The Care & Feeding of: The Exotic Foreigner

[AlwaysRt]

1 hour ago, manofthecoldland said:

My understanding is that it applies to your Significant Other. The US Census used to call it POSLQ (Persons of the Opposite Sex.... living together/co-habiting/living as a couple in a long-term, commited relationship without state recognition.)

    So I write, "wife or SO' since I know many fine people who live happily together w/o registration.

I have always used it as a catch-all for those in a relationship, both married and not, regardless of living arrangement. After all, whether girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, husband, they are all "significant". 

[Tukaram (Tim)]

I have been told by my wife that the other wives all say she is lucky I am so easy to feed.  It seems some of the guys are a bit particular in what they eat. I am easy - no seafood, no organ meats (except the occasional liver wurst.  Breakfast is usually eggs, she mixes it up ... sometimes fried, sometimes scrambled (sometimes I make up some breakfast sausage she can cook, and freeze it).  Lunch can be as simple as rice & pancit, maybe a piece of grilled chicken breast or a pork steak.  Quite often dinner is more of lunch ha ha.  Sometimes she will make adobo, my favorite is the pork, mong, squash dish.

 

As long as i have Coke and the occasional chocolate, I am good          

 

She mostly eats separately. Dried fish or canned fish is her usual.  She will go next door to her uncle's house and eat dinner with them, most of the time. They have a dirty kitchen - we do not.

[frosty (chris)]

I must be lucky, my girl has changed her eating habits from local to western, she has learned to cook and all of it is good, makes great chips, better eggs any which way, chicken with broccoli sauce and so many other good dishes, I help out with spag bol, made the italian way, beef stroganoff with fresh cream, some Carbonaro and for a quick snack bacon and egg or bacon tomato and lettuce sandwich.

Do miss a bloody good steak though, hard to find in the PI.

Edited March 8, 2016 by frosty (chris)
add

[Sander Martin]

I get called maarte alot by my fiance haha. I dont like seafood. Non of it, even seaweed makes me throw up around sushi. Most Filipinos dont understand how is that possible. My family eats quite alot of fish and i dont mind them aslong as i get my seperate meal haha.

The family knows of my maarte diet and mostly cook a mix Filipino/Western food. They dont use as much sugar as they did before and they actually agree that food tasts better if its not overly sweet (or they just tell me they think that haha).

Im a pork and chicken man and luckily theres plenty of it here. Just annoyes when we go out to eat, order meat in a saice (like sweet and sour) and the dish comes with bones still in the meat. Oh well cant do anything about it. The SO knows already to remove the bones. I try to pick the leaner pork meals... Filipinos love their pig fat.

love vegetables and been cooking quite meny soups and stews for the family. They say they like them and they eat what i cook, but not sure if they are just being nice.

What i miss the most is dairy. Back home id eat a couple kg of cheese a month. A liter of milk or kefir every other day. Sour cream is my favorit sauce for any food and a salad isnt right without some cottege cheese. Pitty its so expensive here. Luckly i found some cut from big chuck into smaller 300gr pieces of Mozarella for 300php per kg at on the smaller supermarkets. Its not stocked often tho so everytime i see some in stock = i buy a kilo or so (i have my family check if its in stock everytime they go to that shop). 

 

Edited March 8, 2016 by Sander Martin

[Old55]

Living here in the States we eat Filipino food a couple of times a week and enjoy it. My wife's Filipina friends are surprised that I love most Filipino food. 

When we visit our family in Cebu we eat 90% Filipino food. My mother in law is a wonderful cook and seems to cater to me.

Do any of you guys like danggit  or the pink shrimp paste? A member here stated he likes danggit  as a beer snack. I will admit I haven't the balls to try the stuff myself.

 

Thanks Steve! 

Edited March 8, 2016 by Old55

[Hey Steve]

I don't know if you mean "danggit", Old - my wife buys that and similar other whole dried fish-(that looks at you) at the FilAm market (store) here in KC. She will reach into their freezers, push aside the salmon and mahi-mahi to reach under to get that much coveted danggit. I just tell her dang it!  Same with the spaghetti sauce-she pushes aside the Barilla brand sauce to get that sweet stuff in those sachets-pushes aside the rice-a-roni for her 4.5 kilo bag of plain white rice, on and on. It's ok though-I circle back for what I like when she's done with her items.

[Queenie O.]

I'm curious--do many of you men cook for yourselves or for you and your partner? At our house it's probably 60/40 with me cooking my dishes and baking all of desserts, not counting local Filipino snacks that we pick up locally. We also eat a lot of eggs and many tropical fruits every day.

In Cebu we're lucky to get really varied seafood, so my husband will cook fish for us in some form about 3 times a week or some local stir fried vegetables or soup.

A lot of our monthly budget goes towards imported American and international staples and ingredients, supplemented by many local ingredients that are equally good. Food and cooking and eating varied dishes is something that we both enjoy. Sometimes my husband looks concerned when I'm filling the grocery cart, but he always seems to forget about it once we sit down to eat:)

I'm with you guys about the beef here being tough--I think that the cows here get too much exercise:) Monterey ground beef though,is pretty good for spaghetti sauce and meatballs, chili, American chop suey and meatloaf. Purefoods Fiesta ham can be baked and divided to freeze for breakfasts here and there as it's pretty close to US ham.

Pork isn't really the flavor that we remember either, so we really only eat it with extended family dinners. Magnolia chickens free-range and regular in many recipes are mostly what we eat.

[Old55]

Queenie, you said it, SEAFOOD! If an Expat likes fresh seafood then your gonna be a happy camper.

 

[mogo51]

19 hours ago, chris49 said:

On the vegetables it's availability. And price.....so it's a natural to me. There is lettuce in the market coming down from Benguet, Baguio. She doesn't have to ask me, at 20 pesos a head she will automatically buy.

I eat Filipino food. But I taught Gina how to make certain foods, and not to Filipino-ise them. Like spaghetti, I prefer Italian pasta with a traditional pesto or bolognaise, chili con carne, a few things like that, which the family has come to like as well.

Gina will come to me in the AM and ask me what I want for lunch. I will tell her or just tell here to use her own judgment. Pork, chicken, fish, you can't go wrong.

With various vendoIs rs coming to the house there's a wide choice. She envisioned I might like beef, but no such luck with the local beef. Caribao on a rare occasion. Goat for special occasions.

Yesterday a 5 kg Dorado( 350 from the fisherman) cooked Visayan style in coconut milk in a big pot. Attracted the neighbors and kept everyone eating until later that night.

Is Dorado a sea fish or harvested freshwater?   Really struggle to eat harvested, the flesh tastes like mush here.

Other stuff I cook mainly western but some Thai also. My SO does a great Chicken Adobo, actually tonight it is on the menu - can't wait.

[AlwaysRt]

40 minutes ago, Queenie O. said:

I'm curious--do many of you men cook for yourselves or for you and your partner?

Oh yes, every day. Meal planning = hmmmm, where to go eat. Cooking = need to leave by 7:30 so I can have the meal on the table by 8:00