Last night, we saw Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Food show
(Travel Channel) featuring the Philippines.
He is a pretty funny guy.
As I watched him try cheese and yam ice cream, pork stuffed frogs,
duck embryos (balut), the cheeks of a tuna, crickets, fried herbal leaves
and the "boys" of a cow--I found myself salivating.
He points out that in a country that is not the land of the plenty:
We waste nothing.
(Well except time due to traffic--but even that we've been able to put to good use by incessantly sending texts to friends, family and enemies)
But I digress.
So I decided to check Andrew's blog out to read more about his trip.
I found it interesting to see that despite the honesty with which he wrote about the social ills that plague the country--It was refreshing to see his ease in embracing the culture.
Granted he was in front of the camera and having food set before him, I admired his ability to carry a lighthearted, non-judgemental representation of the country I consider home.
In a total coincidence, the dvd that my west coast brother Ted and his wife Gigi sent me, arrived yesterday.
It was of their recent trip to to the Philippines.
Set to indigenous music and western music from a familiar era --the stills and videos they included were exactly what I was hoping to see.
The video they took from the inside of a car, driving through Maryknoll
(the all-girls school I attended for 13 years)
to the University of the Philippines campus (where I graduated)
was set to "This Used to be My Playground" by Madonna.
All I can say is: they know their audience well.
A picture Ted posted on his blog is taken in the house I grew up in.
The view from this picture is what I saw the moment I stepped out of the bedroom I shared with two of my sisters.
The post Gigi wrote on her blog, is exactly how I would like to share the Philippines with you.
Perhaps I am homesick after all.
X
