First Time Trying TRADITIONAL Filipino Food

Hey guys, it's Mike Chen. Well, finally here. The Philippines. Manila. And I'm starving because I got in yesterday afternoon and I haven't ate anything since because I wanted 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 Leng and Crispy Sisig. First thing, let's start off with some drinks. This is the Mango Sago and the Ube Sago. The Sagos are like these little transparent pearls you see on the bottom here. And the mango one looks like it has some grapefruit on top. That's refreshing. Oh, this is blissful. If I just close 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, it's more icy. Then you get to the bottom, it's more creamy. That is a fantastic drink. All my food is here. I've been waiting for this bite for a long time. Let's start off with the soup. This is called Sinigang Neba Boy. It's a traditional soup with tamarinds. And 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. Are you guys seeing this? This thing is so soft, it probably cries at Hallmark commercials. Ooh, that's gonna pucker you up a little bit. And although, you know, there's a lot of oil in here, the beautiful tamarind flavor supersedes all of it. And this is really interesting. This is a Sigorelias. It's a winged bean. It's a native Filipino vegetable. This thing, even though it's been boiled in the soup, still retains a lot of the crunch. I'm so looking forward to my first bite of 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, a little wing bean. A little crunch, a little fat. The genius of this is the perfect balance of sour and fatty. It's like a perfect balance. It's like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in a bowl. Because the soup is so sour, you need something fatty and substantial to balance that out. Enter these beautiful pieces of melty pork. And then all the crunchy vegetables and the eggplant, they're almost like backup singers. It just harmonizes everything. Fantastic start to my Filipino food experience. Next up, I gotta, I gotta get my hands on this. This is a very popular Filipino dish, and it's one of the dishes I actually tried 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 sisig, 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 just pop out of this. Dude, you, you are a really overachiever, aren't you? It's like a nice big forkful. Look at that. Hello, Philippines. Oh my god. Did you guys hear that massive crunch? You are so amazing. It's 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 and just try it as is. There is so much crispy pork skin in here. 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 pork fat in your mouth. And the flavor of this dish goes beyond just the fatty element. You also get a deliciously subtle organic flavor. It's not bad, guys. Organic sometimes have a bad connotation to it. Not here. Because there is the liver element in this. So you get that nice creamy organic 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 the day you're getting married. It just, 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 on symphony. Can't say enough about how good this is. This is another traditional Filipino dish, dalaing. There's a lot of variations of this. Sometimes it's purely vegetarian. I think mine has pork belly in there. That makes me happy. But one thing is always consistent with this dish. 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. Oh, you need to eat that with some rice. The overpowering element of this dish is for sure the taro leaf. I mean that flavor is just so explosive. Let me get another bite here with some rice. This is a great dish with rice. This is perfect. The leaves, they're slightly, slightly bitter, but so so aromatic. The coconut flavor, I wasn't able to really detect until 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 just kind of settles down. It becomes more and more smooth. Then the coconut-y flavors start coming out. And at the end, you're just left with this blissful fragrance that just soothes 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. All right. 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? Yes. Ah, thank you. All right, the Filipino feast continues. And I am at Jerry's Grill for a lot of grill 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 pig's feet. I have this love obsession with pig's feet. And pork knuckles. And anything that the pigs used to run with. This dish is simmered in spices in a refrigerator overnight. And then deep fried the next day. It's always just 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, is probably gonna be my favorite bite. Well, I want to try a piece of this crispy skin right now. Look at that. Deliciousness in my mouth. Music to my ears. This piece right here. That is just so fatty and chewy. I think gnawing on the pig's knuckle is like half the fun of eating this thing. Guys, you gotta be very detailed in this because there are a lot of good eating in like every little space of the bones here. And you gotta get to all of it. Every little bite. It's crunchy. I'm biting some of the skin. There's gelatinous because I'm biting into the cartilage and tendon. And is it ever porky and delicious. This bite, 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, it's satisfying. A little vinegar, a little soy. It really helps to balance out all the fat that's on this knuckle. Oh, it's so 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 bite, 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 eating this is kind of 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 sake of other food that's on this table. And I gotta jump into this. Look at this beautiful creature. This is a fried pla pla. And this fish like thrives in really hot humid environments and it grills 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 my god. Let me just tear off a piece here. Look at this. Flaky white flesh. Looks like some garlic pepper inside. The meat is flaky. It's seasoned really nicely on the outside. It's like eating just the freshest fish stick. This I think I'm gonna love. See this thin layer of meat that's right above the ribs. Look at this. This is awesome. I love the dipping sauce. So I feel like anything fried, you need some vinegar. And I love how you guys in the Philippines use so much vinegar. I'm feeling right at home here because of our shared love of vinegar. And also I think it rings a lot. I think it's about to rain. This is their best seller here. Iniha napusit. And I love the fact that I could hunt Frankenstein with the fork they gave me. It's char-grilled squid with some, it looks like pickled morning glory. It's 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 overwhelming me so And I just love the smoke that's filling up my mouth as I'm chewing this thing. And holy cow, this pickled veggie. Wow, that's good. I think this part, I think this is gonna be a lot more tender. No, oh man. Yeah, this is my favorite dish here. One more thing. I have no idea what this is. I saw on the menu it looked cool because I like any food that's kind of wrapped up in a mystery package. This rice is wrapped in banana leaf. Ooh, that smells great. I just want to keep smelling you. Something else you should only say to food and not to somebody you're on a date with, okay? I also love performing surgery on my food. Check this out. Oh. That's beautiful. Hang on a second. That smells fantastic. All that great banana leaf aroma, it just steeped into the rice. The rice is not sticky rice. Look at the pork fat. Oh, see all that break apart? Pork is just crumpling. There's so much pork in here. By the way, I'm keeping this fork. I mean all fork should be this big because it's, you know, you just get more food this way. Oh. 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 completely Elicerates in your mouth. It's so freaking fragrant. Not only from the umami of the soy sauce, but the banana leaf is a stroke of genius. This beautiful aroma is just everywhere in the rice. And every time you chew, it releases more and more until you're just begging for mercy. And the pork that's in here, the fatty parts, like I said, it just renders down to a heavenly mist that engulfs all the other ingredients that's working its magic inside your mouth and you just don't want this 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 what 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, I 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 at the next place. Okay. See you later. Thanks, that's a lot of rice. My Filipino food tour continues at Cafe Villamardi. This is a really popular place people go for traditional Filipino food and I'm just gonna start off with this interesting appetizer. This is called Tokwat Baboy and it's crispy fried tofu. Right now, I can see that the tofu skin is fried 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 is fried perfectly, inside beautifully tender and it has already a lot of flavor. But the one soaked in the sauce, I'm just gonna give that a few squeezes so that the tofu can soak up all that delicious sauce. The tofu, like I mentioned on its own, is 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, there's a bunch of different textures here, a bunch of different flavors. It's got the nice porky flavor, the beautiful soy sauce and vinegar flavor that's soaked into the tofu, the multitude texture of the tofu and they put garlic and onions on top. Absolutely 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 kind of 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 than I like. I wish there was more tomatoes in here, but the eggs are done superbly. That's just smooth and luxurious. It looks like it's fried on the outside, got a nice crunchy outer shell. The inside is just a beautiful mix of lean meat and fat. It looks like also it's slightly battered. I felt like I just truly had a taste of the Philippines. Not exaggerating even a little bit. And the sauce, I could just eat rice in the sauce. And the chicken, it's like a perfectly fried piece of chicken, lightly battered. But again, the winner for me is the sauce. I feel like if you could put the sauce on broccoli, it would taste good. I gotta say though, I do like the adobo pork much better than the chicken. Because 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 milkfish. 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 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, a 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 gotta eat it 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 pork, you know. I just can't get it out of my mind. All right. I've had a lot of food so far today. Finally, I gotta move on to some dessert. This is called the puto bumbum. It's made with ube and purple yam sitting on a banana leaf. And I think that's some coconut shavings right here. Yup. Oh, look at that. This is a sticky rice dessert. I think there's 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, is really vital because yeah. With it, this dish becomes transformative. And this is definitely something I love. Wow. I don't taste a lot of the ube flavor. I feel like here, it's just more about the texture. But that texture is awesome. So out of all the dishes I had today, the savory ones, definitely love the crispy tofu and 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 the 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.