Is The Food Safe?

[skippyscage]

here's a little rant I wrote for Facebook and never ended up posting from a year ago, which is apt for this discussion (some are repeated above in my previous post)

===========

Food, expectation vs reality.

 

The Philippines are hundreds of islands with tropical sun.  Almost everything you plant will grow.

 

Great! Fresh fish and abundant fresh vegetables, I’ll live a healthier life. Right! Right?

 

The reality is that very few vegetable crops are grown, fields are either rice or corn, but predominantly rice. More about rice later.

 

Vegetables cost the same or in many cases more than in the west due to farmers simply not growing them. Most are imported. Those that are grown find their way into the local markets and are often small due to a lack of knowledge on how to tend to the crop. Here it’s just a case of water and then fertilise the crap out of it.

 

Crop rotation is unheard of. Corn will be grown in the same fields 3 times per year over multiple years in a row. Hence the need to use more and more fertiliser which costs a lot of money. Corn can easily fail due to dry spells, too much water in the rainy season or pests.

 

Corn Is a high risk crop with larger monetary rewards but one that can easily fail. People get into debt fast after a failed crop. They get a loan for the next crop to recoup the money, only for that to fail. Rinse and repeat.

 

Rice is widely grown. The country literally runs on rice. The amount of rice consumed by an individual daily is staggering. Rice for breakfast, rice for lunch and rice for dinner. A large plate full of rice and a smattering of fish or pork, which is more like a garnish.

 

Rice is high in sugar content. The more you eat the more you want. Just like the Coca Cola problem here. If a Filipino goes without rice for more than a few hours, they’re dizzy or they can’t breathe. It’s like a drug. No wonder diabetes is an issue here.

 

Fast food restaurants know this. You see dishes with “extra rice” or “unlimited rice”. Rice is the empty filler for the poor.

 

I have a friend that runs a Danish restaurant. Rice on its own is not on the menu, and only a couple of dishes have rice, which are the Indian meals. People will often come in, look at the menu, ask if he serves rice and when they get a negative will turn on their heels and walk away.

 

So all this rice is grown literally everywhere. Is the Philippines self-sustainable regarding rice? No. 90% of the rice consumption is imported from Vietnam.

 

Surrounded by the sea. Fresh seafood, perfect. Except it’s not. There is no concept of proper storage, so unless you buy fish from the docks right off a boat forget it. The fish smell of fish and are therefore not fresh as they’re not stored correctly.

 

Local sellers on the side of the road display their fish all day with overhead fans that attempt to keep the flies at bay. Nothing is on ice and nothing is chilled or frozen. Anything not sold that day will be on display again tomorrow - and repeat. As people should know if fish smell of fish then it’s not fresh.

 

It’s the same with shellfish. Sold with open shells, which means it’s already dead, and you have no clue how old it is. Closed shells after being cooked, if they don’t open they’re also dead, but still consumed. I gave up eating shellfish long ago here after falling ill a couple of times. It’s just not worth it.

 

Shellfish and fish are also small. They’re caught undersized which is not sustainable. It’s about today not the future. You see tiny tiny crabs for sale which in all honestly is pointless.

 

Meat is pork or chicken. See the fish section for storage issues on the side of busy roads.

 

You can buy better quality fish and meat in supermarkets but it’s more expensive than in the west.

 

Most dishes served in cafes and restaurants are sweet. Pizza is sweet. Spaghetti sauce is sweet. Sugar is added to everything. If it’s not sweet it’s over salty. The more salt you consume the less you can taste. Of course this also helps to cover up bad meat or fish.

 

Another oddity is food served cold. DIY and even some larger “native” restaurants actually serve most the dishes cold. They’re cooked in the morning and left out under cover and left to go cold. You get small plates with cold food. Yum.

 

Filipinos also let hot food go cold. I see this all the time. A dish will come out and the food is left until later. This happens a lot in homes. Left over food is almost never covered and then eaten again later cold after the flies or ants have had a go at it. Hygienic is not a word that’s known here.

 

There are some gems of restaurants around here in Iloilo, but they’re few and far between. Maybe 10 in total? We trade info on new finds on places we try that are good. As my friend that runs the Danish restaurant says, most of the food is “pig shit”.

 

Things are different in metro Manila that’s for sure, but here in the province in the 3rd largest city, it’s like a different country. 

[Onemore52]

Last year while in the province I got a dose of the runs and occasional  vomiting, and started to lose weight and having had bowel cancer before knew the symptoms, so headed  back to Australia to seek clarification.

I will keep this brief.

The surgeon did a colonoscopy and a endoscopy and found the Helicobacter Pylori  bug in my (spelling sus), intestinal tract so he put me on a some antibiotics to kill the bug, his final words to me were go home and wash everything with bleach, benches everything.

Then the penny dropped. That I had been looking at the way the maids in the house were washing the dishes , a lot of soap and running everything under cold water, (usually taking 40 minutes to do that 5 minute task) .

So when I went back I got rid of the maid, she was leaving anyway. I took my own plates and cutlery back with me and now wash my own dishes etc in boiling water. I frequently spray the bench tops with diluted bleach solution and do the same in MY bathroom, which is what used to happen when I was in the Navy if someone had a dose of the clap.

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Onemore52
Omission

[Onemore52]

4 hours ago, skippyscage said:

cafes etc washing used dishes and plates in cold water, usually with highly watered down soap to save costs

cooked food left out all day after being cooked in the morning and served up cold in the street type restaurants

seafood and meat left on open stalls by the streets from sunrise to night, with traffic fumes and without ice or cooling - packed away in an ice chest (with no ice) and put out the following day - and repeat

food cooked with high degrees of salt/sugar to hide the fact that the meat/fish might be past its best

the only way to guarantee fresh fish/shellfish is to buy directly off a boat at a harbour - everything else you see for sale will have changes hands multiple times and not stored correctly.

I only trust the well run and clean restaurants after being hit multiple times with the runs

people just don't care - they don't want repeat business, it's just what can I make today - short sighted yes, but that's why you find so so many of them all serving the same swill for the locals, who will eat more rice than anything with their meal anyway.

Another trick they do is put grated ginger on chicken that is going off and make chicken Adobo.

[skippyscage]

31 minutes ago, Onemore52 said:

Another trick they do is put grated ginger on chicken that is going off and make chicken Adobo.

Wow. Just wow. There’s really no moral depths they will sink to. 

[Onemore52]

Just now, skippyscage said:

Wow. Just wow. There’s really no moral depths they will sink to. 

You couldn’t dream this shite up..another story from “that’s inedible “

[skippyscage]

28 minutes ago, Onemore52 said:

You couldn’t dream this shite up..another story from “that’s inedible “

yup - I'm convinced that everyone is taught to lie constantly from birth - you see it from the top to the bottom of society here

[hk blues]

9 hours ago, skippyscage said:

cafes etc washing used dishes and plates in cold water, usually with highly watered down soap to save costs

cooked food left out all day after being cooked in the morning and served up cold in the street type restaurants

seafood and meat left on open stalls by the streets from sunrise to night, with traffic fumes and without ice or cooling - packed away in an ice chest (with no ice) and put out the following day - and repeat

food cooked with high degrees of salt/sugar to hide the fact that the meat/fish might be past its best

the only way to guarantee fresh fish/shellfish is to buy directly off a boat at a harbour - everything else you see for sale will have changes hands multiple times and not stored correctly.

I only trust the well run and clean restaurants after being hit multiple times with the runs

people just don't care - they don't want repeat business, it's just what can I make today - short sighted yes, but that's why you find so so many of them all serving the same swill for the locals, who will eat more rice than anything with their meal anyway.

All that said i almost never have issues with whatever I've eaten here - no more or less than in the UK or Hong Kong so...

[fillipino_wannabe]

6 hours ago, skippyscage said:

here's a little rant I wrote for Facebook and never ended up posting from a year ago, which is apt for this discussion (some are repeated above in my previous post)

===========

Food, expectation vs reality.

 

The Philippines are hundreds of islands with tropical sun.  Almost everything you plant will grow.

 

Great! Fresh fish and abundant fresh vegetables, I’ll live a healthier life. Right! Right?

 

The reality is that very few vegetable crops are grown, fields are either rice or corn, but predominantly rice. More about rice later.

 

Vegetables cost the same or in many cases more than in the west due to farmers simply not growing them. Most are imported. Those that are grown find their way into the local markets and are often small due to a lack of knowledge on how to tend to the crop. Here it’s just a case of water and then fertilise the crap out of it.

 

Crop rotation is unheard of. Corn will be grown in the same fields 3 times per year over multiple years in a row. Hence the need to use more and more fertiliser which costs a lot of money. Corn can easily fail due to dry spells, too much water in the rainy season or pests.

 

Corn Is a high risk crop with larger monetary rewards but one that can easily fail. People get into debt fast after a failed crop. They get a loan for the next crop to recoup the money, only for that to fail. Rinse and repeat.

 

 

It's too hot and/or wet to grow most vegetables here other than areas at high altitude. 'Almost everything you plant' certainly won't grow well here.

Crop rotation is pretty much pointless in terms of stopping pests as the guy in the next field 50 meters away will be growing the same thing anyway and as soon as he sprays pesticide all the bugs will come into your field. It doesn't really make any difference in terms of fertilizer usage either as different types of vegetables will still need fertilizer anyway. They can't afford to plant a cover crop when you only own 1-2 hectares of land and it wouldn't be worthwhile terms of saving them money on fertilizer.

Farmers always get shit on here but I have a farm and it's certainly not easy. 5 different bugs start attacking anything you plant within the first 2 weeks of planting, then there's extreme wet/dry seasons for most of the year with the added bonus of a typhoon wiping you out once every year or 2.

[Possum]

 

Remember Imelda Marcos 90th birthday food poisoning.?You'd think she could afford a proper caterer.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48852101

[Guy F.]

6 hours ago, Greglm said:

 

Remember Imelda Marcos 90th birthday food poisoning.?You'd think she could afford a proper caterer.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48852101

"Health officials said 261 people had been affected. Ms Marcos was not among them, according to reports."

We might assume she was not eating the same food as was served to the guests.