DELICIOUS Food Tour of BINONDO and Things to See in INTRAMUROS | Manila, Philippines

It's gooey, but it's good. Good morning everyone, David Hoffman here from David's Been Here. I'm in Manila, the Philippines. It's my first time in the Philippines. I'm super excited to explore the city. I'm going to be staying here for three days at the Azumi Boutique Hotel in Southern Manila. They have 187 rooms. They have an incredible rooftop pool which gives you insane views of the city. Right now, I'm going to meet up with my friend Anton from Our Awesome Planet. We're going on a food and attraction tour. Let's go. So this is the infinity pool on the rooftop or the PH, the penthouse of the Azumi Boutique Hotel. It's ridiculous. Look at this. Hey, how are you? How are you? Good, good. Everything good? My friend Anton here, Awesome Planet. Yes, hey, how are you? Ready to go, man. Like it? Like it? So we're going to the oldest part of the city in Manila. It's called Chinatown and they say it's one of the oldest Chinatown in the world. If you're in Manila, this is the place where you get like authentic experiences, food. And I try to always go whenever there's an opportunity like this, showing people around. Because when you go to like Makati or BGC, it's quite different. You know, these are the modern business district of Manila. But the place we're going to is Chinatown. This is special. Oh, I can't wait to eat a balut. So this is the oldest Chinatown outside China. The traffic here is insane. He's saying it's not even that bad. So the main street here in Chinatown is called Ongping. Ongping. Yeah, this is the street and we have a Filipino-Chinese church. Penonda Church, which is in the heart of Chinatown in Manila. And it's been there since 1596. So we are in one of the oldest historic neighborhoods of our city. So this being a historic district as it is a food neighborhood, I think one of the best ways to really get to know about this neighborhood is through our tummies. Yeah, we're going to eat and we're going to walk around this very interesting neighborhood. We're going to be sampling our way and eating our way through Manila Chinatown. So we're going to hop from one restaurant to another. Basically trying out local specialties. What are we having for our first meal? That is a lumpia. A lumpia, basically, it's a local spring roll. You know, with the Chinese, they came here and they brought a lot of things. So I think you might call this as a wrap. If you're American. Well, for us, a wrap food is a lumpia. But the filling, it has a mix of veggies. So it has carrots, cabbage, shrimp heads, peanuts, tofu. The works. And you eat it like a burrito. Dark thick syrupy sauce. I'll put one small drop of this one. Okay. And then you want one drop of mild chili sauce just for the kick. Okay, just one drop. And then you may add any of these three things for texture and taste. So this is ground peanuts with a little bit sugar. So it's peanutty sweet. This one, it's dried seaweeds. The green part is seaweeds. The white part is toasted bihon or rice noodle. A little bit more kick to that. This is minced garlic with vinegar. You know, we love our vinegars here. So many kinds of vinegars. And then you eat lumpia. So many flavors. The kick is perfect. That was like, maybe I should add a little more though. And this lumpia comes in so many varieties here. This is just one of the many varieties of spring rolls that we can find here. I mean, this is delicious. And it's very little actual wrap. It's way more filling. So in the States, we have too much wrap and less filling. But this is fantastic. Oh my god, I could eat a lot of this. Wow. I'm in love, man. This is amazing. Probably one of the best spring rolls I've had. I think the peanut, though, adds a good taste to it. Yeah, sweet, tasty. So what is this one again? This is like a... It's just a little homemade thick sauce. No, no, no, not honey. No, it's not honey? It's probably soy sauce with syrup. This, get both of them. Garlic too. That was one of the best spring rolls in my entire life. It was like a burrito packed with all these vegetables. Oh my god, the peanut sauce and the little spice was perfect. That was so ridiculously good. Oh my god. So basically, we are in a market district. So this whole area is one big giant market. So with market comes food. It's lunchtime here in Binondo. So you have food coming out. Lots of food everywhere. These are all coconut milk dishes. Because we use a lot of coconut milk here with our food. The air conditioning feels good. But you don't really see tourists, do you? No, it's perfect. Our second stop is Quick Snack. It's a 50-year-old restaurant. And we're about to try four different things. So we're having a noodle dish called pancit. And pancit is a very common dish that you find here. Their version is spicier because it has satay sauce. This is called Camaron Rebosado. It's basically a shrimp roll that's wrapped in a skin and fried. We're also having a tofu dish. It's one of their house specialties. It's called Tokwa Ni Amafilar. It was invented by the owner. So this is similar to lumpia, just with no wrap. It's everything that they put inside right here. Wow. We have the deep-fried tofu. This dish is very unique to this area. Mmm. Oh, it's good. Wow. It's very light. It's sweetened soy sauce. So it's a shrimp fritter. Chili sauce, okay. Very crunchy. It's noodles. It's noodles with peanut sauce with local spinach and beef. Yeah, a little spicier. I like the spinach. It tastes spinach. Very nice. Spinach crunch to it. Yeah. Alright, and there's also beef inside this. So right here. Mmm. The good thing is that when you... They're telling me this is what they eat for breakfast. This is just dried fish. It's called tuyo. Tuyo? Tuyo, yeah. It's usually... You peel the skin and then you put it in vinegar. It's very good. Tasty? It's really good. I have to try it. This is another old restaurant. It's called Sincerity. Sincerity. Yeah, they all look very old. Very old, but at the same time, it's not lavish from the outside. It's a 61-year-old restaurant. And what they serve here are traditional Hokkien Chinese dishes. So we're having here sort of like home-style food, which will include soups and certain dishes. Okay, let's get that here. You eat... It's called gohyong, soup number five. Yeah, oxtail. Oxtail. It's nice. It's great. It's like paella, okay? The soup on the rice. Yeah, just a little bit of that. And then you sort of... Yeah. Nice sticky rice. You have to try the chicken. Chicken? It's just like fried chicken, Chinese-style. It's their home-style fried chicken. No bones, right? There is, there is. It's so good. It's fantastic, man. And is that... You put it with the red sauce or no? Yeah, if you want. You can. It has some type of flavor that I've never had before. Oh, okay. Like, that's the way they put... The way they fry it? The batter. Kikiam. Kikiam with hot sauce. See, that fat is soaking too. Enraged. Yeah, I really miss it. When I was... Buckle up with oyster inside. Eat with chili sauce. It's gooey, but it's good. That's a lot of oysters, at least. That's a lot of oysters. Seems like it's packed with oysters. I like it, but I can see why. One little thing, I don't need anymore. Cheers! Alright, Ivan. Okay, so let's just walk a bit. Alright. For about 10 minutes, so we can digest a bit. Okay, yeah, I need to walk a little bit. I'm a little full. We're gonna go to our last stop for this afternoon. So we have one more stop. We have one more stop. I guess we're having dessert, right? Yes, yes. Perfect. Dessert and coffee. That's what I need. Dessert and coffee. It's mango soup with tapioca balls. Oh, man. That looks great. Mango soup with tapioca balls. I think the fancier name for most people would be pearls. Just pearl drinks. Well, in the US, it's called bubble. Bubble. Oh, it's delicious. Yeah, I love it. It's like little jellies. Steamed bun. Yeah, and they look like minions. Like minions. They're yellow. I'm meeting a minion. It's cream. It's like cream filling. I'll start. Yeah, no, it's fantastic. My voice is like this. That wraps up our food walk here in Binondo. Now we proceed to the colonial city, Intramuros. If you guys didn't know, Manila was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century. And where we're going now is their port, the colonial city. And they were telling me that the reason why there's a Chinatown here is because the Spanish didn't let the Chinese in the colonial city. So they stayed out here. Alright, so Anton, it's been a great day. How was it? Amazing. What did you think of Chinatown? Dude, where's the Balut? We'll try it later. I love the food, though. You cannot leave the Philippines, you know. I will try. Anyway, thanks, bro. Thanks. I'll see you again for sure, right? Yeah, of course. So we're now driving to the colonial city, Intramuros, which should be around 10 minutes from Chinatown. So we're in the heart of the colonial city, Intramuros. This is the St. Augustine Church, which is the oldest church in our city. So let's go in and jump back to the 1600s. For 200 years, Manila was a city of trade. So this is where Spain was able to get the riches from the Orient. You know, like sales from China, porcelain, and stuff from the Philippines. And what they would do is they would get all of these goodies and put it aboard these big ships, which in turn would travel all the way to Acapulco in Mexico. And from there back to Spain, making the Spanish rich. This is St. Augustine Monastery. It is the oldest monastery in Manila dating back to 1571. Now, so if you look at the windows, they're very unique. They're made with seashells. So the main religion or, you know, the dominant religion here in the Philippines is Christianity. And of the, you said it's... It's about 80% of the population. Out of that, 90% would be Catholic. So after that would be Islam. Colonial experience that we had under the Spanish. Now, and religion played a very, very important, influential part of that part of our history. Poon or Santo. Now, so these images, they're called in Tagalog as Poon or Santo, or meaning saints. And they're basically religious figures. They're precious, so they're also seen as cultural art. Spanish colonial, but it's not what you probably would have in Mexico, because you have a lot of Asian touches, elements, local, Chinese. So it's Spanish colonial with a little twist of Asian in it. Exactly. Southeast Asian, Chinese, and, you know, indigenous. These are examples of merchant homes. Because Manila was a port city for 300 years. Helped develop the city were merchants. So people came here to trade. And by the 1800s, a lot of these merchants became wealthy and built houses like these. So now we're headed to the old wall. Yes, to the old section of the wall. We're inside the old city. The walls and the fort were connected at one point. So it formed a huge, like 4.5 kilometer fortification around the old city. 4.5 kilometers? Yes. Originally, everything inside was where the Spanish colonials ruled from. So this is La Puerta de Santa Lucia. So Santa Lucia's gate. It was built in 1603. And this was one of the original entrances to the walled city. It underwent improvements in the 18th century. And it was destroyed in the Battle of Manila in 1945 during World War II. And then it was restored in 1968. Ah, so we're taking you to what I think is the best view of the old city. 10 stories up. It's in a hotel called Big Eat Hotel. And you get a really nice view of the old and the new city. Wow. It's just a lovely view. We have the museum district. These used to be our old government buildings. That was built in the 20th century. Thank you so much for everything. And just go straight there. That's the fort. Okay, awesome. Okay, so see you when we see you. Okay, so I'm going to the fort now. Gotta see the fort. It's one of the main sights here. And then my day's over. It is boiling here in Manila. Woo! 100 degrees. Oh, so this is a pedicab. So it's like a bicycle with a little seat. I'm going to take you to the fort. It's 100 pesos, 2 US dollars. Alright. Love it. My name is Bobby. Bobby. Yeah. Thank you, Bobby. Thank you for taking me. Quick, quick, quick. What's up, guys? Hey! Hey, man. Manila, Manila. I'm vlogging. Yeah! What's up? Shout out. Shout out to everybody. Shout out. Shout out to my family. Shout out. Oh, my God. So this is Fort Santiago. This is one of the oldest fortifications in Manila. And it was founded in 1571. It was founded on top of the old settlement of Raja Solomon. The first fort was basically logs and earth. And then it was destroyed in 1574. The stone fort was built in 1589 and in 1592. Damaged in 1645 during an earthquake. Repaired and strengthened in 1658 to 1663. And then eventually became the headquarters of the British Army in 1762 to 1764. It was also the headquarters of the Philippine Division of the U.S. Army during World War II. There's a lot of history here. And this is a beautiful gate, as you can see. I didn't mention it earlier, but across from the fort is Manila's Cathedral. The day is over. I'm about to catch an Uber and head back to my hotel. I'm destroyed. Take care, guys. My first day in Manila is over. Had an incredible day eating in Chinatown. Seeing historical sites in the center of Manila. Old fort colonial buildings. And get ready because tomorrow I'm taking you somewhere incredible. See you tomorrow in Manila. Peace.