Dreaming of traveling the world and experiencing a variety of cultures and cuisines, we often search online what we should do and/or try at certain destinations. Lucky for us, we didn't have to wait that long until we had saved enough before trying Filipino flavors.
Because of having a great variety of cultures and nationalities from all over the world established in the Netherlands - be it for work, studies or other reasons - there's a chance to meet people with a background from the beautiful island nation the Philippines. Fortunately for us, we did and they are more than happy to share part of their culture - especially the food - with us.
So one Saturday, they invited us to try the gastronomy at Baryo Pilipinas - the only Filipino restaurant available in the Netherlands - and of course we instantly accepted.
Usually we take our time reading the menu before ordering, but this time left it entirely in the hands of our "food guides". Apart from drinks of course. Though I didn't ask the names of the dishes, I think they ordered what's known as kare-kare (a stew emphasizing its thick savory peanut sauce), pancit (a noodle dish), crispy pata (crispy pork leg) and laing (taro leaves prepared in coconut milk and other spices).
When eating the laing, I was hit with a taste of nostalgia but elevated, because we also cook taro leaves in Suriname (where we're from) but simplified in butter and salt. Maybe sprinkled with a little nutmeg, but that's it. The coconut milk and other herbs definitely elevated the flavor of the greens.
Our friends jokingly said that they also ordered pigs blood to see our reaction - taking into consideration that not everybody's open to it - and because of our positive response, placed the order for dinuguan (savory stew of offal and gravy made from pig's blood with herbs).
We've had blood sausages in Suriname before - which I'm not a fan of while my husband is, so it depends on preference - thus want to try it in different cuisines. It was savory and tangy at the same time, with no lingering foul smell or aftertaste of the blood. The offal was buttery soft and I kept scooping this on my plate. We even tried their halo-halo and ube halaya for dessert, which are worth a repeat.
