filapino cafes and shops in west yorkshire

My gf actually likes curry sauce over her fish and chips. You know, the fish and chip shop type.

She also likes tandoori mixed grill and a Nan bread. But after that is not so keen on curry.

if you are familiar with the tastes of Filipinos in some volume, i.e. more than just two or three, and I have often cooked for them as much as they have cooked for me as well as observing what they eat in restaurants, etc then you realise that most of them are reasonably partial to 'spicy', which is a kind of Filipino synonym for chili. Chili is in nearly every pantry and is on every single caranderia table in the country. Chili sauce is in every Mcdonalds and Jollibee. Chili is sold in every sari store that sells any vegetables at all.

Filipinos don't tend to like chili to the totally gratuitous extent that just about all Thais do, but most of them do use it in moderation.

I make curries or other kinds of chili dishes for them to eat all the time. I like 'spicy' a lot, but I know very well that may very well not, so if it's the first time I'm cooking, I check and ask them how much they like 'spicy' which basically means chili. Some don't like it at all and are not partial to any kind of curry. They avoid it. Some like it a lot. But most aren't either of those. They like it to a moderate level but don't overdo it.

Filipinos definitely get through a lot more chili on average in a year, than most British people do. Whether it is as a sauce or as a vegetable, or if it is the flavour of the Crispy Fry Breading Mix that they eat their chicken with, https://limsglasgow.com/condiments/582-ajinomoto-crispy-fry-breading-mix-spicy.html (also sold in every sari store in the country) they just get through quite a lot of it.

in some regions of the Philippines, chili is traditionally used more than in other regions in the local cuisine, with Bicol being the most obvious and well-known but not the only example.

Nicely put, Graham, but I would go further: no Filipino I know likes anything other than the mildest of mild curries, if at all. But many of them do put hot sauce on their pizza.

of course Filipinos don't like curry. It explains why they sell chicken curry in every single caraderia in the country. Filipinos from the Batanes to Tawi-Tawi together make up collectively about 500 tons of the stuff every day, and put it up for sale, because nobody likes it.

Yes Stellar, my wife in the UK very often puts spicy paprika in our food. I like spicy food but she can handle a lot more than me.

Hi Markham, when we ate lechon baboy in Cebu and Lapu Lapu City, there was a small plate of small green chillies (very hot) on every table with soy sauce and calamansi also. Most of the Filipinos I saw were eating them.

I am sure that the peppers would have been sliced very finely. They and calamansi juice are added to Soy Sauce to impart seasoning and serve to cut through the inherent greasiness of the lechon. My wife does that but she doesn't eat the peppers.

I suppose there must be regional variations in taste, just as there are in cuisine.

My first wife was a Bicolana, but did not cook or like 'Bicol Express'. She did however teach herself to cook wonderful Flapjacks, and Toad In The Hole, once settled in the UK.

My current wife is a Ilocano, and seems to favour rather bland (for my taste) dishes.

My lady likes spicy food, both Thai and Indian.

I remember sharing a very very spicy combo of Chicken Tikka Masala, Tandoori Mixed Grill, Garlic Chilli Nan, and Rice at the Ganesh Indian restaurant in Saigon some years ago, massive portions and top quality stuff.

As for Thai food, Laab is her favourite.

The only time she complained that the Thai food was too hot for her to eat was at a German restaurant in Bangkok, it was way too hot for me as well, I think that "Yes" was the wrong answer for her to give when they asked her if she wanted it spicy.

(edit: To clarify, she was eating Thai food at the German restaurant, I was drinking excellent German hefeweizen beer.)

I must admit that my Mrs (and our live-in niece), do seem to enjoy my home-cooked concoctions, which I ALWAYS lace with plenty of herbs and spices (from UK) ...to cover up the taste of all the horrible stuff that I eat because it's supposed to be good for me... like fish.

the Filipino chicken curry is a cornerstone dish and it is Filipino style. A little bit bland and not among the world's greatest for most, but at least it's theirs and being so generally conservative in their culinary habits it is the one they prefer. At least until they get exposed to more outside influences. I am sure that Filipino tastes do change, when they emigrate.

I've performed extensive experiments on Filipino subjects using imported curry sauces.

my impression of Filipinos and sauces is that they like Chinese and even - but to a lesser extent - Thai style, but tend to give Indian a wide berth. The feedback with the Indian has been decidedly muted. I ship over heaps of Indian curries and they just don't like them to the point where I have stopped even bothering to try. I only make Indian curries up now when it's just me or maybe another foreigner to eat them.

Indian food just hasn't taken off and isn't that popular in the Philippines which is kind of surprising in some ways because Indian conventions like eating with their hands and never using chopsticks, is something that they got, like Malays, from the India and not the China influence. People can easily forget that India had a considerable influence on the culture of the Philippines before the beginning of the Spanish period.

but that doesn't seem to translate, at least in my experience, to Filipinos especially liking Indian curry sauces. They do seem to prefer the milder ones. Korma and not Vindaloo.

you never see Indian food on sale in Filipino malls even in the large food courts, but in Thailand you do.

I don't know anything about Korean food but I have to say I bought a whole bunch of 10-20p discounted Korean sachet powder sauces from my local UK China shop, and they couldn't seem to get enough of them. It made me think that they are not just obsessed with K-Pop and K-Soaps. K-Sauces hit the spot too.

OVERALL VERDICT

Philippines overall sauce preference rankings

Filipino - 10

Chinese - 8

Thai - 6

Indian - 2

My gf does exactly what one or two of you have described i.e. typically chops up chilli to add to her food. She also likes Chinese chicken curry. But I really cannot get her to volunteer to eat a standard Indian meal as a rule unless she agrees on the basis that I like them.

She won’t eat jalapeños either.

She also uses the term “spicey” when talking about curry rather than “hot”.

She is correct in her terminology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry

I just looked at that link. The pictures make me drool.

I bought a jar of dopiaza sauce at Aldi a few days ago. It came with a sort of sachet in the cap containing a dried spice mix to be added when cooking the (chicken) in the main onion sauce. I was amazed at how good it tasted.

And I forgot to mention, she completed half day Thai cookery courses in both Chiang Mai, and Bangkok.

I cannot keep my gf out of Nandos!

sign of ability. She didn't need to complete the full day in either and felt she had grasped the basics in both the northern and general Thai cuisines before lunch. In cricket it's like hitting a century.

Thailand really has a great cuisine. The best I have ever seen really. North Thailand was always my favourite in every respect, including the food.

I would have sent her down south to Nakkon Si Thammarrat or somewhere, and definitely not Phuket, to further her education even more, to pick up on their noodles and come back to Bangkok and show me.

Are we talking North as in Udon Thani?

A full day of Thai cooking might be a bit heavy going, you eat everything you cook.

As you rightly point out, these are "tourist" cookery courses, however they give an introduction to Thai food, and the ingredients used.

And they are good fun.

This is an enjoyable thread, by the way.

I do like Thai food too. But, yet again my gf does not particularly like that style of food either.

I am going to try her on frogs legs and snails next week and a diet of Monet, Van Gogh and Renoir.