If you grew up in a Filipino home, you know the smell. A pot of beef bones and water on the back of the stove, barely bubbling, filling the whole house for hours on a gray, wet afternoon. That smell means nilaga, and nilaga means comfort, the kind that comes from a pot your lola …
When the rains come to the Philippines, when the sky goes gray and the air turns cool and damp, something happens in kitchens all over the country: the ginger comes out, the chicken goes in the pot, and the house fills with a warm, fragrant steam that means everything is going to be all right. …
Few dishes are as synonymous with Filipino cuisine as Adobo a tangy, savory, and deeply satisfying dish that holds a place in nearly every Filipino household. Whether made with chicken, pork, or a combination of both, adobo is defined by its bold yet balanced marinade of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves, and black peppercorns, …
At any Filipino gathering, there is a quiet, unspoken competition happening at the buffet table, and lumpia is always at the center of it. These crispy, golden, finger-sized spring rolls, hot from the fryer and piled on a platter, vanish faster than anything else in the room, so fast that the smart move is to …
The Philippines has a retirement visa that lets a foreigner settle there more or less permanently, and the real out-of-pocket cost is less than you would pay for a decent used car. For an American daydreaming about retiring somewhere warm, affordable, and English-speaking, that is a genuinely startling door, and as someone who grew up …
Living as a Filipina in Spain, I get to eat both of them, and I have come to love the quiet joke buried in my own two kitchens. On one side is the lechon of my childhood, the whole pig turning over coals at every Filipino fiesta, its skin shattering like glass. On the other …
In a Filipino home, the first sign that someone is unwell is not a thermometer but a smell: ginger and garlic hitting hot oil, the unmistakable opening notes of arroz caldo. Before the fever is even confirmed, a mother or a lola is already at the stove, because in the Philippines this warm, savory, ginger-laced …
When the judges on Top Chef crowned the winner of season 23 on the June finale, the dish that sealed it was not some tweezered tower of foam but a stew, a deep, dark, tomato-and-liver braise that a Filipino grandmother would recognize instantly. Chef Rhoda Magbitang, a Hawaii-based Filipina born and raised in the Philippines, …
Philippine Fruits: 25 Best Fruits in the Philippines to Try – From the most popular Filipino fruits like mango and Papaya to more exotic fruits in the Philippines that you should try. Our favorite one is the mango national fruit of the Philippines. But there are other Filipino fruits like papaya and lanzones that are …
Choosing between Thailand vs Philippines for your big Asia travel? If you know us, we are a couple who’s pretty much made Southeast Asia our second home (Rachel is from the Philippines and we traveled in Southeast Asia the longest in the beginning of our couple travels in 2015). We bounced between the beautiful chaos …
Finally we decided to do our Philippines bucket list. Where should I go? What I can’t miss in the Philippines. In this blog post we will tell you all the things to do in the Philippines and places that you must visit. Click here to book activities in the Philippines with Klook! The Philippines is …
The Philippines is one of Southeast Asia’s most captivating destinations—home to over 7,000 islands, stunning beaches, and some of the friendliest people in the world. But while the locals are famously hospitable and laid-back, there are unspoken cultural norms and boundaries every traveler should be aware of. What might seem harmless or normal to a …