- My show takes me to a lot of
international grocery stores and if I have learned one thing, there is a lot of really
cool food out there that I have no idea about. So I thought, we've had
people share dishes with us, we've had people share how to
order delivery food with us. Why don't I have them
share how to shop with us? So today I'm in Woodside, Queens in a neighborhood that's
also known as Little Manila outside of Phil-Am grocer. And my friend Jeanelle is
gonna show us all how to shop with a little more knowledge down the aisles of a
Filipino grocery store. Let's go. - My name is Jeanelle Castro and I was born in Manila, Philippines. The Philippines is a huge
melting pot of cultures. We've got ingredients from the islands as well as outside influences from colonization and migration. I can spend hours in a
Filipino grocery store 'cause there's still a lot
of stuff that you can take in and I'm so excited to
walk you through one. - These noodles, they're huge. They have it fresh. I need these for an episode. So, check. - You'll see a lot of canned goods in a Filipino grocery store and that's a product of American troops coming into the Philippine
Islands during the wars. If I had to have you
try three canned items from a Filipino store, it would be a good brand of corned beef. My family's favorite brand
is Delimondo corned beef, Spam and sardines in tomato sauce. I could eat that all day. - Interestingly enough, they don't actually have a
Filipino brand corned beef here. They have an Australian one, a New Zealand one, a Brazilian one. But if you're looking for
a good corned beef recipe from Philippines, I make corn slog on the channel and it is
honestly absolutely delicious. And you could obviously use
any of these corned beefs. There are a lot of options for sardines with tomato sauce
all from the Philippines too. Like this one has chili in it. This one's just plain. There's a bunch of like
different oils down there. I know that tinned fish
is a trend right now, but canned fish is also worthy
of your time and effort. - I feel like people talk
about banana ketchup a lot, but I think the vinegars in a Filipino store are super underrated. - I have never seen so
many vinegars in my life. This is so interesting. I had no idea that like flavored vinegar like this was a thing
and I'm very into it. - You can get vinegars
that are made from coconut. - This is so cool looking. Only 3.79. - Sugar cane. - Super cool - [Jeanelle] Spiced with
chilies and so much more. They are way tastier than
white distilled vinegar. And if you add it to your dishes and let it stew a little bit,
it makes your dishes pop. - I think this one's
gonna come home with me. It's like, this is just cool how they're like really full of stuff. - Or you can just use it as a dip for something that's super fatty like fried pork or fried chicken. - Ooh. This one's like fancy. For dipping, dressing,
cooking, and much more. So much more than just vinegar. - Bagoong are varieties
of fermented fish, shrimp, or krill, and there's a
ton of different types. They are pretty pungent and
they can really stick up your refrigerator, but you
add a little bit to your dish and it gives it this
depth of like umami flavor that you can't get with a
lot of other ingredients. I get the one in a small jar, it's dark brown and it's
a sauteed shrimp paste. - Oh, I know this paste well. I actually had this with raw green mango and I did dip it and it's powerful. I'll say that. It's a powerful taste. Whoa, that shrimp paste is something else. It is very shrimpy. - I'd recommend cooking with bagoong first versus maybe dipping something in it. And if you want some Filipino
recipes, I can help with that. - This is one of the first
dishes I ever made on my channel. Oh my God. Nostalgia. - Mang tomas is kind of like that gem that a lot of Filipinos use, but I feel like isn't as talked about outside of the community. - [Host] I like his hat. - It's kind of like a cheat,
savory and sweet sauce. It's really good. - I have never even heard of this sauce. It's thinner than I expected. I guess I don't really
know what I expected, but if Jeanelle says
it's good, it's going in. - You can have it at room temperature or I like heating it up and then you can dip
fried pork, fried chicken, you can add it on your rice, and it just like makes it taste so good. So for noodles, we have a
bajillion types of noodles in Filipino cuisine. - Noodles, noodles noodles. - The most popular one
though is called bihon. - These are not the right noodles, but I use these to make
an instant noodle sandwich from Philippines using pan de sal bread, which they do have here which was so good. These instant noodles are the best. Boom. Bihon. These are the noodles
Jeanelle recommended. - Use that to make Filipino pancit, the most popular type of noodle dish that you'll probably hear about. - The brick, but they look really good. Going in. - If you're in the chips section... - Currently in the chips
section, what do I look for? - My three that I would
recommend people try would be clover chips,
sweet corn, and boy bawang. So sweet corn kind of looks
like little cheese ball puffs, but instead of cheese, they're
flavored with sweet corn. It's so good. - Puff sweet corn ones. I'm finding everything. - Boy bawang is kind of like corn nuts, but they're smaller and
they're easier to chew. I think they're crunchier and I also think they taste a lot better. - Boy. - There's a lot of flavors of boy bawang. They're all fantastic. But you can start with the garlic flavor. And clover chips are interesting because they're kind of soft, yet crunchy at the same time and they also have all
these other flavors. But you can start off
with a cheese flavor. So while you're there,
also look for this packet of dry seasoning called sinigang mix. - They have a lot of these spice blends, which I think is like one
of the best ways to cook out of a new culture 'cause then you don't have to invest in like tons of different spices. Like you can just buy the
one bag and boom you're in. But Jeanelle is recommending
a very specific one. - A sinigang mix is a really
fast way to make sinigang which is a sour soup from the Philippines. It's my favorite soup. It's so good. - Okay, this is the one
that Jeanelle recommended, the sinigang mix. Hot. This looks good though. I love tamarin flavor. So going in. - If you want any drinks the Philippines has some
delicious tropical juices like mango juice, calamansi
juice, or guava juice. Calamansi is a tiny citrus fruit and it's got some floral notes to it. It smells really good. - They have frozen packets
of calamansi juice here and it just says that you can add it to a glass of water or cook with it. And I actually need this for a recipe. So going in. - It's very refreshing and it's so good if you mix it in with some
cold water and some honey. We use this like you would lemon. We also squeeze this on top of maybe some dishes like pancit. Then for a nice quick Filipino breakfast you can grab some frozen
pre-marinated meats. - All of these are the marinated meats and they all look really good. - They're marinated a little
more on the sweeter side and you can just cook them on a pan with a little bit of water
until it caramelizes. - They have the frozen meats too and like here's the marinated
pork and marinated chicken. This is nice that it's pre-marinated. I like that. Should I get one? Yeah. Gonna get pork. - Then you can serve it with some steamed rice, an over easy egg, and then maybe some chopped up
tomatoes, mango, or cucumber. That is a delicious Filipino
breakfast called silong. - Okay, this is actually an
Indonesian instant coffee. It's literally one of my favorites, but I found a Filipino one. So I'm gonna take this one home to try because I'm a big instant coffee girly. - In a Filipino grocery
store, there's a whole array of ingredients that you
can use for a dessert called halo-halo. - Welcome to the jelly section. - Halo-halo is a sweet shaved ice dessert from the Philippines and you can add in sweet
beans, jellies, and fruits. So you'll probably find
those in this section. - Okay, so like I've made
halo-halo on my channel and I had to buy a million jars. There's an all-in one jar. The jellies, the beans, like that would've saved me a lot of money and like pantry space. This is great. So if you wanna try halo-halo, you can buy everything in one. Jeanelle didn't recommend this, but let me recommend one to you. I used this in one of my
very first toast episodes to make kaya toast out of Singapore. If you like sweet toast spreads, ha papa, get yourself a
jar of this coconut jam. It is life changing. It's so delicious. Ice cream. Oh, buko salad, I've made buko salad. I made buko salad as
a salad on the channel and it was like a sweet fruit salad. I feel like it has an ice cream
this would be really good. Avocado ice cream. I just had avocado ice cream in my avocado episode that I made kind of. I mean it wasn't ice cream
actually, but it was close. Also, that's probably bomb. - My favorite Filipino
sweets are not like candies or anything, they're called kakanin, which are Filipino rice-based desserts. You can usually find them
in the bakery section. Hopefully your local Filipino store has some pretty good ones. And if they do grab some kutsinta, which kind of look like
little brown patties made with tapioca flour. It's chewy. If you put some freshly grated
coconut and sugar on top. Oh my gosh, I ate that for
breakfast when I was a kid. And bibingka is a pretty
popular rice cake. It's typically served during the holidays, but you can get it year round. I like it 'cause it's a
little bit sweet and salty. The best ones have a slice
of salted egg on top. Those are the best. - They didn't have it pre-made here, but we have the box mix version of it, which seems pretty easy. Although one part of the instructions here does say to empty a one
gallon ice cream can and half filled with charcoal. I don't have charcoal
here in New York City. There is an oven instruction
though, still possible. This one's pretty interesting. It's going in the cart. - Those are my recommendations. There are so many more options. We barely scratched the surface, but I guess we gotta start somewhere. - I got a lot. This one's really a great experience. Thank you. Oh my God.
(host laughing) Okay. - Before we eat in the Philippines, we typically say, ah in nah. In a household of five kids, that's usually yelled out by our parents so that they can get us gathered around the dinner table together. So, Kain na! - Hey. - I think we should try
this one, this really good. - Oh my God, really? Wow. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Okay. Yeah, bye. Oh my gosh. Today was a total success. Check the description for
the entire shopping list that I was able to do and let me know what other grocery stores you'd like to learn more about. I'll see you all in my next episode.
