Filipino Food Is Fantastic!

[GlorifiedRice]

"Hong Kong supermarket" - I assume that is the local place for you? I imagine others will have other sorts of "Asian"/Chinese/East Asian/SE Asian markets accessible to them. I myself have a bag of commercial frozen calamansi juice also, in my freezer, for occasions when I wish to use it.

Im sorry I took a muscle relaxer earlier, Hong Kong supermarket on Adams Ave Philly

[Jaymes]

Lets all send positive thoughts to the Filippinos that their loved ones are safe and loss of life is minimal.

Yes, let's.

The scope of that disaster appears to be horrendous. Even though it's on the other side of the world from many of us here (although certainly not all of us here), there are still things we can do. The spiritual and religious among us can send prayers and "positive thoughts." Others can donate to charities that will soon be in the Philippines distributing food and water, in an effort to stave off widespread disease and starvation.

I lived in the Philippines for a number of years and can tell you that due to its topography, it faces some unique challenges when it comes to dealing with these sorts of natural disasters. Much of the country is mountainous, so clean water and food supplies will have a very difficult time getting through to the hardest-hit areas. Also, the Philippines is one of the poorest countries in the world, so many people live on the sort of subsistence food supply that you just walk to the market every day to get. For example, when I lived there, our housegirl asked us to please not throw away any of the bottles or jars that the food came in. She would carefully wash them and then take them to the market to sell. I was surprised, since in my world, many foodstuffs come in jars and bottles, and if you needed some extra, you just didn't throw those away. The notion of buying used jars and bottles was completely new to me.

But she pointed out that when she and her friends and family went shopping at the market, what they bought never came in jars. Instead it was (like rice, fish, etc.) usually wrapped into banana leaves or used newspaper and then tied with twine. If you were buying oil or some sort of liquid, you took your own container. If you wanted jars or bottles, you had to buy them from the jar & bottle stall.

When a disaster like this hits anywhere on the planet, it's always arbitrary and heart-wrenchingly difficult. But, it seems to me that it's even more difficult and unfair when it hits a place that's so poor. More affluent and modern nations can recover so much more readily.

I'm sure this storm has demolished so many of the food sources that people depend upon - proteins like chickens, pigs, seafood, etc.; and the growing produce - mangos, coconuts, pineapple, bananas.

And of course, calamansi.

[annabelle]

Looking at aerial photography of the flooding, it appears that the rice crops for this year may be lost as well. Clean water is going to be difficult if not impossible to come by in many areas, as is the fuel to boil any water available.

The storm has claimed a possible 10,000 lives and it is moving to land in Viet Nam, now. Anyone who can should contact the Red Cross to see how they can help.

[GlorifiedRice]

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=9319982

Local Filipino community reacts to typhoon devastation

That link also details how to help in the Philly area

[Jaymes]

Looking at aerial photography of the flooding, it appears that the rice crops for this year may be lost as well. Clean water is going to be difficult if not impossible to come by in many areas, as is the fuel to boil any water available.

The storm has claimed a possible 10,000 lives and it is moving to land in Viet Nam, now. Anyone who can should contact the Red Cross to see how they can help.

Yes, and I can tell you that rice is one of the few foodstuffs that everybody tried to keep on hand, as it was the most-important staple, and did not require refrigeration or any other special storage facilities. In fact, some of the most beautiful and decorative containers in the Philippines were rice holders. As I am not Filipino, I have to rely on what I was told, but what I was told was that families took great pride in their rice storage containers, and the more affluent the family, the more elaborate the rice storage container.

In this scene from Survivor, I was quite surprised to see a rice storage container exactly like the one I brought back from the PI. It's the very large and elaborate brass-with-copper-inlay pot with the tall, domed lid, behind Jeff Probst and a little to his right - the tallest one.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=survivor+philippines+tribal+council&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=survivor+philippines+tribal+council&sc=0-34&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&id=E5C9975AFA4F61C02EBD5D6CD70FBD71CAB48B5E&selectedIndex=15

Naturally, less-affluent families had much smaller versions of basically the same brass pot with the tall-handled lid.

So I'm sure all that cache of rice that prudent families counted on having available is long gone.

.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Jaymes (log)

[GlorifiedRice]

http://www.phillypinoyfoods.com/

This place, that I mentioned before, accepts food, baby items and clothing and blankets etc for Typhoon relief.

I brought cash to donate but they arent accepting cash at this time.

So I bought food from them and donated it to the relief boxes.

It is up the street from In and Out market in Norristown/Bridgeport, next door to the paint store and across the street from the Rib Joint

I also bought Calimansi juice, Avocado ice Cream and Azafran

[annabelle]

The US Marines and the Israeli Army are bringing relief supplies to the people, but they are hampered because the roads are impassable. The people are looting the homes of the dead.

The Red Cross is taking cash donations and can be contacted on their website if they are not in your cities. The Filipino community in the SF bay area, some 650,000, are marshaling relief efforts, as well.

[annabelle]

Anyone who has a Facebook account may donate $10 to the Red Cross for the relief fund. Facebook is keeping the Red Cross donation box pinned for the duration.

[SobaAddict70]

I don't know about a book, but I just discovered this food blog which will DEFINITELY go on my daily reading list: http://asianinamericamag.com/

I don't cook Filipino food very often b/c it reminds me of family (suffice to say that I have a complicated relationship with them, for reasons that are not germane to this thread; you can PM me if you want to know more), but once in a very great while, I'll throw caution to the wind.