Tiangge

OK! It's well into wet season in the Philippines now, and i was supposed to have some decent shots of the area and other things. But! Due to the bad weather i was unable to take any good shots. So for now I'll be talking about a new place that opened up next door, and the meal my girlfriend and I had.

A month ago I was really curious as to what they were building on the lot next door of our complex. At first it was extra parking for our complex, then they closed it off and started building a structure. My initial thoughts, were a new house. Then as the days go by, a car wash. Eventually my girlfriend realized it was a "Tiangge". 

According to her, a Tiangge used to mean a market, where they sold dry foods, fish and other assorted goods. But now the general term of Tiangge is used to describe a group of stalls that are set up in a building. They sell only dry goods, quick meals, beverages, clothes and even DVDs.  I guess you can call it a flea market, or even a bazaar. More famous Tiangge here in the Philippines would be Divisoria, Greenhills and Ruins, which hopefully i'll be able to blog about in the following months. 

Our trip to the Tiangge next door was only a quick one, as they were not set up entirely. There were still empty stalls and even some on going construction in the back. (i'll have pictures of the Tiangge added as soon as they open on August 5th)

Although quick, we had one goal in mind: Food
Because merchants were still setting up stalls there was only a limited selection of food. This is what we bought. 

Isaw

 Before you judge the looks of the meals, I promise you. It's not as bad as it looks. I'll try to give a thorough explanation of what these are, and a brief overview on the Philippine Diet.
I'm not going to sugar coat it. Philippines is a third world country, but a developing one. And being a third world country they don't let every bit of food go to waste. Every part of the animal can be cooked and eaten.  Most of the food I'll be covering would be street foods. Cheap and easy to find, they are everywhere in the Philippines.

The first thing we bought at the Tiangge was "Isaw" a popular street food, and if you could probably tell by looking. It's intestine. Grilled with a special sauce.  Surprisingly there is a wide variety of isaw. What we have here is Isaw ng baboy (Intestine of the Pig) and Isaw ng manok (Intestine of the Chicken). Can you guess which intestine belongs to which animal?

In terms of taste, it's hard to describe, but I'll try my best. When I started chewing, it's what I think chewing leather would be like. Taste wise, the sauce, was really good, although it has a very strong game flavor. I suggest anyone to at least try it, you never know, you might like it.
Personally i don't eat isaw, but i thought it would be good for the blog. 

Tapsilog

Chicksilog 

Next we have one of my favorites in the Philippines. Tapsilog!
Tapsilog is basically 3 things.

1. Tapa (Beef)
2. Sinangag (Fried Rice)
3. Itlog (Egg)

In the Philippines there are also other varieties of "Tapsilog". All replacing the Meat but keeping both the rice and egg. Some are Chicksilog (Chicken), Hotsilog (Hotdog), Cornsilog (Corned Beef) and the obvious one SPAMsilog (do i even need to say?). Those are just a few from a long list of meals. 

Tapsilog and others like it, are usually eaten for breakfast, but as time goes on it has become popular to eat at any time of the day and is extremely popular with the younger generation of Filipinos. Cheap, quick and easy to prepare it's very tasty, and i can understand why it's such a popular dish here.

So that's it for an rather uneventful day. I apologize there wasn't much today, bad weather hindered the travels. Hopefully it clears up, and I'll actually have more to blog about. Thank you!