My Own "Bizarre Foods" episode plus more on my trip

Actually it wasn't THAT bizarre. But I did try some new foods for me!

Most of this post will be about my lunch at Josephines, overlooking the beautiful Taal lake and volcano. But first let me say the best mangos in the world are from the Philippines! The food here is really great, and even the cafeteria has tasty food. I admit that I like Asian food more than American food on any day of the week. That said, I have been trying not to eat too much because if I gain weight, it takes me a lot to work it off - and I've had no time or energy to work out when I get home from work.

My co-workers here were generous enough to take me out today to lunch. After my second training session, we drove together to this restaurant called Josephines. It was beautiful! We got seats outside, right next to the huge lake, with the volcano on an island. The view was limited due to the fog, but the weather was wonderful - a great breeze and a perfect temperature. I was accompanied by the head of Facilities and four EH&S engineers. The head of Facilities is quite the philosopher and we have a similar philosophy on travel and on seizing the opportunities of life. One of the other guys was really into hiking and outdoorsmanship and seemed like someone I could get along with. I didn't get to know the one gal very well - she was very quiet. But a lot of these people had travelled quite a bit (with the company or on their own), and a lot of our conversation was about travel. They were really trying to convince me to go to Boracay and I feel almost as if I have travelled there already from the stories. I don't think I'll make it though - it sounds like one of the other engineers has plans for us to hang out this weekend.

So to the food! There were quite a few dishes. There was amazing calamari and baked mussels. Then, there was shrimp - which tasted a lot more shrimp-y than any of that farmed shrimp we get in the US. Then there was a delicious chicken soup, with tamarind, almost like a sour soup. The chicken was on the bone and very tender. Then, there was a fish with a strong meatiness to it, almost like a swordfish. A mango salad. Green mango shakes, which are different than regular mango shakes. Taro leaves cooked in coconut milk. Now for the stuff that I was a little apprehensive about - but it was good. One was kare-kare - oxtail soup. Oxtails are very fatty - that was the only thing I didn't like until they told me I didn't have to eat all the fat, just the meat. The other was pigs legs & knuckles. It just sounds strange but actually it tasted fine. The skin of the pig was deep-fried, and the inside was tender and also mostly fatty. But it had a good flavor. I also tried shrimp paste on my mango salad. Mostly the food was good, very different than other southeast asian food, with mild flavors, not very spicy. The big "wierd" thing about Filipino food (from an American perspective) would be that so much of it is eaten on the bone or in a still-recognizable animal form. In America, we remove all evidence that it was once an animal. It is probably better to know it is an animal. Plus things cook better on the bone.

For dessert, I tried halo-halo. It was tasty but an unusual experience. You get this shaved ice, ice cream, and various other things and you have to mix it up. That's where I got confused - not sure when to stop mixing, when to eat. It becomes sorta like a soup, but I don't know if that's because I didn't eat it fast enough. it would have been awesome with a straw. It came with taro ice cream and I love taro! My only concern later on was that - oh no, I had ice. I hope I don't get sick because I don't know whether my stomach can handle the water here.

I would have had more but we had to get back to work, then get home because it was the worst time for traffic, and now I'm just completely exhausted. Every day I get up at 5:30 and go to work - teach two classes and fit in everything else between then, go home, rest, and then try to do some additional work from the hotel. I am exhausted. I haven't done yoga or dancing once since I got here. I haven't even left the hotel aside from the outing with my co-worker last night. I think tonight I will just take a nice bath. I am looking forward to getting some rest this weekend. But we have plans.

Friday night is Mall of Asia, Saturday - visiting the old city, fort, and bay, Sunday - possibly going to another mall! (they really enjoy the malls here and I suppose if you really want to experience the Philippines as it is, you should go to the malls), Monday - Corregidor. I am letting my co-workers take the lead on what to do. This has become the trip o' malls (see previous entry on Mall of America).

It's only 7:55PM and I want to go to sleep - NOW. So I am going to boot this thing down and go to bed.

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