“I love fish rines” in Tagalog. HAHAHAA okay, so Russell and I went to the market this morning after breakfast to get some Diet Coke (well, Coke Light) for Melissa and wandered around the market and found ourselves laughing hysterically. I swear we were getting dirty looks from people who were actually trying to grocery shop. It was certainly an experience! Melissa had told us about the crazy wall of hot dogs, and he had been in there before but said he didn’t notice. So, we ventured to check it out. Holy cow – how can you NOT notice! It was a full wall, and had 2 side walls along with a center case full of hot dogs. I didn’t know you could do so much with processed meat! Granted there were a couple little sections of bacon, but I would say that 95% of that area was hot dogs!!! All shapes, colors, sizes and “flavors”. Fish hot dogs was probably the grossest sounding one. There were people restocking the cases, so we didn’t loiter too long, but we did get pictures!!
Then walked along the “fresh meat” section. I like that our cut meats are in a glass case with LOTS of ice to keep things off of it and keep it fresh… not so much here. It is all out for display. Everything from ground meat to pig legs with toes still on just laying out for display and for you to pick up and toss in a plastic bag.
We were headed to the fish section when we were distracted by the canned/jarred meats… Oh yes, we must! Well, this is where the Balut was found. Now we both thought this was something that was “fresh” and not found pickled in a jar. I guess you can get it both ways. Not real sure. But Russell did pick up a jar to bring home as a gag gift. He’s hoping it doesn’t break in his suitcase or he will have to throw out everything!!! I don’t know if there are enough zipper baggies to protect it!!! There were all kinds of canned/jarred seafood type stuff that took up both sides of the aisles!!
We did find the seafood section – and it was not that we had to look real hard, you could smell it. Much like the fresh meats, the fish was also out without glass casing. And there are full out fish laying there. Head – eyes – fins - scales and all. Yick! Shark fin is commonly sold here, which is sad. I thought that was illegal and Melissa said it is, but there are still many restaurants and places to purchase it. We’ve seen it in both the Philippines and in Hong Kong. Neither of us are fans of this practice and are both fine with eating at establishments that do not sell this. Might be a bit environmental sounding, but to have seen many shows on Discovery and such about the common practice of them taking the shark simply for the dorsal fin is horrible and cruel. My friend and coworker Brian has brought a whole new respect and appreciation to sharks. Now, don’t get me wrong, I won’t be crazy like him and go swim with them, but they are graceful in the water.
Back to our grocery store adventure –
Russell said George had talked about some chips that were wretched and he had as a kid (his mom is Pilipino) and we weren’t sure exactly what chips they were – but we found many that were quite gross! Tuna skins fried like pork rines had to be the worst! Between that and squid jerky – which Cha, one of the trainers, said is an “acquired taste”. I think I will pass on trying this one, wait - not I think, but I will pass.. It is certainly different. Now don’t get me wrong, they have normal stuff here like Heinz & Hunts products, fruits & veggies, even Daddy could get Miracle Whip. Sorry Susan and other southern folks – no Dukes Mayo here.
I primarily eat at the hotel and haven’t ventured out to try much local cuisine. My tummy can’t quite handle that. It’s already having a hard time with the number of McDonald’s cheeseburgers! I have had more of those since being here than I have in the last several years!!! Granted, that is pretty much the only thing open we take our “lunch” break at 3am.
Enjoy a glass of milk for me. I cannot wait to get home and have some!!!! That is something I really really miss. I will probably eat cereal for a month when I get home.
Be sure to check out the pictures from the market!! Hehehe
http://picasaweb.google.com/dnole2/TripToTheLocalGroceryStore
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