Food on the Island

Food, an important issue in the daily life of the Filipinos and surely also for the expats living on the island.

For our fresh food we can only go to the market because the island doesn’t have any supermarkets as there are in the city where you can by different meats, cheeses and a variety of fresh vegetables. The offer in the market is very limited and offers only the basic veggies the islanders use to prepare their meals such as eggplant, onions, bitter gourd, some string beans and pumpkin. Completed with some local greens.

Meat is limited to pork, very fat pork meat except on Sundays where there is some beef. Only problem is that the beef has not matured and the butchers don’t know how to cut the meat. Chicken, pork, beef and the fish are put on open benches without any form of refrigeration. And flies are always around.

But as everyone on the island, three times a week I go to the market to see what ‘goodies’ I can buy. Every time I buy at the same stall run by a young and smart woman who thinks about the produce she can offer to the growing colony of foreigners.

So last week I was very pleased she presented me fresh bell pepper! And with the little parsley she had I could prepare some garlic butter I like much with some fried or grilled (lean) pork or chicken.

Bread on the island is, American style industrial bread. It has no crust, is soft and most of all sweet. Some expats and for sure the islanders don’t have a problem with it, but I don’t like it. Bread shops you can find nearly everywhere and are mostly selling pastries loved by the locals and eaten as a snack. Sweet stuff of course.

But, Thank God, there is Perry’s, a small pizza restaurant annex bake shop, baking ‘European’ bread and baguettes. Ok, they are not like in Paris but it’s a treat to make sandwiches.

To make sandwiches you need cold cuts, cheese and mayonnaise of course. You can buy mayonnaise in the grocery but you have to like sweet mayonnaise, the industrial processed ham is sweet and the processed cheese is no cheese and way too salty.

   

But there is Culinary Delights. A small store way up the mountain, owned by an Australian expat with German roots living here for years, and offering all cold cuts and cheeses you can dream of. But also real mayonnaise, Dijon mustard and preserved vegetables imported from Europe or Australia such as peas, red cabbage, sauerkraut and a variety of sausages and steaks.

But the best of all: real French butter!

Rosa’s is the place for expats, where you can have a cold German Weiss beer, a Becks or Bittburger served in a glass and not in the bottle as usual on the island. The store is next to the fantastic house of the owner and surrounded by a well-kept garden with some tables and chairs. 

Some Sundays he organizes a pop-up restaurant offering steaks or sausages with home-made bread and a cold beer. Life is good on the island.