- Good morning, everyone, it's Mark Wiens.
I am in Quezon City, and
this is part of metro Manila.
And today I'm going to
be meeting up with Reby,
who is a friend of mine.
We go way back, and she
loves to eat as well.
So we're gonna do some eating
today around Quezon City.
Reby should be here soon,
and we're gonna start eating.
(upbeat music)
So we're at the University
of the Philippines.
Is this like a food court,
or is this a student center?
- This is like a student center, yes.
You can do photocopies
here, and then eat as well.
Get everything done.
- Oh, and we're going
to a legendary stall,
which is called Rodic's.
They do have a,
a series of different
Filipino dishes to eat,
but I think almost
everybody who comes here
eats the tapsilog, right?
- [Worker] Yeah.
- Okay, so we ordered tapsilog.
And it comes with rice.
The actual meat is called tapsi?
- Tapa.
- Tapa.
- Tapa, which is from carabao's meat.
- Okay, and it's cured in vinegar, right?
- [Reby] Vinegar and soy sauce.
- Vinegar and soy sauce.
It's cured in vinegar and soy sauce,
then they serve that
over rice with an egg.
So it's a complete, especially
makes a good breakfast.
It's just three parts, right?
Rice on the bottom, then tapa
and the fried egg on top.
And you can see that's a
beautiful looking fried egg there.
I think they've just fried it on one side,
so it's kinda juicy still, half-cooked.
So Reby douses hers all in vinegar,
but I'm gonna just taste it first.
- [Reby] Go for it.
- To taste the flavor of the tapa before
adding the vinegar, but I know
I'll need the vinegar too.
And actually, this is made with carabao,
which is a water buffalo.
It's a little bit sweet and sour.
- Yeah.
- Sweet and sour and salty.
Yeah, it will be good with that extra
dimension of sourness.
I'm gonna douse it in vinegar as well.
Do you need more vinegar?
Do you want me to?
Lots?
- [Reby] Keep going.
I'm good, thanks.
- All right, I'm going in for the yolk.
Oh, oh, that's what makes it good.
Okay, yolk,
and everything.
Oh yeah.
With the extra vinegar, it's really good.
It almost tastes like beef.
Maybe just with a little bit
of a more meaty taste to it.
Just finished with that tapsilog,
and I've just read that
they've been making
that same recipe since 1949,
so it's a proven recipe.
- Cheese, avocado or mango?
- [Mark] Cheese?
- Cheese ice cream.
- [Mark] Oh, I gotta have
some cheese ice cream.
- You never had that?
- [Mark] I don't think so.
- What?
- [Mark] I've never had cheese ice cream?
- Cheese, yeah.
- [Mark] Okay, one avocado and one cheese.
Wait, do you get two scoops or one scoop?
- [Reby] No, you have to tell
them if you wanna mix it,
it's cheese and avocado,
or do you want just--
- [Mark] Cheese and avocado.
- [Reby] Is that one cheese and avocado?
Which cone do you want, the waffle cone
or just the normal one?
- [Mark] Just the normal.
- [Reby] Cheese and avocado.
- [Mark] Are you getting all cheese?
- [Reby] Just cheese, yeah.
- [Mark] You're all cheese?
- Yeah.
(laughter)
That's my favorite.
- And I can honestly say,
this is gonna be my first time
to ever have cheese ice cream.
Okay, on the top is the avocado ice cream.
Yeah, that tastes like
avocado, and creamy and sweet.
But I'm really more interested to try that
cheese ice cream, which is on the bottom,
so I'm gonna have to dig
from the bottom here.
- [Reby] Did you get a cheese bit?
- No, I don't think I got a cheese bit.
They actually have cheese pieces in it?
- Yeah look, hold on.
Let me dig into mine.
- [Mark] It is a little bit salty.
It's kind of a mild cheese flavor.
- See those two bits?
They're little bits.
- [Mark] It's actually little cheese?
- Yeah, they're scattered in there.
- They have little bits
of real cheese in it.
Oh yeah, I got one.
I got one.
Yeah, that is definitely cheese.
It's a little bit salty.
It's sweet and creamy.
And,
that's cheesy ice cream for you.
Oh that's cheese.
- [Reby] Cheese with, does
it look like sugar, I think.
- [Mark] Is it sugar too?
- [Reby] Mmm-hmm.
(speaking foreign language)
- [Mark] Right next to
the ice cream stall,
there's a corn stall.
What is the name of this corn?
Oh cheese corn, it's
just called cheese corn?
- [Reby] Cheese corn.
- [Mark] Okay.
So she has the corn boiling,
and then she has some that's already been
chopped off the cob.
And she puts it into a cup,
and then just tops it, layers it
with cheese, cheese powder.
It's cheese powder and sugar.
- My favorite.
Try it.
- All right, thank you.
It's pretty sweet, yeah.
It's very sweet.
And then it does have that
kinda imitation cheese flavor to it.
The cheese powder flavor to it.
(upbeat music)
We're going to a place
called Mang Larry's,
which is legendary
throughout all of Manila
and especially on campus,
for serving Isaw.
Which is probably one of the most famous
of all Filipino Manila street foods.
(speaking foreign language)
- [Reby] Just the chicken,
and the pork intestines.
- And actually we're
here right as they open
at 11 a.m., so we're here kinda early,
and I know this place is much much busier,
and a lotta people come more
in the afternoon or evening.
That's when it's most popular to eat.
But luckily, they've just opened,
and I guess we'll be
first eating here today.
So we ordered up just
some chicken intestines
and some pork intestines.
Just throws it onto the really
scorching hot fire grill,
and they're just gonna, they're just gonna
like toast over those coals.
It takes just a few seconds to grill
because they grill it on such a hot fire,
and then they put it into
a little brown paper bag.
I got 10 skewers of Isaw, which
is the chicken intestines.
And one thing you gotta check out
is the, the size, the magnitude,
of this jug of vinegar.
This is, so the vinegar is full right now.
You can see all the chilis
at the top here of this jug.
And we're here at the
very beginning of the day,
right as they're opening.
But you know that they plan
for the amount of vinegar
that they're gonna use for the entire day.
So they're gonna use this entire vinegar.
That tells you how many
people are gonna come here
when it gets busier later in the day.
You can grab a little cup.
Should I put this in
or put the Isaw inside?
- [Reby] Put the Isaw first.
- [Mark] Put the Isaw first?
All right.
- [Reby] Need help?
- [Mark] Oh yes please, thank you.
I'll put a few of them in here.
Oh, oh, oh, those are beautiful,
just coiled up onto the skewer.
Coiled up onto the skewer,
you can see those grill marks on there,
and stick this into the cup.
And then, you turn on
the spigot of vinegar.
Oh yeah.
You wanna really soak it in the vinegar.
- [Reby] Yeah.
- [Mark] Vinegar is one
of the ultimate condiments
in the Philippines.
And not only do they like, like,
sprinkle on a few drops of vinegar,
but they like to soak things in vinegar.
So when you eat Isaw, you actually get
a whole cup of vinegar, and you can just,
just let those intestines
absorb all of that vinegar,
chili vinegar.
Oh wow.
Those are delicious.
It's amazing.
- I've never had this before.
That's actually good.
- It's amazing.
They're completely clean.
They have a very wonderful,
smoky charred flavor to them.
And then they're also very not,
they're not really chewy.
They're very tender actually.
I'm gonna scoot this guy,
because I wanna, I wanna get
some more of that vinegar.
They're really really good.
As you keep on eating, you
can grab more from the bag
and dunk them, to let them
marinate in that vinegar.
I think I can one bite this whole thing.
Just don't skewer yourself.
And then next up, you
just wanna taste this,
the pork intestines.
Oh, and this has been sitting
in the vinegar for a while,
so you can feel how it's heavy.
It's just absorbed a lot of vinegar.
I like pork intestines.
These are definitely a lot chewier,
and have a lot more of a
stronger taste, that's for sure.
That was absolutely delicious.
I like the chicken better than the pork.
The pork have a little
bit of a stronger taste
and are more chewy.
The chicken are very neutral
tasting and just taste like,
they're like natural little
skinny tubes of sausage.
That's the type of snack
that you could just keep on
eating nonstop and you could just rack up
a whole pile of empty skewers
before you even know it.
(upbeat music)
We drove over to, this is
a market in Quezon City.
What's the name of this market, Reby?
- [Reby] Lagro.
- What?
- [Reby] Lagro Market.
- Ladro?
- Lagro.
- Lagro Market.
It's a big and busy market.
- [Reby] Very busy.
- And very very local.
So there should be some good
street food at this market,
and some things to try here.
It's like a half a chicken or something.
We can order half a chicken.
- [Reby] A whole or a half?
- [Mark] We can order a half.
- [Reby] Okay.
(upbeat music)
- It didn't take us long to find some
amazing looking street food at the market,
and this is rotisserie chicken.
I love this rotisserie, it's
like a homemade rotisserie,
and this is the owner here.
It's called Kuya Abe.
What is it called in Tagalog?
- Lechon manok.
- [Mark] Lechon manok.
Which is like roast chicken.
And this is one of the coolest rotisseries
I have ever seen.
Oh, this is such a,
that's amazing.
- [Owner] And they turn this on.
- [Mark] So it's connected by power?
- Yes.
- [Mark] Okay.
Did you make it?
- [Owner] Yes, I make it.
- [Mark] Very nice.
- It's not expensive to make this.
- But it's so creative.
And it works, it functions so well.
And that keeps the chicken
rotating all the time.
- [Owner] All the time.
- I cannot wait to taste
this chicken right now.
- If you want to make this,
I will teach you how to make this.
- [Mark] Thank you very much.
Maybe I can make one in Thailand.
- Ah, nice.
- [Mark] For roasted chicken.
- Yes.
Okay, thanks.
- [Mark] Okay, thank you.
The beauty of it is that, the skin.
Look at that skin.
It's just like pure golden,
that color is wonderful.
Golden blackened skin.
- Mmm-mmm.
- Mmm-mmm.
- That's good.
- Very very nice.
Oh, it's very flavorful.
It has a little bit of a,
like, salty and sweet glaze,
on it, plus maybe some pepper?
- It's already marinated.
- [Mark] What's inside of the chicken?
- Plenty.
Sugar,
soy sauce.
- [Mark] It's very very fragrant.
What do you put inside of the chicken?
- Lemongrass.
- Lemongrass.
- Lemongrass, yes.
- So there's lemongrass.
There's lemongrass inside of the chicken.
Can you taste the lemongrass flavor?
- [Reby] Mmm-hmm.
- [Mark] I can taste the
lemongrass, it's very good.
- Nice.
- Very flavorful.
(speaking foreign language)
- It's not expensive.
Not like that, the other one.
- Okay, thank you very much.
That was very very good.
Very good, thank you.
That is absolutely awesome.
And not only is the grilled
chicken, the roasted chicken
really good, but the,
the restaurant, little
street food stalls like that,
just make me so excited.
They get me so pumped.
Because even the method of cooking,
it's so innovative and so
creative, really cool spot.
What is your name?
- Sophia.
- [Mark] Sophia?
Very nice to meet you,
very nice to meet you.
What's your name?
- Jomande.
- [Mark] Joman?
- De.
- De.
Nice to meet you.
Oh what a great market already.
(upbeat music)
You kind of come down a flight of steps,
and this is the fresh wet market area.
You can see all the
meat, all the vegetables,
and I always love walking
around fresh markets
in any country I visit.
You get a really sense of the ingredients
that go into the Filipino
cooking and the local food.
(upbeat music)
That fresh wet market was fantastic.
Now we just crossed over the street,
and walking around is
getting me very thirsty.
I'm ready for something to drink.
(speaking foreign language)
All around the world,
especially in tropical locations
around the world,
getting a fresh coconut and
drinking a fresh coconut
is one of the most refreshing things
you can possibly drinking.
And so, in the Philippines
it's called buko, right?
It's called buko, which
is a fresh coconut,
and just drinking the water.
They have just a mound, a stack.
These coconuts are giant as well.
They're huge coconuts.
We've all got coconuts to drink here.
Whoa, that's huge.
Thank you.
Okay.
Oh.
Oh yeah.
The most natural of all,
oh it's so good.
This one is quite, a little bit sour.
Not too sweet, but just
extremely refreshing.
And you can just, you actually
taste those electrolytes
that your, all that nutrients,
that your body is intaking
while you're drinking this.
No, I'm just joking about that, but,
it is quite healthy and very nutritious.
Then once you finish your coconut,
they take it and they
just cut it right in half,
hack it right in half and
then just scrape out the meat.
This one is a young coconut,
so she just kinda, it's almost like little
strands of coconut, fresh coconut.
Oh.
Oh that just melts in your mouth.
That's really young.
It's sweet and rich but not,
like because it's so
young, it's very soft.
Coconuts are one of the,
the ultimate natural wonders of the world.
(upbeat music)
We're walking through the non-food section
of the market now.
There's just like an
abundance of everything
you can possibly imagine, from shoes,
to slippers to rings to DVDs to pants,
to kids' things and umbrellas and pots,
and then there's rice stalls.
Raw rice in between everything.
There's an abundance of colors
and things to buy within this market.
(speaking foreign language)
- [Reby] I forget what
kinda mango this is.
Indian mango.
(speaking foreign language)
Ah, this is Indian mango.
And we usually just have this
with some shrimp paste,
and just eat it just like that.
- [Mark] Awesome.
And so he has just cut up the mango,
and it's just sitting in water?
- [Reby] In just water, yeah.
- [Mark] All right.
You grab a mango.
And it's almost kinda,
it's kinda hollowed out in the center
because that's where the seed is.
So it makes like a natural indentation
in the mango, and then he adds
in the shrimp paste sauce,
which in Tagalog is called (foreign word).
And it's like a mango, a green mango
on a stick with shrimp paste.
This looks delicious.
I just got some shrimp paste on my nose
Oh that's amazing.
Oh what a beautiful contrast.
The mango is really good, and it has a,
very sour and very crisp.
And then the shrimp paste is,
it's a little bit, yeah, it's fishy
because it's fermented shrimp paste
or krill, it could be krill.
And then it's salty.
That really contrasts the sour,
sour crispness of that mango.
Oh I love that.
That is a winner of a street
food snack right here.
This is one of my favorite
street food snacks so far
in the Philippines.
That was so absolutely good
I had to get another one.
I couldn't stop at one.
Oh, and by the way this time, oh yeah.
That does have a little bit of
a sharper spicy flavor to it.
We didn't know at first,
but he has two types
of the shrimp paste.
One is more spicy.
The more spicy one, add
some chilis to this,
that's the only thing
that could make it better.
Oh and here are the mangoes.
Can I see the mangoes?
This is the type of mango he's using.
It's almost a circle-shaped mango.
Thank you very much.
That was delicious.
But it's the type of mango
that does make your teeth hurt.
Because it's so sour.
Hi.
Oh that looks good.
Oh, curry.
(speaking foreign language)
Coconut, oh that looks awesome.
We have stopped at a very small little
roadside street food
restaurant, a canteen.
And this place, actually
they serve halal Muslim food.
It's a little bit different
from the typical Filipino
spread of dishes.
(upbeat music)
This is just a place we
were just walking past
and the food looked good,
so we just stopped here.
We got some fish curries,
we got some chicken adobo,
we got some beans,
and a vegetable and coconut milk.
All right.
So this is a restaurant
where you just come
and you pick and choose,
or a street food stall
where you just pick and choose.
You have to lift the lid of
the pot to see what's inside.
And then you just choose
whatever you like.
Oh, another thing I should just explain
is that they put the
plastic bags over the plate
so then they don't need
to wash the plate, right.
So then they just throw away,
when you're done eating,
they just throw away the plastic bags,
then they can just use the plate again
and just re-cover it.
So although that is kind
of a lot of plastic bags,
it does ensure that you have a clean plate
when you're eating, so.
That's very common in the
Philippines that they do that.
What should we start with?
- I wanna start with,
chicken with a coconut.
- Yeah, that one is one
I really wanna try also.
That's like dried,
do you think it's dried coconut?
- [Reby] I think so, right.
- [Mark] Or is it just
like desiccated coconut.
That's chicken, there's coconut and then
there's also pieces of
chili in there as well.
Just gonna take a piece of that chicken.
Oh the chili's, yeah.
- [Reby] You can have the chili.
- Okay.
All right, mix this with the rice.
Oh that chili.
Oh that's,
that is fantastic.
That is just pure, like
shredded old coconut,
so it has a
a very meatiness to it.
And that is spicy with those chilis.
It's also kinda peppery.
- [Reby] I got a nice pick,
even though I didn't get chili.
- [Mark] These are red beans,
cooked in like a stew with onions.
- I don't think I've ever had this.
- There might be some
coconut in there, too.
Maybe, maybe not.
- I'm not sure.
- It has a little bit
of a fruity taste to it.
And then that's just a good,
beans are always wonderful.
That's just a good like bean stew.
You can taste all those
onions that have been cooked
down in there as well.
All right, fish curry.
There are chilis in here too, and onions.
I'll add a little bit more of that.
Do you think that's coconut milk?
- [Reby] I think so.
- Looks a little bit watery,
but I think it's coconut milk.
Oh that's wonderful.
It is coconut milk, but
it's kind of watery.
It's not like very very thick, rich.
And then, the fish is actually,
the fish tastes quite fresh.
And it's kinda silky smooth,
and then I got a chili in
that bite and some onions.
- That's spicy.
- [Mark] The next dish is
vegetables in a coconut milk.
There's green beans in here, long beans.
There are pumpkin.
- [Reby] Ooh, there's squash.
- [Mark] Oh is that squash or pumpkin?
- [Reby] It's squash.
- [Mark] It's squash, okay.
There's squash in there.
Yeah, a piece of squash.
A piece of squash, I'm going
for a piece of squash as well.
Oh and there are some chilis
floating around in the bottom as well.
All right.
That's just a,
a mix of vegetables all wrapped up.
It's kind of like a cross
between a soup and a sauce.
But more soupy.
And again, it's coconut milk, I think,
but it's very light.
It's not like a very
rich thick coconut milk.
It's more of a, a soupy
watery coconut milk.
Which gives it a,
kind of a light and refreshing flavor.
And the last dish we got
is the chicken adobo.
That was that adobo sauce.
Are those all onions in there?
Oh, there is some chilis,
there are some chilis in there.
Excellent.
- [Reby] This is awesome.
They have these everywhere.
- Oh yeah.
That's pretty salty.
And,
you can really mostly just taste the soy.
I don't, it's not very sour
like some other versions
of adobo that I've had, mostly just salty.
So it can really range,
adobo, from sour to less sour?
- Oh yeah, definitely.
- Okay.
- And there's even,
in some regions where adobo
is dry, there's no sauce.
- Okay.
- So it really varies on
which region it's coming from.
- Okay.
Everything is good.
But, I've really gotta give it up
for that chicken with
the shredded coconut.
And we were just talking with the owner,
and this food is from the
south of the Philippines,
in Mindanao, the island,
what was the name of the region?
- I'm gonna get it wrong.
(speaking foreign language)
- Marawi.
- Marawi.
- Okay, so the region of
this food is from Marawi.
- In Mindanao.
- In Mindanao.
So it does have some similarities
with Indonesian food.
The taste, with Indonesian
food or even Malay,
Malay Peninsula food.
It's really really good.
I like it, I like the
extra chilis in there,
and the coconut milk.
And she did say there's also
coconut milk in the beans?
- [Reby] Yes.
- There is, so it does
have a coconut milk taste,
if you taste those beans.
Yeah, it's like an aftertaste
of coconut milk for me.
(speaking foreign language)
That was absolutely delicious.
What a stunning meal.
And I am pretty full after that meal.
Oh, this has been a fantastic
food tour in Quezon City.
I'm gonna go ahead and end
this Quezon City food tour
in metro Manila.
I wanna say a big thank you to Reby
for showing me around,
for eating with me as well.
That was a lotta fun.
- Thanks, I'm so full.
- I think my favorite thing,
okay, that last meal that we just had,
that Mindanao food was excellent.
The Isaw was good.
- Yes, my first time eating it.
- Your first time eating it, cool.
And now she's a convert, she loves it.
- I do.
- And also probably the
most fascinating thing
of the day was that rotisserie chicken.
I loved it.
I loved that homemade rotisserie.
But that was a lot of good food,
and just good to hang out.
And especially I enjoy this local market
here in Quezon City.
Thank you all again
very much for watching.
Please remember to give this
video a thumbs-up, click like.
Would love to hear from you
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make sure you click subscribe now
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Goodbye from Quezon City in
metro Manila, the Philippines,
and thank you again to Reby.
- Bye.
