Last week I spontaneously decided to go to the Philippine Independence day in Paris. My Philippines friends sort of invited me and I joined them to what turned out to be a very interesting anthropological experience in Philippines culture and gastronomy. I don’t know exactly what I ate there… Sorry for that.
The event took place in a sports park, and as soon as I got closer I realized how crowded it was. Thousands of Philippines. I was not the only non-Philippine but very close to that situation. There were stalls all around, anything from cell-phones to real estate and mostly food stalls. In the middle there was a stage with dancing and singing shows. All around were children jumping around and families picnicking with food they bought from the stalls, or better, food they brought from home, in big boxes and pots and pans. Finding my friends in this mass of people was a true miracle. This is how it looked like:
The picnic zone
Kids jumping around
Our picnic started as soon as we got there
Taking pictures, eating, taking some more pictures, etc.
Food stalls all around
It was easily noticeable that almost everyone were eating/drinking this thing called Halo Halo, so I had to get one right away.
Basically it’s a dessert drink with sweet red beans, coconut slices, jackfruit (the yellow)… Then shredded ice, concentrated milk and on top some flan and purple stuff
Anything with purple and yellow should be good
Very refreshing on a hot day
Got my first Halo Halo. The meaning of the name is “mix – mix” and it’s true you can see them all mixing it and mixing it.
For more information about Halo Halo
After the first dessert it’s time for some real food. Our picnic is expending
Half dried fish in pineapple and green peppers sauce
Weird fish
Pork in cream-mushroom sauce
We love to take pictures!
Some rice cakes – one is sticky and the other fluffy. I liked the fluffy better.
The end of my Halo Halo. Time for some more goodies.
Going for another walk around
…
The second type of Halo Halo we tried was in a big cup, manually crushed ice (this man had an important job crushing the ice, the queue was fierce!)
The ladies then put green and red jelly, caramel (or was it something similar to caramel??), melon “snakes”, bananas, the crushed ice and concentrated milk. Of course, some flan on top.
Sweet piggy looking at what’s going on
Caramelized bananas in a crepe
Very sweet!
Mix it – mix it!
Dried fish and mais food stall
In a plastic bag
Another dessert, sweet corn
This woman was so happy because she sold me the weirdest dish ever
Julien with two huge Halo Halo
This thing was yet another dessert, concentrated milk with green jelly, coconut jelly and maybe some other green stuff.
How can one resist?
…
Danii found out I bought this weird dish and said it’s his favorite
What it was: inside parts in a sauce, supposed to be spicy but wasn’t…
Anything’s missing?
Yes, palabok. It’s noodles with sauce, crumbs of shrimp crisps and hard boiled egg. I didn’t really love it…
From there, with all the leftover I headed out for another picnic, this time just an ordinary French picnic by Tour Eiffel
Amazing apple cake. Asked for the recipe from the girl who made it but it was never received. 🙁
Making random people eat the weird Philippine dish
Arnel, another Philippine friend, found this dish delicious.
Good to have friends from all over the world, taking me to these special events I would never had known about otherwise! Thanks Belle and Danii!
איזה כיף לחיות בעיר שמעודדת הגירה ממקומות שונים ומאפשרת להם לבטא את היחודיות שלהם במרחב הציבורי