Food glorious food!

Filipinos LOVE to eat. And eat A LOT and FREQUENTLY. Which goes without saying that you don't see a lot of skinny-minny Filipinos, but it also means that I've been eating really well while I've been here. Not only is our hotel breakfast buffet out of this world- we just learned that they have a dessert buffet at dinner- complete with a chocolate fountain!

We learned the most about how important food and eating is to filipinos are a few meetings that we've had. Last week at the National Department of Health- we had a meeting that started at 7:30 (we got picked up at 6- because even though we only went about 2 miles traffic was that bad!). At around 9:30, the Dept of Health brought in the morning snack- Jollibee! Jollibee is the Philippine's answer to McDonald's. A direct competitor with similar coloring and marketing and food- burgers, fries, shakes, etc., but they also offer pasta and fried chicken (as does McD's here too)! At 9:30 cheeseburgers, fries, and regular Coke were passed around- really a burger, fries and coke for the morning snack? Given that we woke up at 5 a.m. and the breakfast buffet wasn't open yet, we did eat the Jollibee (though my vegetarian colleague avoided the burger). About 2.5 hours later at noon, the Dept of Health rep said that she couldn't leave us without lunch- keeping anyone in a meeting over the 12 noon hour requires that you offer lunch. What did we get- Jollibee again! More Coke, but this time fried chicken, rice, peas/carrots, and a little brownie. Man, am I going to gain back those 10 lbs I lost!

We experienced much of the same in Tarlac for our workshop/meeting. AM snacks were regularly noodles (like chop suey), then lunch two hours later- full buffet- with rice, veggies, and two types of meat and then dessert. Then two hours later the p.m. snack which one day was penne pasta with tomoato sauce and another day was a tapioca/coconut pudding with banana fried in eggroll type dough/paper. Was so much food!

Filipinos also like their sweets- which is great for me since "sweet tooth" is basically my middle name! :) Baked goods, puddings, flans, cakes, etc. Ensaymadas are our new favorite at breakfast. Ensaymadas are a brioche made with butter instead of lard, and topped with grated cheese (usually aged Edam, known locally as "queso de bola") and sugar. SO GOOD! So fear not we've been eating well....and we'll probably come home with a few extra pounds on us.