A short blog about the food here in the Philippines.

The basic food of the Philippines is rice. Rice, rice, rice and rice three times a day, everyday with pork, chicken or fish and vegetables. That's what I have been eating for the past week, in Betania Retreat House (a nunnery). I'm hoping that in our host home, there will be something besides rice, but I very much doubt it! However, it has been bearable so far and I'm hoping that it will continue to be bearable for the next 11 weeks or so.

Balut- YUCK YUCK YUCK! It's an embryo of a chicken/duck.. It is not fully developed but it is dead- the Filipinos loves it! What the hell?!?! It looks like a boiled yellow egg inside, but with some kind of, erm, slimey and black/grey blob (the embryo) on it.

We were told that we could try it if we wanted to, April (our youth programme supervisor- YPS) bought some for us. April said that we need to be mentally prepared to eat it, and not to think of it as a chicken, how easy(!) But I couldn't do it. April said that it tasted like a chicken. Chelsea, Gemma, Leanne, em and Abdullah tried it, and they said it tasted like an egg- the yolk bit mainly with a texture of slime- the embryo probably! I asked April if we could feel/taste the beak, feet, eyes, brain, the organs and the feathers. She said that you could taste everything! But I think she exaggerated that as it was only an embryo, and the others said that it was slimey, however Leanne felt a crunch, we don't know whether that was the beak or an eggshell. 

The Filipinos believes in not wasting any foods as they're very poor- therefore they believe in eating everything, such as, eating chicken intestines and blood as their snack!!! They also eat tree worms, crocodile, gecko and soup number 5- what??? Cows' penises and balls soup.. Mainly the men eats it, not the women.

We were advised not to eat any street foods, as they are normally from some kind of disgusting environment, part of the body or any animals, such as rats.

I guess you get the idea of how extreme the foods are here.