Hey guys, it's Mike Chen well
Finally here the philippines manila and i'm starving because I got it yesterday afternoon
And I haven't ate anything since because I wasn't my first bites of food in the Philippines to be traditional Filipino dishes
And I'll be honest with you guys. I really don't know much about Filipino food
I've maybe ate at one single Filipino restaurant in my whole life
But with over 7,000 islands of indigenous cooking influences from Malaysia, China and Spain
I think I'm gonna like what I find here anyway before I came here
I asked you guys to give me suggestions on where to go. What dishes to try so today
I'm going on a traditional Filipino food tour
My first stop is a restaurant called manam a lot of you guys told me to come here. I'm gonna go get myself some laing and crispy Sisig
First thing let's start out with some drinks
This is the mango sago
And the ube sago, the sago are all this little transparent pearls you see on the bottom here
And the mango one looks like has some grape fruit on top
That's refreshing, oh this is blissful. I just closed my eyes
I feel like I'm sucking
Paradise through a straw right now mango flavor is so nice pearls beautifully gentle and the flavor changes from top to bottom
On top is more icy and then you get to the bottom. It's more creamy this is fantastic drink
All my food is here. I've been waiting for this bite for a long time. Let's start off with a soup this is. This is called
Sinigang na baboy is a traditional soup with Tamarind I can see it has eggplants
spinach lots of huge chunks of pork look at the pork on this bad boy, beautiful succulent
And I mean succulent pork Wow this this thing is so soft it probably cries at home our commercials
Mmm. That's gonna Parker you up a little bit and although you know
There's a lot of oil here the beautiful tamarind flavor supersedes all of it, and this is really interesting
This is a sigarillas it's it's a winged bean as a native Filipino vegetable
This thing even though it's been boiled in this soup it still retains a lot of the crunch
I'm so looking forward to my first bite at this pork oh
That's fatty goodness check out this piece. This is the piece I was kind of playing with take some pork green beans little wingbean
little crunch little fat
The genius of this it's the perfect balance of sour and fat, it's like a perfect balance
It's like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in a bowl because the soup is so sour
We need something fatty a substantial to balance that out. Enter these beautiful pieces of melting pork and all the crunchy
vegetables and the eggplant they're almost like backup singers just
Harmonizes everything fantastic starts to my Filipino food experience next up. I gotta I gotta get my hands on this
This is a very popular Filipino. Dish. It's one of the dishes. I actually tried it in, New York
This is a Sisig
And Sisig is comprised of like the face of the pig so yeah the face of the pig is sitting on my plate
Right now it also has some pork liver and on top is chicharrón
Or crispy pork skin as well as fried garlic and they said to put some calamansi on there some chilies and soy sauce oh
Man like six seeds pop out of this to you
You are a really overachiever aren't you take a nice big fork full look at that hello Philippines!
Oh my God, did you guys hear that massive crunch you are so amazing as a must-have if you're ever in the Philippines
I'm still like mind blown by this dish right now
I'm gonna try a little bit on the side where it doesn't have any of the Condiments. Just try as is
There's so much crispy pork skin in here. It's just like little bits of pork crackers and as soon as you bite them
They deliver that musically delicious crunch
And it just renders so much delicious or fat in
Your mouth and the flavor of this dish goes beyond just a fatty element you also get a deliciously subtle organy flavor
It's not bad guys organy sometimes have a bad connotation to it
That's not here because there is the liver element in this so you get that nice creamy organ a flavor on top of the crunch
On top of the garlic and by adding a little citrus. It's like seeing your dream
Girl in a wedding gown on a day you're getting married it
Just it's you. You're just filled with so much complicated emotion, but you know it's all good
That's just a symphony in my mouth full arm
Symphony can't say enough
About how good this is this is another traditional Filipino dish the Laing there's a lot of variations of this sometimes it securely
Vegetarian I think mine has that pork belly in there that makes me happy, but one thing is always consistent with this dish is
There's always three essential ingredients coconut milk dried taro leaf and chilies
There's already coconut mixed into the cooking process of this dish, and there's also the coconut cream on top
So I'm just gonna give this a nice mix
Oh
Yeah, ooo you need to eat that with some rice mmm the overpowering element of this dish is for sure the Taro leaf
I mean that flavor is just so explosive. I'm gonna get another pie here with some rice
This is a great dish with rice. It's perfect the leaves
They're slightly slightly bitter, but so so aromatic the coconut flavor. I wasn't able to really detect until
Until umm I've been chewing this dish in my mouth a little bit because when you first take a bite the taro
Leaves kick you in the face
And then as you chew everything everything's just kind of settles down it becomes more and more smooth than the coconutty flavors start coming out
And at the end we're just left with this blissful fragrance that just suits you all over
This is definitely one of the most unique dishes. I've had in terms of flavor, but I can already tell
I'm gonna miss this especially when I'm eating rice because this is seriously a great rice companion. alright well
I guess I'm gonna start eating because after this there's more food coming up
Whoa
What did I just order look at this crispy pata
Thank you, all right the Filipino feast continues
And I am at Gerry's grill for a lot of grilled stuff and some fried stuff and well just a lot of stuff in General
this I've been dying to try ever since I stepped off the plane. This is crispy pata
It's a whole pigs feet
I have this love obsession with pigs feet and pork knuckles in anything that the pigs used to run with this dish is similar in
Spices and their refrigerator overnight and then deep-fried the next day till it is perfectly
Crispy on the outside look at this guys. That's all crispy skin on the outside right here
This is my favorite part of a pig's feet see all that cartilage and tendon this
Besides the skin it's probably gonna be my favorite bites. Well. I want to try a piece of this crispy skin right now
Deliciousness in my mouth music to my ear so this piece right here that
Is just so fatty and chewy
I think knowing on the pigs knuckle is like half the fun of eating this thing nice
You gotta be very detail in this because there are a lot of good eating in like every little space of the bones here
You got to get to all of it
Every little bite, is crunchy. I'm biting some of the skin
There's gelatinous there's some biting into the cartilage and tendon, and is it ever pork in delicious despite
This is gonna be a really good bite right here
I'm gonna remove all the bones here if I can and then just dip all that into my sauce
Oh Yeah, that's satisfying a little vinegar a little soy really helps to balance all the fat, that's on this knuckle
It's all good the closer the meat and tendon that's to the bone the more flavorful it is
I gotta get myself into the like a piece of this lean meat right over here
Every pipe the porky flavor is so immense
I love switching between
The gelatinous side and the lean side of the pork the texture is so incredibly different all right this piece here look at that. Oh
Got some lean meat. Got some crispy skin
I mean heating this is kinda like eating the biggest guilty pleasure in the world, but once you do
You're gonna pay for it look at all the fat right below the skin look at that oh
Oh, that's gonna be good
As much as I would love to keep digging into this I gotta set it aside for the
For the sake of other food. That's on this table. I gotta jump into this look at this beautiful creature
This is a fried Pla-Pla and this fish like thrives and really hot humid environments
And it grows very quickly and this whole thing is just. look at it. It's filleted
It's fried with the scales all on the outside as well. Oh. Oh my god. You just tear off a piece here look at this
flaky white flesh
Looks like some garlic pepper inside
The meat is Flaky
its seasoned really nicely on the outside is that getting just the freshest fish chip this
I think I'm gonna love see this that layer of meat. That's right above the ribs look at this
This is awesome. I love the dipping sauce I feel like anything fried we need some vinegar
And I love how you guys in the Philippines used so much vinegar
I'm feeling right at home here because of our shared love of vinegar and also I think I think it rains a lot here
Yeah
This is their best seller here Inihaw na pusit, and I love the fact that I could hunt
Frankenstein with the fork gave me its char grilled squid with some like, looks like pickled Morning Glory
a little sweet
A lot of smoky flavor from the grill this might be the best thing I got here today
I mean, I love the pork. I love the fish, but the flavor of the squid
It's sweet, but not overwhelmingly so and I just love the smoke
That's filling up my mouth as I'm chewing this thing and holy cow this pickle veggie hmm wow that's clever
I think this part. I think this is gonna be a lot more tender
No, oh, man
Yeah, this is my favorite dish here mm-hmm one more thing. I have no idea with this dish
I saw on the menu it look cool
Because I like any foods that's kind of wrapped up in a mystery package. This rice is wrapped in banana leaf whoo
that smells great
Just want to keep smelling you
It's something else you should only say to food in that to somebody you're on a date with okay
I also love performing surgery on my food check this out. Oh
That's beautiful hands again
That's smell fantastic all that great banana leaf aroma it just steeped into the rice the rice
It's not sticky rice look at the pork fat. Oohhh see all that break apart forged just crumpled
It is so much pork in here by the way. I'm keeping this fork
I mean all fork should be this big because it is you know we'll just get more food this way
Best thing here, hands down
Best thing I ate at this restaurant incredible doesn't even begin to describe this thing fantastic adobo flavor throughout
This is actually my first taste of anything adobo in this country
The pork, just completly bliss erasing your mouth. It's so freakin fragrant
Not only from the umami of the soy sauce but the banana leaf is a stroke of genius
Just beautiful aroma is just everywhere in the rice
And every time you chew, it releases more and more until just begging for mercy and the pork
Thats is here the fatty parts like I said this withers down to a heavenly mist that engulfs all the other ingredients
that that that's that's working its magic inside your mouth and
We just don't want the sensation to stop. I got more food coming up after this. I don't even care
You meet the food love of your life. You just know it you know
I'm saying let me know if I'm crazy how many of you guys have tried this dish and love it as much as I do
right now I just
Can't stop smelling it okay. You know what I don't I don't want you guys to see me like this
So I'll see you the next place, okay
Oh
Thanks a lot of rice my Filipino food tour
Continues at Cafe Via Mare. this is a really popular place people go for traditional Filipino food
And I'm super shot up with this interesting appetizer
This is called Tokwa't Baboy and it's crispy fried tofu right now
I can see that the tofu skin is fry beautifully crunchy and also it has pig ears in it all in a bed of soy
sauce and vinegar
Again, I love the liberal use of vinegar in this country one of my favorite ingredients
I'm gonna try just a piece of the tofu that hasn't touched the sauce
Wow even without the sauce here, This tofu is excellent
Outside it's fried perfectly inside beautifully tender, and it has already a lot of flavor, but the ones soaked in the sauce
I'm gonna give that a few squeezes so that the tofu can soak up all that delicious sauce
The tofu like I've mentioned on its own has already superb
I just love the dual texture on here and when you just squeeze it inside the sauce it soaks that up so nicely and
Pig ear that's one of my favorite foods because I love the fattiness of it
And I love the crunchiness of it so really got a bunch of different textures here a bunch of different flavors
Another nice porky flavor the beautiful soy sauce and vinegar flavor that soak into the tofu the multitude texture of the tofu and they put
garlic and onions on top
absolute fantastic next up and this is basically the national dish of the Philippines adobo and in this case chicken and pork adobo
In my understanding Adobo is kinda like a mix of vinegar soy sauce in a way
It's stewed and this thing comes with a side of tomatoes and eggs. That's interesting one of my favorite dishes ever to go with rice
a
Little saltier did I like I wish there was more on tomatoes in here, but the eggs are done superbly
I just smooth and luxurious. It looks like it's fried on the outside got a nice crunchy outer shell at the inside
It's just a beautiful mix of wing meat and fat looks like also. It's slightly battered
I felt like I just
Truly had a taste of the Philippine not exaggerating even a little bit in the sauce. How could you see rice in the sauce?
And that's chicken
Like a perfectly fried piece of chicken lightly battered
But again the winner for me is the sauce I feel like you can put this sauce on broccoli it'll taste good
I gotta say though I do like the adobo pork much better than the chicken
I feel like with this vinegary sauce it just goes so much better with something. That's fatty
I could eat that all day long all day long all night long then the next day for breakfast
Hands down one of the best pork dishes. I've ever had this is another treat
This is called stuffed milk fish basically they told me the way they make this is they have to take the meat out of
The fish without disturbing the skin then they cook the fish meat with some veggies and and stuff it back into the fish
That's some culinary surgery right there Wow you don't need a knife for this you see the minced fish meat
I see some raisins some peas
The flavor is really interesting
It's a little sweet little
Spicy again a little vinegary the fish meat is a little dry almost like a fish
Meatloaf if that makes sense they have a little tomato sauce that you're supposed to dip it with yeah
You've got a year with the sauce the sauce provides that moisture that I feel like this dish really needs. I like it
it's really interesting the way they prepare it, but I just keep thinking about that port you know, it's
Can't get out of my mind. All right. I've had a lot of food so far today finally
I got to move on to some dessert. This is called a puto bumbong
It's made with ube and purple yam sitting on a banana leaf, and I think that's some coconut shavings right here
Oh look at that. This is a sticky rice dessert. I did some sugar
Very sticky very chewy very mochi ish and on its own
There's no sweet flavor to it at all. That's why the coconut and the sugar is I feel like this is really vital because
Go with it this dish becomes transformative, and this is definitely something
I love to wow I don't taste a lot of that ube flavor. I feel like here. It's just more about the texture
Well that texture is off so out of all the dishes
I had today the savory ones definitely love the crispy tofu
and then pork and the adobo
I think these two are my absolute favorites and for a guy who's really never had any contact with Filipino cuisine except for once in
New York City in my whole life these meals so far has just been a revelation
Personally what I'm feeling right now is that Filipino cuisine is one of the most underrated
One of most unique delicious vinegary cuisines in the world and guys. I am so happy to be here eating this
This is getting me so excited for the rest of my trip here all the places I go to in these videos are mostly your
suggestions
So thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction on where to go and what to eat of course all the places
I went to is listed in my description box below. Thank you all so much for watching this video. I'll see you later