Filed under: Food Scrapings, Road Scrapings | Tags: entrepreneurship, food, ingenuity, isaw, philippines, street, travel
Three o’clock in the afternoon is a special time in the Philippines. It even has its own name, oras ng merienda or simply time for afternoon snacks. Think of the Spanish siesta but in Filipino form. Children are just about done their classes, while the early day workers are already coming home. A myriad of street stalls start coming to life. Their owners start promoting, cooking, and hawking their products for their prospective customers. Here’s when you see Filipino ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and gastronomic adventurousness.
In terms of entrepreneurship, those selling street food are not rich businessmen or those with capital looking for something to invest in. Most of them are ordinary people who are trying to make ends meet. Stall owners are usually women who either by chance or fate could not get office jobs. They are mothers who have time to spare in between housework or grandmothers trying to help their families survive.
Their ingenuity comes from the brilliant products they sell. Grillers of skewered assorted meats are the epitome of merienda stalls. By the way, assorted meats is a euphemism for discarded meat product such as isaw (general term for either chicken, pig, or cow intestine), betamax (blocks of pigs blood), balun-balunan (chicken gizzard), and tenga (general word for ears but in this case pigs’ ears). What most people will discard, others will find a way to use them. It’s the old trash-treasure adage. Each stall will then have its own recipe for a thick sweet (matamis) sauce and a sour vinegar (suka) concoction that you can dip your meats in. Sugar, vinegar, and a couple of other spices and you are set. No business plans required in this industry.
Honestly though, the most important aspect of merianda time is the gastronomic delight it presents to those willing try them. Tenga if done well gives you a strange crunchy, chewy, and sweet flavour that is paired well with the vinegar cocktail. Isaw flavours vary depending on the source animal. Chicken isaw looks solid but has a delicate texture that just melt in your mouth after one chew. My personal favourite is cow isaw that comes in large rings. Okay, I can’t really describe how they taste due to my limited flavour vocabulary. It just proves though that in many cases food is something to be experienced not described. Many people might find it strange but most though only need to get through that first bite. Chefs receive years of training to cook things like sweetbreads but stall owners just simply grill them until they look done.
Talking about them makes my water. I haven’t even started to describe items such as turon (banana filled spring rolls deep-fried with sugar), fish balls, and ice scramble (a very simple shaved ice dessert). Merianda is special in many ways but more importantly it shows that eating local food is cultural immersion in one of its purest forms.
Filed under: Food Scrapings
It has been almost a year since I came back from Singapore. One of the things I still miss is the food! I did not care much for the upscale restaurants in the city because 1) I could not afford them and 2) I’ve tried some and I was not wowed by the experience. Anybody who’s lived in Singapore will always tell that for the ultimate food experience, nothing beats the sounds and tastes of a hawker centre.
Since I came back, I was more cognizant of Singaporean/Malaysian restaurants around Vancouver. Last night, a couple of my friends and I tried Prima Taste in Downtown Vancouver on Robson by W. Pender. It was a far call from anything I’ve tasted.
The good points first. The restaurant itself was excellently designed with a minimalist flavour. The bar has excellent lighting that gives it class. Booth benches were covered in a brown suede and aptly cushioned. Although their chairs were a bit low, the dark wood finish was a nice touch.
Now for the bad parts. First of all, I expect a restaurant to be well-stocked any day of the week at whatever time of the day. The only time I do not expect this is when I know that their dishes are made from “the catch of the day” or something similar to that idea. Basically, it is the freshest it could be. My friend Steve and I both ordered laksas. Karen, who had no idea what to order thought of trying the Prawn Noodle Soup. It wasn’t available so she opted to try the Char Kway Teow. After Steve and I informed her that it had clam cockles, she needed to change her order due to allergies. She asked for the Mee Goreng, which apparently is also not available. Running out of options, she just decided on the Hainanese Chicken Rice.
Before the waitress even placed the order, she asked us to move to another table because a group of 8 came in and they were combining tables. We graciously agreed but honestly, this is a big faux pas in the restaurant industry. You never move your customers unless extremely necessary. People eat at restaurants to enjoy and relax, it’s like being at home but other people are serving you. To me, it is just a sign of poor restaurant planning and lack of foresight.
After moving to a booth, another waitress came and said that they only had 1 laksa available. So we changed one to a Char Kway Teow. The whole experience could have been saved by delicious food but it was completely sub par. Singaporean dishes have strong flavours that jump at you but at Prima Taste it was just a subtle poke. I am not saying the food was terrible but it was just okay, nothing really delicious that would make you say “I want to come back”. The servings were also smaller than I expected.
If any of you want to try Singaporean/Malaysian food, I highly recommend going to Banana Leaf. You get more bang for your buck in terms of food, servings, and service. I think Prima Taste tries to hard with how it presents itself but they need to relearn the basics of the restaurant industry. Without good food and excellent service, your customers will never come back.
