Do You Really Know What Going Native Means?

[Tukaram (Tim)]

As a long time Hindu I know that the left hand cleans the body - the right hand feeds it.  But I have not noticed that here at all.  Everyone I see uses both hands to eat, and has no issue using the right hand to scoop out more rice.  I still use a rice scoop... but half the family uses their hands.  So I don't get second helpings - if I went native I guess I would get 2nd's after them.

 

Funny thing is that at Langford's Place (a restaurant near SM city) serves Filipino a fork & spoon and foreigners a fork & knife.  They know! 

 

The real beauty of a nipa hut is air flow.  After she cooks dried fish the smell is gone within a couple minutes ha ha   :tiphat:

[Daydreamer]

I read a lot here on the forum, especially in the "how much money can you live on" topics, about "going native", "living like a local", "simple life" and "cheap living".  There are more that I am not thinking of but you get the idea. 

 

My recent trip to the province got me thinking.  You know when they eat a chicken here they EAT the WHOLE chicken, everything but feathers.  How many reading this realize that?  For sure the folks that have not visited cannot grasp that one.  Or can you?  If you visit here in Cebu City the food vendors on the street have feet, heads, intestine and chicken blood on their little grills. 

 

I never really paid much attention to them because I got the meat that I am used to for me the few times we got food from them.  Most of the time our shopping is done in the supermarket and I don't notice those things there.  In the province though the chicken and the WHOLE chicken was for dinner.  One chicken fed 10 people.  We killed it; we ate it. 

 

Guess what?  They LIKE those parts I mention.  Internal organs of a pig also.  I never ate that stuff before but I am expanding my tastes currently.  I'll let you know if I get up to eating the feet and heads.  The intestine and 'chicken blood' are good.  The liver of the pig you can keep but I'll eat it if I am hungry.  For those that do not know, chicken blood is formed into cubes and put on bbq sticks to grill.  I have not asked how they get it to a solid form.

 

AND I also notice that when a roasted pig is put on the table the skin and back fat are prime targets for good eating right along with the meat.  I eat a little of the skin if it is well done and crunchy.  Just a little of the fat does me though.  I like to go a little deeper and get pure meat. :thumbsup:

I hear you there, I myself don't see no way of eating chicken intestines let alone pig intestines (chittlin's for you southern folk YUCk), I try to find a polite way of turning down the other stuff, but its hard to do that because then you'll be putting on airs that you're better than they are. I'm kind of lucky in that regard (although I don't think I've been slipped any blut yet  )but what I really most want to try is Buko, I hear its really good and potent :thumbsup: :dance: :cheersty:

[Daydreamer]

But to really go native you have to try to maintain an appetite after smelling the dried squid cooking.

Smelling dried squid cooking ain't so bad, I can keep my appetite through that. But its the chittlins (pork guts or intestines) where I lose my lunch, right next to the blut and chicken feet

[Thomas]

I hear you there, I myself don't see no way of eating chicken intestines let alone pig intestines (chittlin's for you southern folk YUCk), I try to find a polite way of turning down the other stuff, but its hard to do that because then you'll be putting on airs that you're better than they are. I'm kind of lucky in that regard (although I don't think I've been slipped any blut yet )but what I really most want to try is Buko, I hear its really good and potent

Smelling dried squid cooking ain't so bad, I can keep my appetite through that. But its the chittlins (pork guts or intestines) where I lose my lunch, right next to the blut and chicken feet

It's solved if you become vegetarian as I   - or say you are  :)

[JJReyes]

Funny thing is that at Langford's Place (a restaurant near SM city) serves Filipino a fork & spoon and foreigners a fork & knife.  They know! 

 

If you think about it, without the prejudice of your upbringing, eating with a spoon & fork makes more sense than a knife and fork. Chinese are astonished that Westerns cut their meat and poultry at the table. That's suppose to be done in the kitchen. The food is served bite size so you can pick it up with chopsticks. 

 

Speaking of chopsticks, we were required as children to practice picking up oily peanuts with chopsticks to gain proficiency and to alleviate hunger. You don't eat peanuts unless you could pick it up with chopsticks.

 

The Japanese etiquette when using chopsticks is to turn it around when adding food to your plate from a common dish. You are not suppose to use the ends that touched your mouth. A big taboo is passing food chopsticks to chopsticks. That practice is reserved for funerals when a piece of bone is picked up from the ash urn and then passed chopsticks to chopsticks in remembrance of the deceased. 

 

During formal Chinese banquets at baptisms and weddings, the person to your left is responsible for placing food on your plate. Your responsibility is to place food on the plate of the person on the right. Many persons to my right have stood up hungry after the banquet. It suppose to symbolize family or clan unity and that we are responsible to take care of each other. Foreigners don't know about this rule. The Chinese have a pragmatic approach. They sit all the foreigners at the same table and, gasps!, give them knives & forks in addition to the chopsticks.

Edited July 3, 2013 by JJReyes

[GregZ]

Do you know what they put in the common western sausages?   :lol:

Yes, I never ate a lot of sausage in the USA.  Can't tell WHAT they put in there.  I'm more comfortable trying the chicken heads I think.  I know exactly what is in there. :hystery:

 

I hear you there, I myself don't see no way of eating chicken intestines let alone pig intestines (chittlin's for you southern folk YUCk), I try to find a polite way of turning down the other stuff, but its hard to do that because then you'll be putting on airs that you're better than they are. I'm kind of lucky in that regard (although I don't think I've been slipped any blut yet )but what I really most want to try is Buko, I hear its really good and potent :thumbsup: :dance: :cheersty:

  :thumbsup:

Well done, the chicken intestine is pretty good to me.  Don't care much for the blood, YET.  I had chitlins in the USA; loved them.  Here in the Philippines they seemed to need a little spice.  I usually try the things that are presented and the family here goes out of the way to make sure there is a piece of real meat around for me even though I DON'T CARE if I get meat.  I am all about the fruits and veggies as a priority.  :thumbsup:  I'll eat veggie guts all day long. :540:  Buko? Referring to the coconut wine?  If so, yes pretty strong and natural.  I thought it was made from the stuff inside the coconut until after I tried it and wanted to know more.  It comes from the flower nectar.  VERY interesting.

[Daydreamer]

 

I hear you there, I myself don't see no way of eating chicken intestines let alone pig intestines (chittlin's for you southern folk YUCk), I try to find a polite way of turning down the other stuff, but its hard to do that because then you'll be putting on airs that you're better than they are. I'm kind of lucky in that regard (although I don't think I've been slipped any blut yet )but what I really most want to try is Buko, I hear its really good and potent

 

Smelling dried squid cooking ain't so bad, I can keep my appetite through that. But its the chittlins (pork guts or intestines) where I lose my lunch, right next to the blut and chicken feet

It's solved if you become vegetarian as I   - or say you are   :)

 

But how do you back track when they bring out the fried chicken or even fish, then you are caught between a rock and a hard place :hystery:

[Daydreamer]

Yes, I never ate a lot of sausage in the USA. Can't tell WHAT they put in there. I'm more comfortable trying the chicken heads I think. I know exactly what is in there. :hystery:

 

I have and I used to work in a sausage factory and believe me you DON'T want to know what's in there   

[Tukaram (Tim)]

 

Funny thing is that at Langford's Place (a restaurant near SM city) serves Filipino a fork & spoon and foreigners a fork & knife.  They know! 

 

If you think about it, without the prejudice of your upbringing, eating with a spoon & fork makes more sense than a knife and fork. Chinese are astonished that Westerns cut their meat and poultry at the table. That's suppose to be done in the kitchen. The food is served bite size so you can pick it up with chopsticks.......

 

Well my girlfriend says they cut the food into bite size pieces while cooking.  But I have to cut everything into 2 or 3 pieces... they must take giant bites here ha ha.

[Dave Hounddriver]

And then there is mystery meat.  If you are going native then any meat is game.  A big snake or a big lizard is a local feast.  But often the locals are proud of their catch when they prey on a snake or lizard so they will tell you what you are eating.  Its the family pet that is most likely to be labeled 'mystery meat'.