Tinniest flurry EVER

---

I ate sigsig for the first time today at lunch.

I was visiting a human rights group today that advocates for people who have experienced civil and political rights abuse by the government, and for lunch the officemates all chip in money and buy food from a local restaurant. This resulted in me sitting down to a feast of traditional Filipino food. Filipinos will tell you themselves that they love food and love feeding people, in fact the first word I learned in Tagalog was busog - full. So the employees where enjoying telling me all about what was in each dish and where it came from in the country. At least, until we came to a small dish of grey sauce over meat. The mixture had a consistancy of chutney and smelled deliciously of spice and vinigear. When I asked what it was there was an awkward pause filled with warning looks and a hurried "it's pork, pork meat." Considering I had gotten a 4 minute explaination of the fish I knew something was up. Last time that I got this sort of a reation I had been eating an amazingly tasty mixture of pork meat cooked in pork blood. Feeling adventurous I ate some of the mixture anyway and really enjoyed it. So after lunch I sat down beside one of the nicer older women in the group and asked her, now that I had eaten the food, for her to tell me what it actually was. I am assuming that she is used to dealing with foreign interns, because she shared a worried look with my guide for the day before telling me that it was nothing, just sigsig. Well... working with other young people, I have already been warned about some of the "grosser" foods in the Filipino diet. Sigsig is a mixture of pig brains and pig snout covered in sauce. Apparently it is high in colesteral. It is also really, really good.

Eating in a foreign country is an adventure in itself. It is not just the weird things like sigsig that you come across, but also the new and interestng ways that people interpret food you do recognize. I ate a salad from MacDonalds this evening for supper. Like always the MacDonals closest to me was packed for supper. So many people where opting for the meals that included rice or spagetti instead of fries. The conference section of the restuarant (because there is a glass room you can apparently rent for presentations) was full to the brim for a presentation on some wonder health suppliment. I was so excited to taste lettuce again since I am finding it really hard to get my hands on so far. I don't know if I even realized lettuce had a taste in Canada. I also ordered myself a flurry - oreo, because I didn't recognize the flavor of the one with green swirls - the smallest flurry ever. I dare even say it was a Filipino size flurry, because though people seem to eat big, rice heavy meals here, their snackes and soft drinks are so much smaller their ours. Mayne this is an issue of bad capitalism - people can't afford a 355 ml coke, so coke is sold here in 250 bottles instead. Or maybe it is because people just don't snack as ridiculously heavily as Canadians do.

---

Comments

[Laura]

...please don't say dog!
Totatlly thought that you were going to say the sigsig was dog. Please don't eat dog if at all possible. Don't think that it would be very good for the CCSPCA treasurer's sister to eat dog. Hope all is well...need another post soon!!