I have a confession to make. I only watched the first twenty-five minutes of No Reservations - Philippines on Monday. Why? Because I was tired after playing many hours of basketball. Why else? Because I didn’t think the episode was any good. So I shut it off. Went to bed. And awoke the next morning thinking that my review of the episode was never going to happen.
That changed today when I decided to give the episode another shot. You see, I have never seen an episode of No Reservations that I didn’t even want to finish. I have never turned one off and then never resumed playing it later. Never. So, with notebook and pen in hand I rewatched the entire episode to see what I may have missed.
Turns out I was right. Well, about the first twenty-five minutes anyway. The beginning of the Philippines episode was, well, pretty dull. The guy in the beginning, while passionate about his country’s cuisine, wasn’t bringing any thunder (as my friend Gary likes to put it). It wasn’t until he took Tony to a Dampa, a market where you buy fresh ingredients and have the opportunity to have them cooked for you on the spot, that the episode really began to gain some momentum.
After I poured over every detail of this episode, I was able to extract the really great tidbits (in my opinion) that made the last half of the episode very good. Here are a few lists I’ve made as a result of this episode.
Things I must eat
- I want to “adobo” something. After doing a little research, it turns out that adobo simply means to marinate something. However, in the Philippines, it is meant as a particular kind of marinade – though used as a cooking agent. Confused yet? It is pretty simple. When something is “adobo” in the Philippines it means that it was cooked with soy, garlic, pepper corns, and onion. Â I can do that. And I plan on doing it.
- I must have sisig. You know, the dish that Tony had that was all pig head parts, cooked and then chopped up, and served on a hot plate, sizzling over a little bit of butter to make the underside get nice and crunchy? To me this was the “best dish” of the episode. I don’t know how or where, but I’m going to have sisig.
- Milk fish. I don’t know why but this fish was instantly added to my “must eat” list. Cooked in vinegar? I’m in.
- Ox tail. I’ve had ox tail, in my younger years, but it was in a soup and as I recall not all that tasty. I’d love to try it the way they had it prepared in the episode – though very little information was given about this dish. Bummer.
- Lechon. Roast pig cheek. Need I say more?
There were other foods in this episode that would be worthy of exploring for sure (the coconut milk crab or stuffed crab back come to mind) but I have had these dishes before. And I will someday again. Why isn’t there more than three meals per day? Why do calories exist? I ask myself these questions all the time.
Here is another list that I made during the episode.
Things I’d like to do
- Buy and eat at a Dampa. I don’t know if any exist in the United States let alone in my rural area of Pennsylvania. But being able to buy fresh meat, fish, and vegetables from a market and then having them cooked for you immediately sounds like something any foodie must do.
- Cook up some of these Filipino dishes myself. I mentioned that I’m going to adobo something. I’d also like to try my hand at making the stuff crab back and the tomato salad with fried squid. Also the fern salad.
- I must find a batuan. Tony called it something else (Coloman seed?, no idea. I couldn’t hear him clearly. I think No Reservations needs subtitles or show notes or something.) but it was the small green fruit that was sour in the beginning of the episode. They use it to make their dishes a little bit sour. I’d like to try that.
So even though this episode of No Reservations took thirty minutes to get off the ground, I really enjoyed watching it the second time around. I can’t quite sympathize with Augusto’s cultural identity crisis (well, maybe I can, I am Dutch after all) but I thought it was a good way to explain why Filipino dishes aren’t more prevalent here in the United States. No where near as good as the food porn special, but probably better than my least favorite episode. But that is a post for another time.
Haven’t seen the episode yet, but looking forward to seeing it. I appreciate your take on it – and the batwan you seek is kalamansi (see http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Tagalog_Default_Files/Philippine_Culture/Pagkaing%20Pilipino/philippine_fruits.htm). Happy eating!
Batuan = mangosteen I believe. Funny, chopped up pig’s head in Pennsylvania is called Scrapple. I love Tony’s shows no matter what. I could learn about food from all over the world 24/7 and I think Tony presents it in the finest way possible: All Real.
You were so right about a few things.
1) The Lechon is a must have. I’m not saying I’ve had it, but that was the BEST looking roast pig I’ve ever seen.
2) This episode was pretty boring to start and the “local” sucked.
3) the “Food Porn” special was incredible.
Nice post.
Jasmine and Anne: It looks like you both have different answers for the same question! But thanks for forwarding me to the explanation.
Anne: Scrapple is, in a word, awesome. And I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.
Interesting. I’ve been reading reviews from a lot of fellow Filipinos, but this is the first one I’ve read from a non-Filipino. I think it might have been boring for others because it wasn’t so much about the food (but boy was the food awesome) as much as it was about the people. But then, that’s precisely why I love Bourdain — he goes over and beyond what other regular food/travel show hosts do. You can imagine though how differently the episode affected me as a Filipino (as a Filipino living in the US, to be more precise): http://tinyurl.com/cqm6km
Oh, and as far as I know, you can’t buy kalamansi the fruit here, but you can get its juice in frozen form in any reputable Asian store.
Okay, first of all…I am impressed that you took notes. I love the show but never think to do that. Second, some guy in rural Pennsylvania is STOKED about Filipino food. Here are my 2 cents before you embark on your Filipino journey…
1. Befriend a Filipino family and let them know how much you really want to try it. Filipinos LOVE to cook for others…it is part of our nature.
2. You may be able to find most of the ingredients in an Asian market. You may have to head into a major city or just order on line.
3. Try everything you can….Tony just gave a tiny snapshot of what the Philipines has to offer. It is definitly an adventure in itself.
Happy Eating!
there are only 3 things absolutely necessary for a great adobo: soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper and a laurel leaf. I should know, I have it every week
oh wait, that’s 4. sorry!
you can do pork, chicken, mushroom adobo, etc!
Oh, and kalamansi isn’t mangosteen. It’s more like a really small but slightly sweeter lime. And I can say that lechon is the best, but I’d be biased.
But lechon IS the best.
Batuan = Calamansi or Calamondin
I’ve actually seen the plants sold as little ornamental bushes in supermarkets. They’re delicious! My mother used to make “lemonade” from them when I was a little kid.
Mangosteen is very different, but AMAZING. It looks like a purple tomato with a hard skin that, when cracked open, reveals something that looks like a little white tangerine. The flavor is impossible to describe accurately: citrus banana berry? One of my favorite southeast asian fruits. One of my favorite foods in the Philippines, actually. Sadly, you really have to go to asia to get good ones. The fresh ones sold in the US are usually dried out, flavorless, and RIDICULOUSLY expensive.
I believe there are dampas in Jersey City, where there’s a huge Filipino population. In fact, you can probably accomplish all of the things on this list there.
I haven’t seen the episode yet, but I’m half Filipino, and all this talk has made me nostalgic for my grandmother’s cooking!
Congrats on getting Twitted by the NoReservations team!
I loved your blog post and completely agree with it. I also didn’t like the first half of Monday’s episode – I kept nodding off. The sisig made me perk up, of course. :p
Thanks to everyone for all of your comments!
About the “ox tail”, a friend described this to someone before, and they realized that, in the end, the simplest way to describe this dish is (forgive my “French”) “peanut butter and ass”.
The ox tail dish you’re talking about is called ‘kare kare’ which is basically made with what the previous poster described, peanut butter. It’s honestly one of my favorite dishes & I love it when my parents cook it. XD
Hello! Found this through the No Reservations twitter.
Don’t forget the vinegar in your adobo.
And batuan is not mangosteen. It is also not calamansi/calamondin. You boil batuan in dishes like Sinigang or Kadios, as an alternative to sampaloc/tamarind.
I do not know any other name for batuan, all I know is it can only be found in the Visayas. Some Filipinos from other islands don’t even know it exists.
Oh here, I found a link that might help.
What is batuan?
http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/batuan-batwan
I’m from Negros by the way, where batuan is abundant.
Good luck!
Actually, the most important ingredient in Adobo is vinegar. “To Adobo” is a method of cooking used here in the Philippines originally to preserve meat in our tropical climate. Like pickling or smoking. In its most traditional sense, it does not use Soy Sauce at all. We just began using soy sauce 50 or so years ago.
Cheers.
first off…. I found you on Twitter.. congrats on being twitted… lol… i am new to it so I don’t really know the lingo yet… other than my boyfriend who I totally spoiled with Pilipino meals this week ever since we watched the Bourdain episode together, you are the only other non-Pilipino reviewer of that episode that I’ve been able to read… It was nice to see the foods that I grew up eating and cooking on the show… I definitely agree that the very beginning was a bit slow since they brought the kid back but towards the end of the episode when he got a bit reserved, I kind of understood how he felt… I will always be a “balikbayan” when I visit the PI.. I moved here at 7 years old and always feel like an outcast when I go back home… good luck on your food hunt.. I live in the greater Bay Area where the Pilipino population is huge and we have calamansi and other products ready available.. let me know if you need help!
Hi..i think what you were referring to was “calamansi”. It is our local version of lime. It’s more sour and with a hint of sweetness. We use it in almost anything…but mostly with fish sauce as dip for grilled fish. Yes, one of the comments above mentioned vinegar in your adobo.It is an integral ingredient of any adobo recipe. The onion is actually optional. Although in my opinion (tried and tested), we pour the vinegar after the soy,worcestershire sauce, water, garlic mix have reduced to half. And no mixing/ stirring is allowed or the vinegar will lose its tartness. I hope you will find time to come here to our country to enjoy more filipino delicacies. =)
Hi Colin,
I’m a little late to this, but I just found this post via twitter. Anyways, if you’re still interested in sisig, I have a great recipe for it:
http://tinyurl.com/5pmotq
I also have many adobo recipes on my blog as well, just click the adobo link in the categories column on the left.