My MIL is so sweet! When I arrived in Manila, I was also house-sitting for them. I guess she took our pork- (and pinoy food) cravings to heart because the freezer was basically pork: bacon and lechon kawali (crisply pork belly)! Haha!
Now, where would they get such an idea?!? Maybe because TD and I have become pork-tourists! Yes TD coined a new term: Pork-tourism. This is basically what we do when we are anywhere outside Jakarta that serves pork! (i.e. Bali, Medan, Vietnam, Manila, etc.) I never knew I could miss pork this much until I got deprived of it hehe! And the same goes for Pinoy food in general.

Thanks to MIL and our help for indulging me with all the Pinoy food that I missed! Anyway, on my last day in Manila, I ended my binge with a breakfast of rice, tuyo (dried fish) with vinegar and kamatis at itlog na maalat (diced tomatoes with salted egg).
You know what I miss the most?
- sinful Pinoy breakfast food (the “-silogs” – tapa/tocino/longganisa with egg and garlic fried rice)
- our super unhealthy processed Corned beef and hotdog =P
- Pork in general
- our salted fish
- Lucky Me calamansi pancit canton (not the real kind of pancit canton hehe)
Baaaad cravings I know right?!? I wonder what food other expats out there miss while away from home? Drop me a line! I would love to hear it! =)
*Note: I might be mixing up posts from Bali, Vietnam, and Manila in the next couple of weeks! Please bear with me! I hope you don’t get confused. I just need to get it all out! =)
The pictures are making me salivate! And I just ate breakfast! Hahahaha!
Pork-tourism! Haha! That’s funny 🙂 How we don’t miss these things too much is via the Filipino Restaurant (who also has a grocery). Then we met the Filipino community and occasionally they sell homemade tapa, tocino and even longganisa! Of course since in Jakarta you won’t find pork, you might want to do a substitute – like chicken tocino or beef longganisa! Plus if the Pinoys here can make it, I’m sure you can make it from scratch too 🙂 But better find a Pinoy store / resto (Pau apparently knows of one – I’ll ask him and PM you!) where you can just buy these 🙂
I am a Pinoy food whore I swear! Exacerbated by pregnancy cravings too! But through the experience I realized that you’ll find what you’re looking for (almost) wherever you are. Imagine, we chanced upon a Pinoy resto in Barcelona or even here in Sri Lanka? Who would have thought right?
You are so so lucky that you have a decent pinoy grocery around. We have 1 pinoy restaurant, but it’s only for the silogs and bistek… buuuuut the probs here is sourcing material. As you know it is very hard to import things into Indonesia so the supply of pinoy ingredients is not dependable. i.e. bangus in the resto is not always available. And there are ingredients which looks similar here, but taste different. Weird right? I would love love love to know where this pinoy supermarket is… I hope it is still open!!
Like your site and am following. My small family company produces traditional English Style (really!!) bacon and sausages from our country home just north of Yogya. We are branching out into dried sausages now and waiting to see what the results of our first batch of Saucisson is like. We do Burgers and ribs with next day delivery as they are fresh provision. The ribs are marinated or supplied fresh for your own sauces.
We can supply any cut of pork you wish for from the market in Yogya and ship overnight in cool-box for guaranteed next morning delivery in JKT. Am still researching dry ice alternatives for overnight cooling during shipment.
Thanks for following Djhon Kendi! I love finding out about these home based businesses selling hard to find items. I can’t believe you deliver to Jakarta. How cool is that? It’s definitely good to know. How much is your minimum order for delivery of bacon and how much is the delivery charge? I would love to know!