@Agnesstramp Hey Agness, I just saw your article on the Filipino Street Food thing. I would usually laugh at how my fellow countrymen get defensive over something true. However this time I can't help but notice you also had faults in which you approached the endeavor. I couldn't comment on the article itself so I just wanted to tweet this directly. You've probably already read what I'm going to say in some form or iteration already but if you could bear with me please.

For breakfast, you asked for a traditional Filipino breakfast and looking at the fruits and bread handed to you it seemed whoever you asked were simply trying to accommodate you and you got stereotyped into a white person asking for breakfast food. Bread with jam? Fruits? All that was lacking was either cereals or toast lol. As far as traditional things go, a lot of it involves rice. Granted the food choices are regional but most if not all of the time it will involve a full dish with rice. I wonder who you asked to give you a traditional Filipino breakfast? Because whoever gave you these, it was highly unlikely s/he didn't even try to get you anything local sorry to say.

You said you tried a lot of local stalls/restaurants but from the pictures it seemed like you went to the places where the food they serve were stomach fillers. You had a budget of $25 a day but here in the PH we have a minimum wage of $7 per day. What a lot of these people eat weren't the good ones but enough for them to fill their stomachs so they can grind again the next day. Cheap but rarely the good kind of food. It's like you went to a vegan restaurant and asked for meat and got disappointed when they gave you those vegetarian meat. Simply put you were definitely going to the wrong places.

And that longganisa bit where they gave you hotdogs. I found it funny yet a bit naive on your part. It gave an impression that it was the first time you traveled outside of your country and opted to go to a convenience store and ask for something local. I honestly wasn't sure if that was serious or an attempt to make your travel story humorous. Regardless I still found it funny.

Finding good food is a specific journey and not just go out there blindly and order it and declare this it the flavor of this country. If I went to your country and find the first convenience store and ask for something local, are you confident that it will represent the flavor you want a friend to experience?

"The biggest disappointment was not trying traditional Filipino dishes. Why? We simply could not find them!" And that's where I find your fault in this endeavor lies. See like so many have probably stated before, (I couldn't be bothered to read all 600+ of the comments sorry) a lot of the top CNN food is actually regional. You'd have to be in the capital or the city or the malls to actually have them easily accessible for you. So what you got to eat was really in a way food locals eat. Locals on each of the different areas you asked different things from. Not just any locals to be frank, you ate what the much lower half of the financial spectrum eats. Welcome to a 3rd world country :P There's no homogenous "breakfast/lunch/dinner" food the country eats. We have shared influences but we also have our specific area/island food culture.

Many have volunteered to guide you in the future. Pick from the litter! Haha. As with any cuisine and any country it's always best to ask a local, and not just any local you pick off the street, but a local who knows what they're talking about for suggestions regarding this. Even us who live here has to ask other locals we can trust for suggestions regarding their cuisine and restaurants that will do justice to their recommendations.

As for the food being oily and fried, be disappointed. A lot of our "shared influences" food is actually like that. Ahaha. Oh food suggestions for the future too. Sisig, Bopis, Dinuguan, Bagnet, Sinigang, Pochero. Like I reiterated ask a local where to get this, not every place will have it. Urban cities make finding them easier.

To hopefully better travels in other countries, to hopefully a better experience if you ever choose to visit us again.

Stay safe!
-M

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