Dinner from the first night involved walking across the street to the fish market full of fishy smells and buzzing flies to pick out the catch of the day to hand to the cooks at the restaurant. About 15 minutes later, the following spread was put in front of us. Lots of garlic. Yum.
My preconceived image of the Philippines involved lots of fresh fruits. I was rather shocked to not eat any. The only fruit I saw for sale were whole watermelons on the side of the road. I did enjoy a fruit shake from the AIDFI coffee shop. Melon, banana, sweet potato and avocado mixed with milk and ice. Interesting, yet refreshing.
Possibly the most refreshing thing I ate the whole trip was the homemade peanut flavored ice cream bar purchased off the back of a motorbike near Mt. Kanlaon. Amazing. How these people live without ice and frozen confections in such a hot climate is a mystery to me. Bad picture, great popsicle.
At other meal times, a general rule of the more disgusting it looks, the better it tastes seemed to hold true. One example was a raw fish coated in vinegar entree I ate for one lunch, and the grey matter-esque banana flower salad I had at lunch the following day (see annoyingly sideways photo below).
Due to the hot, humid weather I was not as hungry as I usually am in milder conditions. But by my last night there, I think I had adjusted because when my dinner arrived, I was too ravenous to take a picture first. So what you see is the what was left of my chicken inasal (local specialty) and garlic rice. For someone who doesn't particulary enjoy eating meat off the bone, I think I did a pretty good job!
To further enhance the flavor of the chicken, we made a dipping sauce of soy sauce, juice from a small citrus and sawsawan. Sawsawan is a vinegar based, garlic, chili, ginger tonic. Everyone has their own recipe, often served in old liquor bottles. If I had any time to souvenir shop, I would have liked to have found a bottle to bring back. Delicious!!
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