Initially appeared on vox.com on 5/24/2009.
One thing i was NOT looking forward to with this year's vacation was the inevitable weight gain. Of course as balikbayans, part of the red-carpet treatment is being practically force-fed at every meal. Where my usual Michigan breakfast usually consists of just a cup of coffee and a plate of reheated leftovers (or cold cereal), i am instead provided an unlimited supply of garlic-fried rice, three kinds of ulam (viand), pan de sal, and perhaps even two different kinds of orange juice. Over protests of "Busog na ako!" (I'm full!), i am told "Marami pang pagkain!" ("But there's plenty of food left!"). Lunch and dinner - if not at a restaurant where we will order twice as much food as necessary - is more of the same. There's also the ubiquitous merienda (mid-afternoon meal, between lunch and dinner) and after-dinner drinks with friends.
Last year i gained roughly ten pounds in a span of two weeks. Since over the past year i've managed to burn this off (and then some) with running, it should be understandable why i wasn't too keen on eating unlimited quantities of food. Unfortunately it's impossible to resist when eager relatives present you with dishes that your palate has craved for far too long.
As i said, we had litson again this year for Adrian's birthday party. It wasn't something that i planned, but my parents just spontaneously sprang for it. Who am i to refuse?
(Disclosure: while this is a Filipino litson, it is not necessarily Anthony Bourdain's "Best Pig Ever," which hailed from Cebu and was prepped with olive oil and sea salt as well as "acupunctured.")
At the second, more "intimate" get together for Adrian's birthday (including just immediate family), we got Cantonese (Chinese) take-out from Luk Foo. No General Tsao's Chicken or little takeout boxes here.
Some of the restaurants we went to were Isdaan in Tarlac (similar, but not quite the same as "Palaisdaan" in Cavite, which we also visited) and Kanin Club - a Filipino restaurant with a contemporary twist (but not fusion) on traditional dishes, such as "Crispy Dinuguan" and "Sinigang Rice" (mental note: this is probably the best way to introduce Filipino food to foreigners - if they ever look for franchisees, get in line). A particular favorite was the Japanese restaurant Omakase, where we had last year's despedida dinner. On the way to Tagaytay, we sampled the pizza and ever-fresh salad bar at Gourmet's Cafe, and on the way back we stopped by a local Bulalohan and tried our best to clog our arteries.
One place we had heard so much about but were unable to get to last year was a restaurant called HEAT at the Shangri-La Edsa Hotel. HEAT is an acronym for "Healthy Eating, Amazing Tastes" and it does not disappoint.
For a little over $30, tax-inclusive (although they of course charge in Philippine pesos), you get an international buffet in a fine dining experience. I did not personally count, but they apparently have over 20 dishes spread out over 11 stations. My pictures don't really do the food justice but i did find a blog that does. The prices seem to have gone up since that post was written.
Gianina and i made the observation that we have yet to find a "real" buffet in this country - i.e. like the ones we're so used to in Manila. Sure there are the relatively inexpensive Chinese buffets, the hotels with their Sunday buffet brunches, and of course the American "comfort food" buffets like Fire Mountain, but for sheer scope, variety, and value-for-money, nothing compares to the buffets back home. A few days before we went to HEAT in fact, i stuffed my face at a sushi buffet at Sakae Sushi for PhP299 (a little over $6 at today's exchange rate) - a price point that would barely get you one piece of sushi at a Japanese restaurant in Grand Rapids.
With all the abundance of food, one has to wonder why don't see more Michigan-sized people in Manila, and for this we have to do some mathematical analysis. For someone making about $3,000 dollars a month (based on the median income in the US), a $10 buffet is fairly cheap at 0.3% of their income, while someone making PhP20,000 a month (which should be a fair estimate of a decent salary, and significantly less for the multitudes of urban poor) would have serious second thoughts about blowing at least 5% of their paycheck on just one meal. Translation: good food is available in mass quantities, but as a luxury. This thought is slightly depressing and makes me a little guilty about spending so much money on food, and i just rationalize by telling myself that we only do this once a year anyway.
Anyway, with all the caloric intake going on, i had to do my best to burn it off, which was MUCH easier said than done.
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