Broccoli pie

Mmmm...

On a bag of fries

Eat me!

Philippines - Jollibee

Got a chance to try Jollibee while in Manilla. It was great! It was also dense - the burger pictured was 1/3 pound of beef and sat like a rock. Very satisfying!

Philippines - food

The food in the Philippines reminded me of the food in Hawaii - meat heavy, lots of pork, lots of pre-packaged food, lots of fast food (they even had Shakey's!) high in calories and oil. And oh-so tasty. We didn't get a chance to try Max's ("The House that Fried Chicken Built")

The pork piece pictured is pork tocino, a (delicious) local specialty.

The living pork pictured was *not* happy to be on the highway, though something tells me they weren't going someplace that would be any more enjoyable for them.

Octopus on a stick

Folks that know me know that I had fond memories of squid on a stick in Taiwan. My father did, too - he didn't have a chance to eat it when he was in Taiwan. So - Sam prepared him some, and I cooked it up some squid on a stick on the grill on my deck in Madison. It was the first time anyone ever ate squid on a stick within the borders of Wisconsin, USA. Yup, we're pioneers.

(how did my family like the squid? great, except I remember someone getting squirted on by an eye or an ink pack - well, they don't call them "ink fish" in Thai for nothing!)

Anyhow, I thought that squid on the stick was possibly both the most awesome and the most perfect food known to mankind. And then, lo and behold, one day walking down the streets of Bangkok I saw this - octopus on a stick. I looked, and stopped, and said in my best Thai "One!" And I pointed. My Thai isn't too great. But I got my octopus, although strangely enough they took it off the stick before serving it in a plastic bag with spicy sauce. About that - if you poke at octopus bits sitting in a saucy bag with a pointy stick, you might just end up poking a hole in the bag. I have seen many folks from Bangkok do this without problems, but mine sprung a leak right before I ate the last piece, and I had to abandon that bit to a trash can before the spicy octopus sauce got all over everything. I realized then I must master the complex skills of eating Thai street food. The Thais are masters, and I am but a novice. I thought I was not bad at eating street food, but truly, the Thais have elevated it to an art form. I am in awe.

ps the octopus was delicious

pss some of those tasty bits on the grill are actually squid body

pps I think I'll go grab some octopus on a stick

Bite that cheese

An ad for a new Pizza Hut pizza to do with deep fried cheese edges to pizzas.

I must say - there are no cheese curds (deep fried or fresh) in the world outside of the midwest United States. Finding this out was like finding out that there was no spoken or written language outside of the midwest US. I guess I just always assume that civilized peoples had cheese curds and their derivatives.

So it's good to see Pizza Hut pioneering this concept around the world - melted cheese must be brought to the rest of humanity!

An ice-cream-eatin'-grin

Here is Sam with an ice-cream-eatin'-grin getting ready to... eat some Swensen's ice cream.

I'm not sure who's happier - Sam who's about to eat the ice cream, or all of us, who get to see Sam so happy to be about to eat the ice cream. 

kudos once more to 'Chelle for a perfectly posed picture

The King of Burgers - in Bangkok

Yes, they have Burger King in Bangkok.  Take a look at the menu.  What do you think the item in the top left is?  Chicken sandwich, right?  Wrong!  It is 'Extra Long Chicken'.  Booyah!

So, for those of you that haven't seen an Extra Long Chicken before, now you have.  And also I wish my camera phone was higher resolution, so you could see the details of the Extra Long Chicken.

Ice cream - at KFC?

So KFC in Bangkok sometimes has a KFC brand ice cream shop attached.  We took a picture of part of the menu for you.

Think McDonald's ice cream, but a bit more upscale (yes, believe it!).