Tastes of Home

As I mentioned before, the Philippines is, food-wise anyway, an interesting mix of American, Filipino and British influences. You have the "local delicacies" aisle next to the aisle selling Lays and Ruffle potato chips which is next to the aisle selling Cadbury Dairy Milk. I have felt quite a home here in the grocery store and have enjoyed revelling in food stuffs not available in the UK. Cheez Whiz is very high on this list. The rest of my group has made fun of me, mercilessly at times, but I have stuck to my guns and enjoyed Cheez Whiz on toast every morning since we got here. Plus, as I keep reminding the group, Cheez Whiz is a source of calcium and phosphorus. How can you go wrong?

The night we landed in Manila and were driving out to Mango House, we passed (drum roll, please!) a...7-11. I nearly did a happy dance while buckled into the back of the SUV. Naturally, no one understood my joy at seeing a convenience store but I was okay with that. I understood the significance of the 7-11 and that was enough for me. The next day, we did a Sev run. It was reminiscent of my Taylor days when we would walk down Saddleback Road for a slurpee and a bag of chips. Only, this time I was in Manila. In a jeepeny. With a group of English people. I treated myself to a fairly large slurpee (orange and green Mountain Dew - the only flavours available) and some Tootsie Rolls, another piece of home that I had missed. I bought 2 so that I could share with the group. Sadly, only 2 people took me up on my offer and even then it was literally thrust into their hands so they couldn't refuse without seeming like complete jerks.

We spent about half an hour in a grocery store yesterday exploring and revelling in Filipino foodstuffs. My most interesting purchase was seaweed and grilled shrimp Pringles - thankfully two separate flavours! I actually quite like the grilled shrimp flavour and have not yet plucked up the courage to try the seaweed. I have a can of each and will not be touching them until I go home to Canada. I also stocked up on Goya chocolate - a favourite of the kids at Mango House. Tastes from home that I purchased include: Tide laundry detergent (oh, how I have missed thee!), Peanut Butter Nature Valley granola bars, no-name Fruit Loops, and Bac-Os bacon bits. Something I found interesting is that you can't find liquid laundry detergent in Manila. It's all powdered.

I do believe the food item I will miss the most are the mangoes. Now that I know what "real" mangoes taste like, I can't imagine trying to enjoy the tasteless fruits they pass off as mangoes in the UK and Canada. It simply serves as incentive to make a return journey to Manila next year...

Kristen