Beyond toilet walls...

Maharlika · Post by **Maharlika** » Sat Jun 08, 2002 5:23 am

San Miguel Beer!!!!

Originally posted by Chanak

We lived in Clark Air Base. Of the many things etched in my memory of this beautiful country - and people - I'll never forget my caribou ride in a rice paddy. I garnered much respect for the farmer that day, for riding on the back of a caribou was a prickly experience!

There's lots of history there, to be sure. My elementary school class took an awesome field trip to a Spanish fortification near Manila. I can't remember the name of the place - I wish I could.

Writing about this brings back a flood of memories.

The Spanish fort you are talking about is Fort Santiago in the old section of Manila called Intramuros.

LOL @ the carabao ride!

I used to ride one in my grandfather's farm in the province in the island of Panay.

You drink San Mig? Now, I'm getting homesick...

Chanak · Post by **Chanak** » Sat Jun 08, 2002 9:52 am

Mag Beer Muna Tayo! (Thanks, Tamerlane!)

@Maharlika:

The Spanish fort you are talking about is Fort Santiago in the old section of Manila called Intramuros.

Yes, that was it. Very old. I remember there was an area where you could find buried shards of pottery, which we were allowed to take if we could find it. I had a great day there.

I wish I could find San Miguel beer here.

People who returned stateside would often have friends ship them some...which I'm sure is not exactly legal.

It's possible, though, that it's exported here to the states, somewhere. Finding it is the problem. A quest, perhaps?

Carabao...LOL! I thought I had spelled it incorrectly. As I recall, they were pretty tempermental.

I enjoyed living off-base in Angeles city. What I particulary liked was hearing the balut peddler calling out early in the morning:

"Baluuuuut! Balubalubaluuuuuut!"

Balut was...well...interesting. An acquired taste, I am sure!

Well, if you ever run across some San Miguel, take a long pull for me.

Maharlika · Post by **Maharlika** » Sat Jun 08, 2002 10:23 am

Mag Beer Muna Tayo! (Whaddayaknow...)

Originally posted by Chanak
@Maharlika:

Yes, that was it. Very old. I remember there was an area where you could find buried shards of pottery, which we were allowed to take if we could find it. I had a great day there.

I wish I could find San Miguel beer here. People who returned stateside would often have friends ship them some...which I'm sure is not exactly legal. It's possible, though, that it's exported here to the states, somewhere. Finding it is the problem. A quest, perhaps?

Carabao...LOL! I thought I had spelled it incorrectly. As I recall, they were pretty tempermental.

I enjoyed living off-base in Angeles city. What I particulary liked was hearing the balut peddler calling out early in the morning:

"Baluuuuut! Balubalubaluuuuuut!"

Balut was...well...interesting. An acquired taste, I am sure!

Well, if you ever run across some San Miguel, take a long pull for me.

(...I'm drinking one right now!)

If you live in the West Coast (where the Filipino community is largest particularly in California), chances are you will be able to find some. However, I think they would be in cans not in bottles. I always prefer my beer from the bottle than from the can.

Balut... yes, an acquired taste. For those who don't know what balut is, it is an egg with a chick inside.

Hmmm... Clark not Subic. I remember that Richard Gere was at Subic when he filmed the movie "An Officer and a Gentleman"(?) about the same time you were at Clark.

Yes, Pampanga now will never be the same again after Pinatubo's eruption, but I heard that the locals are beginning to get a better life.

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Sat Jun 08, 2002 10:43 am

Re: Mag Beer Muna Tayo! (Whaddayaknow...)

Originally posted by Maharlika
(...I'm drinking one right now!)

That's just mean. Tease.

Balut... yes, an acquired taste. For those who don't know what balut is, it is an egg with a chick inside.

Eeeewwwwwww

Ode to a Grasshopper · Sat Jun 08, 2002 11:16 pm

Just out of curiousity @Mah, exactly what drives one to "acquire" a taste like that?

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Sat Jun 08, 2002 11:20 pm

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
Just out of curiousity @Mah, exactly what drives one to "acquire" a taste like that?

Eating lots of it. Like acquiring a taste for anything else... like beer, for instance

Ode to a Grasshopper · Sat Jun 08, 2002 11:51 pm

Originally posted by Georgi

Eating lots of it. Like acquiring a taste for anything else... like beer, for instance

I was more concerned about why anyone would want to develop a taste for that balut stuff.

I tried that with beer, it didn't work. Still can't stand the stuff.

Chanak · Post by **Chanak** » Sat Jun 08, 2002 11:54 pm

@Ode:

Just out of curiousity @Mah, exactly what drives one to "acquire" a taste like that?

Not that I presume to speak for Maharlika, but from what I could see, it's a traditional, cultural food. It's alot like eating insects: the idea is foreign to those of European and European-based cultures (like Aussies, most Americans, and Canadians), but it's quite common in many parts of both Asia and Africa. If you grow up with it, it's not a big deal.

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 12:00 am

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
I was more concerned about why anyone would want to develop a taste for that balut stuff.

The thing is, it's pretty much true for anything that's an "acquired taste". If it was nice in the first place, one wouldn't have to "acquire" a taste for it

@Chanak you're probably right

Like us Brits squirm at the idea of our neighbours across the channel eating snails and frog legs

Chanak · Post by **Chanak** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 12:11 am

Eating Amphibians, Reptiles, and Arthropods

@Georgi:

Like us Brits squirm at the idea of our neighbours across the channel eating snails and frog legs

I've never tried frog legs (they're popular here in parts of the USA, though. People say they taste like chicken. LOL

). Turtles are wildly popular in the southern US...so much so that certain species had to be protected by law to save them from extinction.

Do you like lobster? Or shrimp? Perhaps crab?

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 12:17 am

Re: Eating Amphibians, Reptiles, and Arthropods

Originally posted by Chanak
I've never tried frog legs (they're popular here in parts of the USA, though. People say they taste like chicken. LOL). Turtles are wildly popular in the southern US...so much so that certain species had to be protected by law to save them from extinction.

Do you like lobster? Or shrimp? Perhaps crab?

I've never tried them either (but that's what I've heard too)

I like shrimp (or prawns, as we call them)... haven't tried the others. Generally, if it looks like animal, I don't like it much... so I don't like most seafood as it's served looking pretty much like it does when it's alive...

Actually I recall in a restaurant in Paris, the guy next to me had a seafood dish, and it had this cute little starfish on it... he decided he just couldn't eat it, it was too cute

Oh, I had squid once, that was quite nice actually

Ode to a Grasshopper · Sun Jun 09, 2002 12:42 am

So in other words the balut is purely a cultural thing.

I'm allergic to seafood.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 1:20 am

Re: Re: Eating Amphibians, Reptiles, and Arthropods

Originally posted by Georgi
Actually I recall in a restaurant in Paris, the guy next to me had a seafood dish, and it had this cute little starfish on it... he decided he just couldn't eat it, it was too cute

But that's even worse, then the poor starfish has died all in vain

just to be thrown away

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 1:23 am

I hate it when they make you choose the lobster out of the fish tank.

Ode to a Grasshopper · Sun Jun 09, 2002 1:25 am

You mean you've never stood there and told them about their inevitable grisly fate?

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 1:26 am

Oh, great now make me live with a guilty conscious.

Ode to a Grasshopper · Sun Jun 09, 2002 1:34 am

My advice is to get rid of your conscience at the earliest possible opportunity. Life's far better without it.
Though mine does, on occasion, come back to haunt me. Mysty being the most recent example.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 1:37 am

Originally posted by Tamerlane
I hate it when they make you choose the lobster out of the fish tank.

I hate that too, it makes it so personal - I'm to choose whom of these poor lobsters that are going to be thrown in boiling water alive

Lobsters also have pain receptors.

Ode to a Grasshopper · Sun Jun 09, 2002 1:39 am

I'm allergic to shellfish, so I've never had that problem.

Chanak · Post by **Chanak** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 1:41 am

@Ode:

Sorry for the allergy. What a bummer.

In regards to balut: yep, it's a cultural thing. I can't stomach the thought, but that's ok. I like the entire lobster sitting on the plate in front of me (the claws are better than the tail), and some people can't stomach that thought, either.

I once ordered lobster and steak at a high-priced restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, and the waitress proceeded to hand two plates to me: one displayed a nice, ordinary steak of beef; the other, however, looked like an alien on a mortuary slab.

My date ordered the same thing, and was frightened of hers. Needless to say, I ate much lobster that evening.

Ever read the cartoon "Calvin and Hobbes?"

@Georgi:

You must have had the prawns (we call a certain kind of shrimp a prawn, such as a tiger prawn) served breaded, then. More flavorful than the prawn, however, is the crab. More flavorful than either one, certainly, is the lobster.

That's IMO, naturally.

Actually I recall in a restaurant in Paris, the guy next to me had a seafood dish, and it had this cute little starfish on it... he decided he just couldn't eat it, it was too cute

Starfish?

I didn't know they were eaten. They don't have a chance to regenerate, then. How sad.