Bland Filipino Food 🍚😐

Bland Filipino Food 🍚😐

When it comes to culinary adventures, the Philippines might not be the first destination that pops into your mind. However, its traditional cuisine is a unique experience.

These islands offer a paradise of breathtaking beaches, lush landscapes, and… bland Filipino food?

Yes, you heard that right. If you’re a thrill-seeker for the most uninspiring culinary experiences, then Filipino cuisine is your ticket to boredom on a plate. In the Philippines, you’ll find the perfect recipes to effortlessly pile on the pounds while your taste buds silently cry for help.

Highlights

• Filipino Cuisine
• Rice Overload: Carbs Galore
• Mild Beyond Belief
• Merienda Madness: Snack Attack
• Sweet Nothings
• Booze in Bohol
• Griller in Manila
• Trikes, Taxis & Other Options
• Habal! Habal! Motorcycle Taxis
• All Hotel Deals in Manila
• A Complete Philippines Itinerary

Filipino Cuisine

Before we started this trip, from our research we gathered that there was no distinctive Filipino cuisine. From our actual experiences in the Philippines, this appears to be true. On the menus everywhere you find pork and chicken, most often barbecued in a sweet and sticky marinade. This bland Filipino food is usually accompanied by heaps of plain boiled white rice.

Rarely if ever is the food spicy. Fish is available, but is always surprisingly expensive (I can’t get my head around this – the sea is close by almost everywhere in the Philippines). The food is often so bland we had to add lashings of hot Tabasco sauce to give it some flavour (if any sauce was available).

Lechon – with a sickly-sweet marinade

Rice Overload: Carbs Galore

You can’t talk about Filipino food without mentioning rice. This staple is served in practically every meal, often playing a starring role. A typical Filipino dish might consist of a generous serving of rice accompanied by a mild-flavored main dish, such as tinola (chicken stew), nilaga (boiled beef soup), or sinigang (tamarind-based soup).

Filipinos believe in eating rice with breakfast, lunch, dinner, desert and everything in between. Forget about those complex carbs and innovative grains. This staple is served plain, steamed, and in volumes that would make even the most ardent rice enthusiast weep.

Mild Beyond Belief

Filipino cuisine is known for its subtle flavors, especially in its traditional dishes. Meals like adobo (marinated meat), lechon (roast pig), and kare-kare (oxtail stew with peanut sauce) might be the first to come to mind, but there are plenty of other dishes that fly under the radar due to their milder taste.

Tinola

Take tinola (chicken stew) for instance. It’s a dish where chicken and vegetables are lovingly boiled to a point where their individual flavors conspire to disappear into the background. And let’s not forget nilaga (boiled beef soup), which is essentially meat and veggies marooned in a vast ocean of tasteless broth.

If subtlety is what you crave, Filipino cuisine delivers in spades.

Comfort food should warm your heart, right? Well, in the Philippines, it’s more about soothing your taste buds into a deep, flavorless sleep. Lugaw (rice porridge) is the perfect example of this culinary phenomenon. A bowl of mushy rice suspended in equally mushy broth – it’s like eating soggy nothingness. But hey, at least it’s filling!

Eat Till You Drop

Filipinos are known for their generous hospitality, and this extends to the portions they serve. Expect to be buried under an avalanche of bland food at every meal. Extra-large servings of plain rice, accompanied by mountains of mild-flavored dishes, will ensure you never leave the table hungry – or particularly satisfied.

Hotel Deals in Manila

It’s a cultural norm to share food with family and friends, leading to larger portions and multiple servings. The sheer quantity consumed could easily tip the scale.

Piling On The Pounds

Of course you can eat local versions of foreign food, but why come to the Philippines to do that?

Usually, after a 4-week trip around South East Asia, we could expect to lose 2 or 3 kilos. After this trip around the Philippines, we managed to put on around 3 kilos each, despite the long walks we took each day.

Merienda Madness: Snack Attack

In the Philippines, meals aren’t just limited to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There are also merienda (snack) times, usually mid-morning and mid-afternoon. These snacks can range from sweet treats like kakanin (rice cakes) and turon (banana spring rolls) to savory bites like empanada (meat-filled pastry) and siopao (steamed buns).

With such extensive and frequent snacking, it’s no wonder those extra pounds can sneak up on you.

The pan de sal (salt bread) and puto (steamed rice cake) snacks may be unremarkable in flavor but are excellent for adding those extra calories.

Bland Filipino Food

Balut: An Acquired Taste

No discussion about Filipino food would be complete without mentioning balut – a fertilized duck egg with a developing embryo inside. This unique dish is often eaten as a snack and is considered a delicacy in the Philippines. While it might sound like an acquired taste, balut is packed with protein and nutrients, making it a calorie-rich option that can help you gain weight if consumed regularly.

Think of it as the Filipino version of a culinary dare. It’s not just bland; it’s bizarrely bland.

Sweet Nothings

The tropical climate of the Philippines makes cold desserts a welcome part of the cuisine. In this context, nothing says “refreshing” like a big bowl of halo-halo, a Filipino dessert that combines shaved ice with evaporated milk and an assortment of sweet ingredients. The ingredients combine to form the ultimate symphony of subdued taste.

While it may look like a rainbow exploded in your bowl, the real magic lies in its calorie count. This cold concoction is loaded with sugars and sweet additives that can help pack on the pounds while cooling you down in the tropical heat.

When it comes to Filipino desserts, it’s all about the sugar and none of the spice. Rice cakes, pastries, and other sweet treats are an integral part of Filipino cuisine. Desserts like puto and halo-halo (a dessert with mixed fruits, shaved ice, and milk) are frequently enjoyed during gatherings and celebrations.

More calories ?… anyone… ?

Bibingka (rice cake) and suman (sticky rice cake) are sweet treats that may look unassuming, but don’t let their bland appearances fool you. These calorie-dense delicacies will help you achieve that extra weight gain, one flavorless bite at a time.

If you’re looking for desserts that won’t overpower your taste buds, you’ve hit the jackpot.

Stick to the Fruit…

As a consolation, we were able to indulge in an abundance of delicious tropical fruit because, amidst the blandness, there are also healthy options in Filipino cuisine. Fresh fruits, vegetables, and seafood are plentiful, providing a balanced diet if you’re willing to look for them.

The mangoes we ate in Moalboal were just about the best we’ve ever tasted. We were also able to get our hands on Soursop from supermarkets and food stalls in many places.

Your Bland Adventure Awaits!

So, there you have it. The Philippines is a paradise for those seeking a bland culinary adventures while piling on the pounds. From mountains of plain rice to mildly flavored soups and subdued desserts, Filipino food offers the perfect blend of subtlety and restraint.

If you’re ready to embark on a journey where flavor takes a backseat, the Philippines is calling your name.

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If you enjoy Bland Filipino Food (!) check out Central Philippines – Cebu & Bohol. You may also like:

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