Food

[Guest jerry921]

I retired early and moved to Mexico. Living outside the US was part of my plan to avoid the US individual insurance market. For a long time, I'd been planning on retiring to Thailand, but I have a 99 year-old parent still living in the Washington DC area, and Thailand was just too far away, so I ended up in Mexico. I have decided, though, that eventually I'd like to try a different country, and the Philippines checks a lot of my boxes.

But there are some things I worry about. One of the biggest is food. I like to have a wide variety of 'foreign' restaurants available. (That's one of the things I'm less than happy with in Mexico, it's too much Mexican food and not many other choices). Ideally, I'd like to live in a place with Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, Indian and American restaurants all within maybe a half hour's travel from where I live. They don't have to be high-end places, probably better if they aren't (I didn't list French not because I don't love it, but because I usually prefer not to pay for it). So for this reason I'm guessing I need to be at least on the edge of a larger city - and maybe somewhere other than the Philippines. You tell me.

The second half of this worry is I don't know anything about Filipino food. I've had it once, don't know what I had, and wasn't partial to whatever it was. You hardly ever find Filipino restaurants in the US - is that a warning sign? 

Obviously you're going to tell me to take a vacation and try the food, but for that I need to pick a specific destination, and for that I need to put together a list of possible retirement locations, and for that I need to know what size cities have foreign restaurants. Am I going to be told Manila or forgetaboutit? 

All opinions appreciated.

[Dave Hounddriver]

Philippines is not noted for its food.  There is food here.  Thats all I have to say about that. 

Well one more thing, going to the Philippines for the food would be a bit like going to Alaska for the weather.  They got some, but you're not gonna like it.

[JDDavao II]

I believe you will need to live in or nearby to Manila or possibly Cebu City. As Dave said above, the Phils is not known for it's authentic ethnic restaurants. It *is* known for its 100-million restaurants all serving Filipino food. 

You can strike Davao off of your search as we've been here for 5 years and only recently found a decent Chinese place. 

[hk blues]

Whilst Iloilo is a reasonably sized city, the choice of cuisine is quite limited although there are some Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican etc but they tend to be in shopping malls and not authentic.  Like has been said, the Philippines is not a place that you'd visit for the food and most of us foreigners perhaps find the local cuisine OK but no more than that.  

If you're a foodie, it's going to disappoint.  

[GeoffH]

Some of the roadside food is surprisingly good (as long as you realize it's going to be served with rice no matter what food it is), but I agree with the above posters, this isn't a foodie destination.

Slow cooked pork or goat with flavoured sauces and vegerables served with rice is about as good as local food gets.

[Gary D]

When half the population live on little more than rice and fingers ote cuisine doesn't figure very highly.

[Arizona Kid]

4 hours ago, jerry921 said:

I retired early and moved to Mexico. Living outside the US was part of my plan to avoid the US individual insurance market. For a long time, I'd been planning on retiring to Thailand, but I have a 99 year-old parent still living in the Washington DC area, and Thailand was just too far away, so I ended up in Mexico. I have decided, though, that eventually I'd like to try a different country, and the Philippines checks a lot of my boxes.

But there are some things I worry about. One of the biggest is food. I like to have a wide variety of 'foreign' restaurants available. (That's one of the things I'm less than happy with in Mexico, it's too much Mexican food and not many other choices). Ideally, I'd like to live in a place with Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, Indian and American restaurants all within maybe a half hour's travel from where I live. They don't have to be high-end places, probably better if they aren't (I didn't list French not because I don't love it, but because I usually prefer not to pay for it). So for this reason I'm guessing I need to be at least on the edge of a larger city - and maybe somewhere other than the Philippines. You tell me.

The second half of this worry is I don't know anything about Filipino food. I've had it once, don't know what I had, and wasn't partial to whatever it was. You hardly ever find Filipino restaurants in the US - is that a warning sign? 

Obviously you're going to tell me to take a vacation and try the food, but for that I need to pick a specific destination, and for that I need to put together a list of possible retirement locations, and for that I need to know what size cities have foreign restaurants. Am I going to be told Manila or forgetaboutit? 

All opinions appreciated.

Can we trade places? Before I retired her to the Phills I lived in Southern California. Mexican food was my favorite then and still is. Can't find anything here in Cavite that is close to Mexican food. Some try but they don't get it right. 

[Jollygoodfellow]

4 hours ago, jerry921 said:

Ideally, I'd like to live in a place with Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, Indian and American restaurants all within maybe a half hour's travel from where I live.

Cebu city has all of that. Live in the IT Park and you can walk there.

[Mick]

Manila. In such places like Makati. BGC, and Eastwood near to me, they have all the types of restaurants you mention in abundance

[Guy F.]

Probably any really touristy area has what you want. Sometimes it will all be in one location, such as Park Mall in Cebu. In Tagbilaran, and Dauis Panglao Island (Bohol province) it's all there but you must do a little research and travel a few miles.