The Market and Food

Today I went to the local market with three of the ladies here. We took a tricye (which is a motorcycle with a side car, two girls on the back of the motorcycle and two girls in the car on the side) there and back. Its a five minute drive into town and it costs 10 pesos (22 cents) to go just about anywhere. Apparently four white girls going anywhere draws a lot of attention and with us all crammed on a tricye we were quite a sight to be seen! We walked through the busy streets going in and out of shops and stands getting some familiar and some not so familiar food items. They have green oranges here (which are the same shape and size of an orange but green like a lime) which they have the nerve to call oranges, which I think kind of defeats the purpose of an orange being called an orange. I found out where you can get a ton of squash blooms which I will be getting soon and will prepare a wonderful southern dish! Wonderful note: Filipinos eat potatoes! YEA! We then visited the Buko Brothers (my favorite place in the market so far) and got fresh buko juice (young coconut juice)! YUM!

One of the best parts about the Philippines is how and what they eat. They don't use any form of utensils, just there hands! A typical breakfast, lunch, and dinner looks like this: For breakfast we have had dried fish, rice and bananas. At lunch we have had mongo (mung) beans with tomatoes, chilies, watercress, and rice. At dinner we have had whole chicken broken in pieces in a pot of water with cabbage, tomatoes, ginger, and garlic, with kangkong (a wonderful leafy green) and rice. And possibly later or in between we might have rice pudding. And I can't emphasize enough how much fun it is to eat with your hands!