What they dont tell you OFW`s!

You see it during Pinoy parties (usually birthdays). Since there are a lot of people, you will have to queue in to get food. But it's too troublesome to do so each time, so people just cram everything in a plate in one go.

Hence spaghetti on one side, fried chicken close to it, some veggies at the bottom, and then some ice-cream or cake on the sides. Some people actually do mix it up. Hahahahahah...

Oh and if you're familiar with boodle fight, it's the same thing except much bigger in scale.

I've heard it said that you can "take the girl out of the Philippines, but you can't take the Philippines out of the girl"

Maybe this is a contributory factor.
Philippines sees itself as a much more homogeneous society and culture than many other countries. Japan is similar in that aspect too. Perhaps those from countries who consider themselves more homogeneous tend to feel closer to their home country society and culture than others.

Just a thought.

Homogenous? Not really.

We have so many dialects. Bisaya-speakers actually outnumber Tagalog-speakers (the dialect in which the Filipino language is mostly derived from).

We have 2 major religions: Christianity and Muslim, and those two religions have several sects. Most of them are in conflict with each other.

We have several Filipino-blood mixtures. You have the light-skinned Filipinos (mix with Caucasians). You have the tanned Filipinos (mix with other South-East Asians). You the have darker-skinned Filipinos (mix with Africans and Middle Easterns).

Bad example, comparing us to Japan.

Yeah perhaps - although I think that you meant 'cohesive' to indicate the strength of the ties to the home country and to each other. When I was outside of the UK, being British was what defined me. I rather enjoyed it to be honest.

Cohesive is a slightly better word. lol.

Yes, homogeneous may not have been the optimum selection.
What I was trying to bring into the discussion was a possible contribution in the original on the strength of a unifying nation-state and national identity.
It seemed to me most people in the Philippines identify themselves as number 1 being Filipino and tightly attach to that many common social and cultural aspects.
So many Filipinos miss that dried fish. Or at least say so.
So many say they miss close family connections
The things they miss from their homeland seem to have more to do commonality of identity through cultural and social aspects.

In contrast Europe has been through a few hundred painful years with frequently shifting borders in an attempt to develop nations, identities and ethnicity into what we see today. There's still quite a few exceptions. Possibly growing exceptions.

I nearly said I miss a good Indian curry but we can get them here now,so scrub that...In fact we can get just about anything found on a British menu here these days..
Its been about 2 weeks since we had a good Filipino dish.

The almond slices are awesome

I watched the talalog movie 'Metro Manila' yesterday and had a discussion with my wife about it. I have to say that it all looked very authentic to me and she confirmed it. I found it well worth a watch.

My wife suggested that as a counterpoint to the nostalgic prose that I remarked on, I should post a translation of this tagalog song, so here it is. I understand that it's written by a singer who comes from tondo, an area shown in the movie.

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/upuan-chairseat.html#ixzz3ociWesoa
you who are sitting down
why don't you try standing up
you might see, and you might see
my true predicament
its like this...
Verse 1:
Excuse me, are you inside that
huge house and backyard
surrounded by tall walls
and expensive cars in a line
guards that keep whispering and whispering
nobody's getting married but a lot of people are in barongs (suits)
the roof wont be damaged even if the rain pours hard
plates and spoons that don't know what left-over rice is
and rice as white as a box of milk
and even if it's not christmas there is ham on the table
it probably feels great to live in a house like that
they also say that this is where you can find
the person who owns a seat
when there is an opportunity it is fought over
that's why that person never lets go of it
if i see him i will shout
Chorus
you who are sitting down
why don't you try standing up
you might see, and you might see
my true predicament
Verse 2
Excuse me
to the person who is sitting down
did you know our cup of rice is not full?
the walls of our house are made of cheap roof material
at night it is so hot you could melt ice
that we cant afford to buy for our drinks
boiled water in an old, dirty teapot
using driftwood from the creek
that serves as our kitchen, in the morning, it's our bathroom
my mother's treasure is a soup pan
which is used only when my dad gets his pay
but its still insufficient
dried herring and salt with rice
one dollar has to be fit for a day
i don't know if there are just a lot of barriers
or if the walls are too high
or if you're just pretending to be blind
even with all your money
no doctor can open your eyes
so...
don't be so obvious
stones in the sky
if you are hit don't be mad
stones in the sky
the one who is hit
don't be so obvious
don't be so obvious

Interesting though that you mention an indian curry as being a reminder of the UK. My wife actually remarked that she thought that a lot of British culture had been diluted by the assimilation of so many Indians into UK society. I think she's been a bit shocked to see the numbers of Pakistani people around. I remember reading that Chicken Tikka Masala was now more popular than yorkshire pudding or fish N chips. I find that strangely sad..

Best Indian curries that I've had in manila have been hosseins Persian kebab (Makati ave) www.hosseins.com and also the Berjaya hotel just near there does some nice vegetable kofta. Hosseins in particular can easily stand with the better curries I've had in Birmingham, Bradford, London brick lane or new York. The kofta at the Berjaya was also very nice.

We have an English bloke here that opened a curry house. He lived in India for a number of years.. Food is good but he had some complaints that his chicken vindaloo just aint hot enough.. Very few varieties of chili`s here unfortunately at the moment..
I managed to get hold of some Bhut Jolokia,scotch bonnett,Carolina reaper,Bombay Morich seeds (amongst others) so hopefully,next year all that will change.

I tried Jolokia/Ghost Pepper once. I almost died.

Kidding... But I'll never try one again.

I've done well with my bushes of little native Chillies.
I find them to be hot enough, but just lacking a bit of flavour.
Harvested loads and loads and dried in the sun. Hopefully they'll be fine at Christmas.

My wife makes some great curries

Well.. I've not been there but Hosseins is a nice Indian restaurant, I recommend it. There's also a nice, non-indian restaurant in the Peninsula hotel. There's also a passable Thai resturant in the Glorietta.

Not really into hydroponics although might try aquaponics soon as I have a fishpond..
Chili`s grow great here..Here`s my yellow Habenero`s this year..Very tasty peppers!


I`ll post pics of my super hot peppers in a couple of months if they do OK..(only just germinated)

My sons mates came over to do a project last week..One of them said he could eat any hot pepper you could mention.. I gave him a dry Carolina reaper pod which at the moment is the hottest chili on the planet.
He went straight to hell and back.