- Caution, this video contains graphic food content
from the Northern Philippines.
And no doubt, it will offend some viewers.
If you're prepared for that, let's continue.
Okay, day two in Segada.
I met an awesome guy yesterday
who ended up being my guide, his name is Chris.
When I first met him he brought me to his house to talk
about how we could see the hanging coffins
and the mummies in the coming days.
(soft eerie flute music)
I asked him if there was any chance we
could try some local delicacies.
Then he said, man, come over Sunday
because it's my four year old's birthday,
and we'll be having all of those things
because it's very traditional and typical to have them
at a celebration and here I am.
I have to stay before we get started, warning, warning,
warning, caution, caution, caution there will be things here
today that will make me very uncomfortable.
Remember that especially on this channel, Fearless and Far,
we try to find things that challenge us to understand
the world a little bit better and how they prepare these
dishes and how some of them look is quite shocking.
That's a lot of maggots in there man.
I'm not saying I'm okay with all of it.
I'm just here to take part in something that's very special
for this local Sagadan family.
It's my honor to be here as a guest, I am lucky to be
invited to even see this stuff,
even luckier to have a camera.
And, yeah.
So, with that disclaimer out of the way,
let's enjoy the party.
(upbeat tribal music)
Thanks for inviting me today, I appreciate it.
- No worries.
- I'm happy I get to see some of the traditional
way of cooking and also be at your sons birthday party.
- Welcome to Sagada.
- Alright, let's do a little cribs of Chris's house.
We have some chickens, a couple dogs, some rock and roll
playing on the speaker.
Cow skulls they are using as planters for orchids.
(rock and roll music)
A lot of these bowls here, Chris was saying used to be his
bathtub when he was a kid.
This is our etag here.
So the etag was given to us by the village elder yesterday.
When we went to go ask for permission to visit his ancestors
in the cliffs.
Every village elder, if they're given that title is required
well, not required to but expected to
to smoke meat,
the smoking process here isn't exactly as clean as...
Hey Amir, birthday boy, hold on, hold on.
(soft childish music)
- [Amir] Uncle is big.
- [Amir's Mother] Yeah, uncle is big.
What are you going to show your uncle?
- [Mike] Alright, where are we going Amir?
Inside to play?
- Yes.
- [Mike] How about this trick, you know this one?
- [Amir] Jumping on the bed.
- This is your name here, see this?
Amir, see that, it's your birthday party.
(Mike laughing)
Oh, no, oh, no.
I don't think, I don't think it's going to fit.
(the balloon pops loudly)
Oh!
I meet the host back outside and we begin
to prepare the typical dishes of the area.
This is why, we have the disclaimer.
(chicken clucking)
So, can you explain a little bit how it works?
So you have a chicken?
- Yeah.
- [Mike] And you hit it's wings?
- Yeah, because the wings and the neck has a little bit of
flesh on it, that's why we hit it.
So that the blood goes in to it, and it will clot there.
And, uh.
that's it.
(speaking foreign language)
They say that it's brutal, but I don't think.
- [Mike] No?
- Yeah, because we only hit them slowly,
- [Mike] You hit them slowly?
- Yeah, to kill them as well by hitting
but yeah we inherited it from our grandparents.
- [Mike] So, it's been happening for a long time.
- Yeah.
(quick, dull, wet smacking)
(chicken squawking)
- [Mike] And that's it.
- That's it yeah, you can see the blood that goes in it.
- I'm shocked but I'm filled with questions.
Pinikpikan is very traditional to this part
of the Philippines right, only in Sagada.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And how did it, the process is it used as a ritual?
- Yeah, before it was used as a ritual, even now also.
It depends how you use it in a ritual, yeah.
- But you would make pinikpikan only for special,
so today is your sons birthday so it's a special dish
for his birthday, like an honor?
- Yeah, and pinikpikan is a dish that it will not
be removed in Sagada, there is something going on that
will do the pinikpikan.
- So, it's a very important part of like a wedding or
a funeral as well, any big event you make pinikpikan?
- No, like funeral we don't make.
- So, it's more for celebration?
- Yeah, we make also pinikpikan but the other way around.
Like reverse.
- Uh, that was a little bit tough to watch.
This is how they start a party and I'm here for the party.
It's hard for me to judge anything I guess, just being a
guest here at the ritual here today.
I don't promote chicken preparation in this way but
I am grateful that the chicken gave his life to bless us
in the birthday ritual, as well as, I'm happy that I got to
be here and witness something in it's pure natural form.
I travel to see things that challenge me, I don't always
agree with everything that I see but I try to just stay
neutral in the middle and observe.
That's exactly what happened here today.
(soulful electronic keyboard music)
So, you cook everything, nothing goes to waste yeah?
The heart, the liver.
Hold on, so this is the liver yeah?
It has the blue.
- Yeah.
- And you said if you cut it, you can read it,
like a fortune?
- Yeah, like a fortune.
Like, example you are going to a road.
You let an old man come to do pinikpikan at your place.
Invite him.
If you break the chicken like that, you give it to them and
they will check the bile, because sometimes the bile goes
out here, a sign of a good thing.
If it's coming out, this bile here is on the very outside
It's a good fortune.
Like if you go to abroad and you find work there.
You can easily find the work, because that bile is.
- Man, I didn't, I never thought you could read chicken bile
to know your fortune.
We should take that to the elder, he would know yeah?
What our fortune is?
(mystical soft techno music)
It's better when it's older?
- [Chris] The older the better.
- [Mike] The older the better.
This is etag, a pork dish smoked by village elders,
covered in mold and insects, it's used in
ceremonies in this region.
I think etag is going to be quite strange for the people who
watch my videos.
So, I know, when I post this people are going to think it's
crazy but what do you want to say to them?
The people who think that etag might look a little bit crazy
a little bit gross?
- You come and try.
- [Mike] Come and try?
- Yeah and we know where it came from, we are the ones who
butchered it and we are the one who prepared it and
it's like a ham or bacon, yeah.
Come and try the etag, yeah, that would be cool.
- [Mike] I like your point about how you know where it came
from it's all natural and what about the maggots?
- Maggots are fine, full of protein, it won't kill you
anyway, it will just make you smile a little bit.
(Mike laughing)
- [Mike] Now you wash all of the flies off, the maggots off.
- Yeah because sometimes, the people don't like the maggots
but we prepare that another way, it's
better if you don't wash.
- [Mike] It's better if you don't wash.
- Yeah.
- [Mike] So do you like it with the maggots?
- Yeah.
- [Mike] Yeah?
- That's some meat also.
- That's also meat?
What you see here is etag, the insect covered pork dish,
as well as, the pinikpikan, the chicken dish.
They're boiled in a pot together and typically eaten
together as well.
Well I asked Chris to find me an authentic spot,
that I could have some real segadan food that traditionally
is from that area and he has definitely, definitely,
definitely delivered.
(mystic, traditional flute and drum music)
It's crush chilies, crush chilies and vinegar.
No, not even, it's crush chilies and orange juice
Is it spicy?
- You will try.
- Oh, man.
So spicy!
Look, look at this, I'm crying.
Oh my God, it's so spicy, look it, look.
I'm crying, I'm crying, oh, my God, it's so spicy.
They've got pinikpikan and etag boiling in the pot.
We've got some fish beside the grill.
We've got skin and kidney, frying on the banana leaf,
on the grill and here what we're doing is we're taking it
off, slicing it in very thin strips and it's going in here
with ginger, with some vinegar.
You take it, you dunk it in the lime juice and chili
and you take a bite.
Really spicy, a little bit chewy, but the taste combination
of ginger, the fat from the skin, and the vinegar is a
really, really good combination.
I'm not sure how many courses this meal is tonight, but
we've cooked like six, seven, eight different things.
We've got fish, we've got etag, we've got pinikpikan.
We've got all kinds of stuff, and now up next is Dinuguan.
So, what, tell me what's in the pot right now.
- Uh, hot and crisp it and afterwards we put the blood.
We call it a chocolate meat.
- A chocolate meat?
- So a chocolate meat because when you cook the blood it
turns almost a chocolate color, so it's the crispy,
intestines mixed with the blood and you call it
the chocolate meat.
- The chocolate meat, which is, dinudari, some say they
call it Dinuguan.
- Dinuguan.
I'm excited.
(laughing)
The chocolate goes in.
Excited and apprehensive, if you couldn't tell.
That's a lot of blood.
Okay, it is now, what time is it, six, seven p.m.?
Awesome man, there are some things in here
I've never tried before
and I'm excited to join Chris and his friends
and family to this beautiful feast.
It's like six courses, there is all kinds of food here.
Some of it is, brand-new, let's go.
This is Adobo, a simmered soy, garlic and pepper dish.
And one of the most famous in the Philippines.
This is the Pinikpikan and the Etag, boiled together.
The chocolate meat, the Dinuguan, with blood and intestines
is what you're looking at here.
Looking at this plate I could tell I was far, far from home,
and it made me happy.
Okay, on my fork I have one cooked piece of etag
and I can tell already,
by the smell that it's going to taste much different,
so the piece I had before they had sliced off the part
with the insects.
If you missed us visiting the village elder,
and getting the etag, I've linked the video at the end.
There is a very, very unique smell.
That I have never smelled before.
I am going to take a bite and let you know what it's like.
The smokiness is completely gone, it doesn't taste anything
at all like I had before, and there is this really heavy
taste to it, if you've ever had organs before, like
intestines or stomach, that's a bit of a heavy taste but
this is different, this is almost like a sweet.
It's milk,
expired milk, that's exactly what this tastes like.
There is, the pork texture, there is no pork taste, there is
no smokey taste, it tastes like a milk.
Which is extremely weird to say but that's it.
It took me a while to beat around the bush to find it but
that's exactly what it tastes like.
Chris, it's like a milky taste yeah?
The etag it's like a milky taste right?
- Yeah, yeah, milky taste.
- Why, why is it milky?
- Because the maggot, thing.
- Because of the maggots?
The maggots make it a milky taste?
- Yeah.
- This tastes nothing like the one I had before.
The raw, the raw tastes like smoke ham. This doesn't taste
like smoke ham.
- It's a little bit sweet yeah?
- Yeah, it's a little bit sweet.
Like milk, it's so strange man.
Honestly though, my favorite of the night,
has been the Dinuguan, which is the chocolate meat
they called it.
Which is the blood cooked in with fried intestines with
all kinds of different spices.
It doesn't look good, but it is really tasty.
The intestines are crispy and a little bit chewy,
little bit crunchy.
The blood is really smooth, a little bit pasty
almost like a thick curry, but really despite what it is.
Which are two things I would never normally eat together,
with whatever spice they put in there it is the all-star of
the meal tonight.
This is delicious, Dinuguan, blood, intestines together
chocolate meat, I could eat a lot of this stuff.
Don't judge me.
Team, I had to get away from the party for a second.
The cooked etag was so incredibly different
than the raw etag.
I would eat the raw etag, a kilo of it before, I would touch
the cooked etag again.
When you cook it, all of the fat that had the maggots
and the flies and the beetles living in it,
mixes all together.
That taste of the insects, living in it,
sticks with the meat.
It gives it this very heavy milk taste.
I think it's important to be as respectful as possible
in situations like this.
He spent all day cooking that etag for his son's birthday.
It's a huge party here.
Everyone was very excited that it was etag.
Traditional etag, with the maggots, with the larva in there.
But for me, I don't need to have it again.
I have never tasted anything like that in my entire life.
I'm happy I'm here, I'm happy I got the invitation.
And I'm happy that I'm having a real travel experience.
Yes, Chris my man, thank you so much for
the invitation tonight.
These are the moments, for myself, I'm going to get a little
bit deep for a second.
That I love, the most about travel.
Hanging out with someone who is from here, with their
family, with their friends, drinking local drink.
Maybe a little bit too much, but having a good time
eating food and feeling like I'm a part of the community.
Man, thank you so much, it's really hard to find things
like that, you know?
- No worries about that, what can I say
is just welcome to Segada.
- Aww, cheers man.
- Like always, the motto, the motto for my channel is
experiences over possessions.
(speaking foreign language)
Peace guys thanks for watching.
Greetings, from the airport in Cagayan de Oro,
Mindanao, Philippines.
I want to thank you for watching this particularly powerful
video here on Fearless and Far.
On the channel, I don't feel like I'm growing unless I'm
doing things that make uncomfortable and believe me
you saw this video made me quite uncomfortable.
If you missed the last video you can check it out in the
bottom corner, if you haven't subscribed yet,
I'd love if you can do that.
I have another platform where I share some stories from the
road that are a little bit too intense
for my YouTube channel if you can believe that.
You can check it out on my Patreon community in the top.
Experience over possessions, I'll catch you guys
on the next one and like always, thanks for watching.