsing grinding as the sunlight fades and different markets spring to life like this one right in the trendy heart of Manila I'm here in the neighborhood of Makati at a bustling food market with a high concentration of foreigners and a wide variety of Filipino cuisine I should be able to put my finger on the pulse and get an idea of popular opinion so what do you think about the food here I think the chicken is the best chicken in the world it's got all different flavors uh-huh yeah biting their tongue my meat lover passion doesn't play well for everyone you've been here two days yeah try the food by date you ate a lot of image the vegetarian to me was a little shocked this little market has pulled in quite the international clientele the two Ukrainians in the Philippines try the food yeah it's not the first time when we have buying food here it's really cheap here and some quality's not not bad yeah come to the Philippines the food is cheap and not bad gonna try a little piece Wow near that crunch it's like a potato chip super crispy on the outside really moist and juicy on the inside [Music] Wow if you're looking for a nice meaty meal you can't do better than late oh you get an all source of [ __ ] amount of protein from a skinny man's wallet next to the stage and before a Pinoy cornucopia I find lifestyle blogger Cheryl - who drops a professional opinion on the matter if the Queen of England one morning woke up with this what would you choose I would choose Letran definitely because it's chuckling chuckling thing and it's really it's really popular it's really safe all right now I've got something the late shown is a big seller at the market I liked it famous food blogger Cheryl too likes it perhaps I now have my first overlooked winner in the Philippine cuisine quiver ready to take the international stage to get to the bottom of this alleged ambassador quality dish I reserved lunch at pepitas kitchen Oh nerd - debt aka the lechon diva serves 12 course meals in her home highlighted by her trademark specialty late oh wow that aroma just blasts out Letran is a traditional Filipino fiesta food meaning it's it's not a party without the lechon proud to let you know that this lechon won last year in London the tastiest Asian dish in Asia by chowster so this is the mack daddy of the mack daddy yes why that's so succulent and your truffle rice gives it such a unique nuance I've never had for it taste like that before and with the experience done I'm mozi out of pepitas kitchen and extremely satiated man plus I got to taste the number one food in Asia check that box the dead slit shown was indeed fantastic but could it be the next doner kebab sweeping Europe's curry Wurst pizza and tapa joints away in the wake of its popularity tough sell you can't make a veggie ulation alienating that whole market Orthodox Jews and Muslims are out and although I felt like a king at banquet not everyone is going to enjoy the sight of rice spilling out of a baby pig and lit shown is also the national dish of Puerto Rico and found everywhere Spain had a colonial presence so it can't be a unique Filipino claim to fame to get a fresh cosmopolitan perspective on the issue I head to Vasc in Manila's hip Fort Bonifacio neighborhood here Spanish chef Chile creates infusion style dishes with local ingredients I linger after closing time to get Chile's perspective on Filipino cuisine but you're from Spain originally I'm from Spain which has a global reputation for a good cuisine she came to the Philippines which is not known for cuisine at all mm-hmm why did you do that well I needed a break I used to work in some of the top restaurants in the world that means a lot of pressure a lot of tension a lot of not social life and it was a time that I love what I do but I didn't how I need time for myself have you had a couple of dishes in the Philippines local dishes traveling around that have made you say sweet lord that was great of course our you know we're we're in the couch in the house of the farmers you know the people who you know who cultivate ingredient they're the best ones who understand Indian and they're the best ones we'll the rest women what Jenna you speak so passionately about Filipino cuisine but your enthusiasm is really not reflected across the globe most people don't think twice about going out to eat Filipino doesn't even cross their mind why is that well I think in her to evolution on the diamond and thin hard to grow up I think have been isolated you know the economy everything but now is changing so we are on the cusp of a great Filipino cuisine I started being revolution yes I believe so here's to the great Filipino cuisine revolution well it's been a fun sized tour of the Manila food scene and I got down to the nitty-gritty I didn't have to tell the locals why their food was unpopular they told me lack of presentation easy fix fear factor kind of foods that dominate public opinion with their notoriety and lack of consensus the best ideas are scattered throughout the country the winners haven't risen to the top my plan for the next week in the Philippines is to find them and although I don't know it yet this trip will dip into the coffee trade get to the bottom of fighting [ __ ] diets and uncover the world's other leaning tower I will get intimately familiar with the source of food caveman rudimentary in its preparation and avid in its consumption and I'll see a lot perhaps more than I should [Music] the road leading up from Manila gets hairy as it coils up along the forested mountains although the views are magnificent steep drop-offs falling rocks and other hazards ABAI coming into the town center of banal way right now driving slow because there's a lot of tricycles there typically out here seems quiet right now but uh traffic get whoa oh I oh I was ran over a chicken it seems crazy but running over somebody's chicken is a big deal here I mean you can buy a high quality chicken in the market highest quality for under ten bucks but if you run over a guy's chicken you might have to pay out up to $400 with zero chicken kills I make it to the town proper I'm now in a completely different region of the country which should have a completely unique set of local dishes is there a winner among them starting from scratch I begin with a walk around the markets is interesting inside this general store full of grain rice and chicken feed there's a whole wall dedicated to fighting [ __ ] nutrition from one day old to six months beyond six months you got the Thunderbird premium with creatine and antioxidants and ready to fight mix I load up on some supplies and leave the new town behind the old awaits [Music] it's a lifestyle which is not only different from mine but also the rest of the Philippines the unique customs the mysticism and the lifestyle which revolves almost entirely over the production of rice surely a land so diverse distinctive and unconventional would have a unique take on food but the big question in a region with mummies in the Attic and skulls on the wall how palatable will that food be yeah something I was hoping to see and not hoping to see this is the specialty of been away it's called pinic pecan I heard that bap bap bap and I had a feeling they literally batter the chicken slowly to death the process tenderizing the beat bringing the blood to the surface it will succumb to this beating eventually within about 30 minutes and then the food is prepared I guess this is about as primitive of preparation as you can imagine but in that sense it's almost like you're looking into the past I imagine this is the way they prepared chicken here for centuries the chicken having finally kicked the bucket is now burned and the feathers slowly plucked looking to put my attention elsewhere I discover something else is brewing in the shade of the small Hut quite literally the beginning middle and end of harvest season rice wine is made now there's a reason why intoxicants are called spirits because throughout history they've always been associated with spiritual practices so there is a shaman around here who is going to come in for part of the process the roasted rice is then boiled and set out to dry and right on cue the penny pecan chicken is ready to go yeah looks tantalizing cultural experience cultural experience this is it finished product Knik pecan you get the broth which is basically the water the chicken was boiled in with a little salt added the chicken itself the innards and a little salt on the side yeah this is apparently how you do it take a piece of the chicken dip it in salt couple it with some of this great rice your specialty throw it down on the guzzle and trace it with some of the broth oh now I get it's like a hearty chicken stew - potatoes and vegetables and all that just straight rice chicken broth but I imagine for a long hard day in the field it does the trick but let's be honest here I'm having a cultural experience but not finding the next great international dish battered chicken is hard for me to accept on an expedition to the village it won't fly in New York City or Paris not a chance the final rice-wine steps give me a chance to put the beaten chicken behind me maybe she would have been better off if I smoked her on the road back on wine duty yeast is added to the mix and the contents are wrapped up in banana leaf where the magic will happen after three days the banana leaves that are opened up and you have this repo and the shaman puts it in the pot which will then be sealed you know how a lot of products have a special ingredient or a special process they don't want to tell the public about that's what makes their product so good this is that moment right here because as the shamans putting it in the pot he's saying incantations and depending on his mood they say the whole taste of the wine can be affected if he was distracted by work and problems with his marriage then the people who drink the wine to leave bitter but if he was positive he's thinking about the people if he's full of benevolence that when you drink the wine you have a nice happy drunk after about a week they pop off the top of the jar and jam in these rice stocks for natural filtration pour it out they say the first bit is the sweetest as you get to the bottom it's kind of like the bottom of a Turkish coffee cup all sludgy and slimy all that work it all comes down to this not just a labor of love but a labor of blood and sweat exhaustion and in the end you don't get something clear like a Japanese sake you get something little pieces floating in it dark and it tastes exactly as you would expect it to like the sole of the rice field strong full of character of the earth with my drink sufficiently on it's time to leave bond away I saw some stunning sights and some questionable practices I laboured with the people and consumed the fruits of their ancient line of work I came to know a community much different than mine and I will leave with those memories but what I did not find was any cuisine that would realistically represent the Philippines on the international market but my trip has just begun and there are some intriguing stops ahead including this quiet one just outside Bonn away you wouldn't guess it but a significant conclusion to world war two conflict and a beginning to world war two mystery starts right here here's an interesting little memorial in the town of kyung-hwan on September 2nd 1945 Japan's highest-ranking military officer general Yamashita surrendered to the US Army he gave up his tattered troops he laid down in his arms but one thing he did not surrender was the loot that he'd taken throughout his campaign in Southeast Asia that was never found inspiring a generation of treasure hunters to look for it my loot lays ahead on the culinary trail but a chance stop in the town of Sagada throws a detour in my path Sagada is known for their unique burial rites coffins often clinging to jagged cliffs or found tucked in the dark mouths of deep caves Wow other than the coffee and the smoked meat this is what Sagada is famous for open-air coffins oftentimes clinging to a cliff or a cave wall now that Christianity's moved into the region a lot of people are getting buried Six Feet Under but the older generation still clinging to the pagan roots doesn't like this idea under all that dirt their spirit will be trapped but here it's free to roam around [Music] aside from the free spirit deceased Sagada is also a spot where you can sample the country's best coffee globally prized Arabica beans and the lesser-known but more consumed robusta I'm told but not far off I can hike up to a village where I can find these beans grown and harvested old-school style and not just any village one that would have struck fear in my grandfather's heart [Music] [Applause] [Music] the mostly autonomous region of Kalinga here in the mountains of northern luzon I mean I guess technically the feds could come in but they wouldn't these tribes have a history of being great warriors they were the original headhunters and they're heavily armed but I'm not here to start any trouble it's a couple of unique kinds of coffee I hope to find up in these hills no trouble no fighting the hike up is great a sketchy lose your footing in spots and it is good night Irene but in other spots the sublime hand of nature opens up up top I finally mosey into the village despite the ferocious reputation I'm received with warmth and passivity and just at the edge of town I find my coffee trees haha so that's what robusta looks like they say it has a sort of a nutty smell as opposed to the more fruity smell of Arabica grows at a lower altitude it's harder it's more resistant to pests because it has a higher concentration of caffeine and that by the way is why coffee beans produce caffeine it's an insecticide keep the bugs off of it it also happens to have the inadvertent effect of a stimulant which is why we like it the beans picked here are both sold commercially and roasted in house for personal consumption the village makes a mean brew but coffee is not the only thing brewing in this town free to wander I trudged out to their rice fields for a sunset perspective of the lush green environment it's a rather carefree stroll until I walk just a little too far I'm not sure I'm supposed to see this guess it's alright well let's talk about this we've covered some of the world's most popular drugs alcohol coffee caffeine they love sugar in the Philippines the whole world loves sugar and now we got marijuana four of the top ones all in moderation not that bad for you in excess maybe not that great for you but only one could get you ripped away from your family sent to prison in some countries executed now just imagine if somehow a different one arbitrarily was selected if some congressman somewhere said there's a scourge of obesity sweeping over the land we must wage a war on sugar how would that change the landscape how would that change our opinion about everything I didn't see anything marijuana field what marijuana field I just saw rice not seeing anything but rice I come back to town where a feast is being prepared in my honor not a meal prepared by the manicured hands of big city chefs but by the calloused paws of mountain warriors in other words brace yourself [Music] Wow kind of reminded me of a bullfight I saw in Venezuela but to be honest I mean we buy the beef and the chicken and the supermarket with the plastic wrap over it we're distanced to the reality of what's happening and who knows what reality that is the whole farm factory business but here you've got free-range pigs living just pretty much living out their lives as they please and then yeah one bad moment but it's as you may and I suppose you could do it you'll be a little faster the whole last part other than that after its slaughter the pigs here is meticulously singed off then it's gutted and quartered all hearts are thoroughly washed you can never be too careful with pork the organs are cooked up over a fire while the rest is boiled in a household as the food is completed its brought out to the social hub of the village there are no individual plates as a community the food is shared and enjoyed wave after wave in the dim lighting I have scant idea what I'm eating a crusher is brought out full of spice to accompany the meat whatever it is it's a winner I've committed myself to eating everything offered a resolution which holds fast when this dish is brought out dina guan made of blood lung and intestines Wow it's really good your mind starts to go to like what isn't that right no just taste it good don't think about it enjoy it all in all a dining experience which was unusual occasionally uncomfortable but positively communal it seemed like a necessary experience to connect to the entire process look at that view nice Road been a great trip so far a lot of cultural experiences I got really up close and personal with my food with which I guess everybody should do at least once in their life but let's be honest even though I ate some tasty grub it's nothing that's gonna mark it well it will not capture the imagination of an international public however I'm headed now to the coastal town of vegan that has their own unique specialty and people say it'll knock your socks off let's see what they got to say for themselves arriving in the picturesque town of vegan I might have stumbled upon a major clue as to why the national cuisine struggles behind the history of Filipino civilization consists of small community-based bar guys that never consolidated into a Greek Republic or a Chinese dynasty before they could they got the Spanish Empire therefore here in the Philippines there's no Machu Picchu there's no Angoor what what you have are these colonial relics where the locals played a second banana roll now here's the question without a great king and his fickle tastes to please without a Cleopatra commissioning great feast for the arrival of Mark Anthony will great cuisine ever rise to the top will a cook ever be inspired to create something fantastic contrast this with neighbors who hold popular cuisine Japan powerful island nation never colonized Thailand which was never conquered or occupied and scrappy Vietnam which successfully evicted China France and America in the embrace of colonial ghosts I continued my search to vegans main plaza where preparations are being made for a lunch rush on their trademark dish empanadas I stroll up to one of many mom-and-pop booths and get an invitation to join so you roll out the rice flour just rice flour okay you put on the cabbage which is soaked now in egg white and then some long Beneatha or the white into the cabbage patch and then the yolk Wow and right into the oil two minutes that's it the empanada comes out of the oil it's like a sizzling pocket of goodness oh my god at first blush it looks like something that would be too heavy too greasy but it's actually just fits the bill for a perfect breakfast kind of food got a little bit of that egg taste got some crunch in your mouth from the cabbage and a rich flavor from that cologne Ganesa wow this really is a fantastic easy to make and portable breakfast food I could see it being a big hit there's only one problem Latin America already sort of owns claim to the empanada wrestling that identity away and bringing it here to the Philippines tough sell nevertheless the taste of that empanada is something to write home about made especially yummy by the inclusion of the region's famous spiced longanisa that included longanisa by the way is also a region specialty and homegirl tells me exactly where she got it I am on the case on the outskirts of town I finally found it here it is the sausage factory with a little cajoling and pleading I worked my way into the mix and this is intestine here that's how you fill it up but I don't exactly know what I'm doing here keep going keep going a little zip tie every place in the Philippines does their long Ganesa a different style you're vegan they're known to have a lot of garlic in the mix that's their specialty that's their trademark never thought I'd be doing this one day now that I've handled them I must consume I find a nearby restaurant that cooks up vegan special longanisa and I sit down to dine here's that thing that I stuffed now that's good I'm a real fan of garlic so the vegan style with a lot of garlic and the sausage really makes it pop and the fish sauce seems a little odd to put fish sauce on a sausage but the combo works it may not look like much but this little nugget packs some garlicky meaty goodness and here we have another vegan specialty BACnet double fried pork a long time ago when they didn't have refrigeration they would fry the pork that they weren't consuming to preserve it would last up to ten days when they were ready to eat it they fry it again then they got used to that crispy taste [Music] I'm back definitely double private it's my final meal in vegan and the assessment the worst something is for you the better it should taste which is why this bag Nets not gonna cut it for me may taste alright but double fried it's got to taste fantastic if I'm gonna pay that price down the road the longan Issa however with the garlic twist awesome the problem here when you think sausage you think Germany Poland you don't really think the Philippines again to overturn that opinion is gonna be a tough sell maybe searching for something uniquely Filipino in a colonial town was a little bit misguided but down the road I am sure to find something the country calls its very own right inside the skeleton of American military might on the way down I can't resist a pit stop at two towers famous in local lore legend has it that right here anyone who stands underneath these bells will get married in a year yeah we'll see about that and just down the road Pisa has the tourists but this Leaning Tower is pure road less traveled I was told that here by the coast I could find the road less traveled leaning tower doesn't quite have the janessa quoi of the one in Italy but it's got something these are the remains of the last great power to occupy the Philippines and like the empires that came before him Uncle Sam also heavily influenced the country's cuisine a short hop from the old base is the original a ling loosing restaurant famous for just one dish [ __ ] oh yeah whoo hot-diggity-dog there's nothing that excites me like a plate of sizzling food coming my way and I love the story of sissing because it fits into that theme of the Filipinos making do with the cuts of meat bits of food that they're occupying powers to didn't want the Americans at Clark Air Force Base would throw out parts of the pig they didn't use in their own cooking it was unpalatable to the service members there including the pig's head and one enterprising local woman a ling loosing would pull the pig heads out of the trash cut off their cheeks and their ears and created this special dish sissie became such a hit it swept over the entire Philippines and I'm gonna sweep it into my mouth because I love me some [ __ ] holy cannoli that's good now you'll find some CICIG that has a fried egg on top personally I like that that's a recent modification but it kind of captures that sizzling skillet flavor that you could get at an American diner with a slight Filipino twist super fresh super hot the calamansi gives it a little bit of a zing the onions give a little crunch and the meat is just succulent sisig incidentally has become the staple food of karaoke bars throughout the country those American servicemen don't know what they were missing in fact they may have been throwing away the best cut of meat but it provides an interesting variety of texture at times buttery soft and at times chewy and meaty all of it I'm Sarah could CICIG be the big winner well maybe but if American servicemen and women didn't bring this food sensation back with them then it may have missed its best shot at international fame perhaps the culinary ladder is a little like Hollywood you need a big serving of luck to go along with your talent for some the big break never comes and for others well they are so far out of the spotlight you need to be some kind of Rambo guy to even find them nearby in the area of Subic there's a large dense jungle flowers are in bloom and the sea invites beyond hidden in the vegetation secretive abandoned American bunkers and military housing quickly being reclaimed by the forest [Music] last stop after a long road trip seen a lot of cool things but I'm not sure I've gotten quite that iconic super marketable food but perhaps here at the edge of the jungle I can find that Romancing the Stone jewel in the rainforest I'm here as a guest of jest or jungle environment survival training the ie two guides can teach you how to find water soap and food all sourced from the jungle so this is it to my city-slicker eyes this looks like something that just fell off a tree and landed here yeah you can prepare everything right here and this bamboo oh that is for fire-making don't die one you can start a fire in the middle of the jungle yeah no matches no no really only the dried bamboo the rice is poured into the bamboo and with the aid of a serious knife we begin yeah that looks like perfect kindling yeah it's an arduous process but not as difficult as I imagined I feel more manly than Bear Grylls this is serious caveman yeah yeah with our precious little fire all grown up we begin to get down to the cooking are you kidding we can straight cook like that yeah that bamboo things not gonna burn up no sir no no this is green and we have water inside that's why what an amazing environment is huge lush trees the bush the birds chirping the history with the Vietnam War preparation survival training right in the thick of it cooking something up using all natural ingredients and an all-natural process it's a simple soup recipe called sinigang here we have wild chicken caught in a trap but you can also use freshwater shrimp from the streams in the jungle okra beans tomatoes red onions and bamboo shoots and is topped up with some water your eye top yes sir can you tell me a little bit about the eye top people hunters hunters yeah so your ancestors for hundreds maybe thousands of years hunted in the jungle yeah yeah so the bow whoa cool we're putting it in the mix yeah what does this add to the soup sour sour yeah gives it a little tang and in a jiffy our concoction seems done hey hop you lose your eyebrows [Music] so I have my organic pot plate cup spoon and fork and my stew is beginning to boil how nifty is that that smells fantastic yeah whoa look at that but the proof is in the pudding this looks unbelievably good mmm and healthy yeah [Music] Wow piping hot and fresh thus our leaves are mushy like cook spinach the other stuff is crunchy the rice is perfectly cooked I think we have our winner certainly somewhere else in the world somebody must cook or eat out of bamboo but nobody's really known for it this could be the iconic Filipino food why not eat out of bamboo paper plate you cut down the tree that trees never growing back the bamboo is gonna be encouraged to grow more you're doing a good thing you're eating healthy if you can get the Whole Foods Market the Trader Joe's market you've got the spearhead and it could spread everywhere I think that crowd would jump up and down for this I've got my cup fork plate and special ingredient by will cook all-natural works great in the jungle but the rub is will it work in an urban environment I'm gonna take this to one of Manila's top chefs and we'll find out this is the discovery premier Manila's newest and arguably tallest five-star hotel the rooms are tippity top notch the ambience luxurious and the views spectacular but I'm not here just to relax I'm here to meet their renowned chef and get his professional opinion of my jungle delicacy chef Luis hi I am Jonathan I called ahead hey nice to finally meet yet to meet you so as you probably know I did this tour of blue zone yeah I found some of the best ingredients stuff I thought might be a hit internationally okay I'd like to make a chicken soup kind of thing showing them yeah here's what I got yeah lebu yo booyah Kalinga really nice oh yeah I love working with this right on I got this bowel talk okay brick oh yeah the sleeves gives you a little bit of tangy taste when you use it a little bit of sourness in the dish exactly yeah and here's the kicker okay I need to make it all and serve it all in the bamboo that problem ah I've seen people use this honestly I've never done this before well let's see what we can do okay yeah feeling good about it oh yeah let me think about it I hope this works to be honest I don't have a backup I hope it works too you see that chefs face when I dropped the bamboo on the counter I was like I threw a real curve ball at him and if he can't hit it I might be a little foo barred here cuz I'm leaving Manila tomorrow and I really didn't get a backup dish I just thought this guy is the winner run with this figured everybody in the world would be as enthused as I was but he's a top gun here he's known as one of the best young chefs in Manila so he's got to come through while I wait in the room chef Luis puts it all together he follows the same recipe that I learned in the jungle but embellishes it with the laboux yo peppers some fish sauce and cooks the whole thing in a classic handmade pizza oven this is it the big moment of truth safe to say I'm nervous I went all this way around the Philippines to find a dish that could make it on the international level and it all comes down to the next five minutes yes or no [Music] hey Jonathan this dish I prepared basically we cook the ten Allah in the bamboo that you requested it has chicken a nice broth the chilies the leaves that you sent over right and the coriander and artisanal fish sauce artisanal fish yeah how do you feel about it I feel pretty good about it the question is how would you feel about it it looks good let's see yeah go ahead taste all right I'm gonna dig in with eager anticipation I dig into chef Lewis's urban spin on the forest food [Music] yeah yeah all right tastes great it looks great and it's bringing organic dining to the next level yeah yeah all right do you think this has got legs internationally you think this could be a big hit definitely definitely I think so too and you feel good about yourself for eating exactly my thoughts exactly if you don't mind I'm gonna sit down right now and eat this whole thing please do I'd be happy if you do Hot Diggity Dog you made my trip ha ha ha ha enjoy it's been a picturesque journey of stunning sights historic reminders and a whole heap of grub [Music] the Philippines certainly is a vacationers paradise but how about the food I mean really well it may have been held down by centuries of empire rule it may have evolved with unconventional cuts of meat and the presentation could be a little rough around the edges but my friend the times they are a-changin I can see how a traveler to come away with a negative impression of Filipino cuisine the mediocre stuff is ubiquitous yet the country has some fantastic dishes fresh ingredients and one-of-a-kind cooking methods the challenge for a new generation of Filipino chefs is to consolidate the best ideas adjust them to global tastes and market aggressively now it'll be a minute before they rival their Thai Japanese and Chinese counterparts but they seem poised to finally close that gap you

Channel: sashidemedia

Views: 1,867,111

Rating: 4.7405772 out of 5

Keywords: Filipino food, Filipino cuisine, lechon, manila, philippines, travel philippines, philippines travel, Jonathan Legg, balut, eating balut, luzon island, makati, filipino street food, pinoy

Id: CKOvlIcRMAo

Length: 52min 38sec (3158 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2020