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Joo Chiat, Singapore.

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Vintage Jakarta.

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#The happiest place in the world.

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New edits from my 2015 Japan trip. This is my first time actually editting the subject of the photos - if you look closely, you can probably see where I’ve been a little heavy-handed with the Clone / Heal tools.

#japan

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New edits: Death Railway, Thailand. 

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Flavours of Manila

The balance of sweet, salty, sour and bitter is not unusual in South-East Asian profiles - I’ve spent six months in Thailand, and also am super familiar with Vietnamese, Laos and Cambodian foods through my family’s heritage, so I’m no stranger to garlic, vinegar, fish sauce, lemongrass, palm sugar, tamardinds. And then I came to the Philippines, and everything felt familiar but also strangely different. I haven’t really been able to put my finger on it - for every dish I’ve tried here, I can think of something similar in a different cuisine but it’s all just a little off? Anyway, I’ve tried quite a few dishes in my six months here - here’s a quick round-up: 

HITS: 

Dinuguan - pigs blood stew, often served with puto (rice cakes). The puto is spongey and slightly sweet, and the stew is rich with unctuous chunks of pork. Once you get over the slight ick factor associated with blood, it’s incredibly delicious. 

Halo-halo: this is the local answer to iced kachang or bingsu - it’s basically flavoured shaved ice. The base Filipino variation uses ube, red beans, and slices of leche flan, topped with plenty of condensed and evaporated milk. This is delicious in the way that ice-cream is delicious - you can’t reallllllly get it wrong. 

Tokwa’t Baboy - deep fried tofu with pig ears. Served as a snack, and liberally doused in a vinegary sauce, the combination of chewy pig ears, pillowy tofu and crisp rings of red onion are texturally amazing and incredibly moreish. 

Ube anything - very similar to taro, ube is a starchy, sweet root vegetable which is used liberally in desserts. It’s pictured above as a shake, but it features prominently in all types of filopino cuisine: breads, cakes, ice-cream, etc.  It’s frequently paired with cheese which admittedly sounds kinda weird but it works..

OKAY: 

Adobo: This dish is so famous, but I find it pretty average. It’s just another marinated meat, and I think there are too many other versions for this to be a stand-out. 

Crispy Pata: deep-fried pig trotters. To be fair, I do appreciate the balance between the meat and the vinegar dipping sauce (very moreish) but it’s not a particularly exciting dish. It’s probably fine to share but it’s not something I’d order again on my own. 

Kare-kare - a thick stew made with a peanut-base, and slow-braised oxtail. The creamy peanut base is offset with a sharper shrimp paste to create a rich complexity and depth of flavour. Paired with rice and bagoong (shrimp paste) which helps cut through the richness of the sauce, it’s a solid and repeatable dish though some places do it better than others. (There’s also a pretty good version @ 711.)

MISS: 

Bibingka - a cake-style dessert made with rice-flour. The texture is soft and dense, and it’s flavoured with sugar and topped with cheese, salted egg and coconut; then served liberally doused with butter. It is ... a lot. And a bit too much. I really couldn’t get on board with how every flavour is trying to compete in your mouth. 

Sinigang - a sour soup flavoured with tamarind. Usually includes juicy beef rib bones with lots of tender flesh, and lots of green beans and tomatoes. Reminds me of canh chua, but much more sour and more viscous in texture. 

Pancit Luglug - this is the first dish I’ve ever violently hated. The base ingredients are normal (noodles, egg, pork) but the methodology is terrible - the pork rinds leave a terrible dusty texture in your mouth, and the flavour is just salty with no depth. Don’t order this, ever. 

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A throwback to one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten in my life. 

Gaggan, Thailand. 

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Death Railway, Thailand. 

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Kunda Vegetarian Cafe, Chiang Rai 

One of the most delicious, wholesome meals I remember having in Thailand. 

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Corregidor Island

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Maeklong Railway Market. (The last of my Thailand photos!) 

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Khao Sam Roi Yot national park - come for the cave, stay for the sea. 

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Damnoen Saduak floating markets - jump in a long tail boat and putter down the intricate canal system. Boat vendors will float on by selling anything from fresh fruit and veggies, to fried chicken, bowls of steaming hot noodles and souvenir keychains and postcards.