Pea walks through a public market in Leyte to show where locals get the best prices on fresh food, from produce and condiments to the fish and meat sections. She explains what unfamiliar items are, how Filipinos use them, what they cost in pesos, and why the market works the way it does, including government price boards and a caged public scale to stop vendors from cheating. It's a useful guide for anyone staying long enough to cook for themselves.
Why the public market
- Short-term visitors might just eat at restaurants, but if you stay longer you'll want to cook, and the public market is where locals get the best prices
Produce and pantry staples
- Calamansi: the little lime, very tangy and sour. Used as a condiment or made into juice like lemonade
- In the West you buy it by the pound; here it can be bought by the piece, sometimes 1 peso each
- Filipino moms give it to kids with colds or coughs
- Tiny red onions sold by the plate: 10 to 20 pesos a plate, roughly 20 cents US
- Her answer to viewers asking how Filipinos survive on $10 a day: "We don't buy things in bulk, we buy it by the plate"
- Peppercorns sold in tiny sachets (seven sachets for 20 pesos). Bay leaves and salt come in small bags too
- Salted eggs, 19 pesos each, considered a delicacy. "You folks won't like it, I bet you"
- Very salty; eaten with vegetables, more like an appetizer
- She compares it to century egg without the smell and prefers it
- Made from duck or chicken eggs, she thinks by burying them in salt for about a month
- Eggs aren't refrigerated in the Philippines. "They just survive, and so far we're still alive"
- Charcoal, the cheapest way to grill, sold three bags for 100 pesos (about $1.80). She calls it a good deal
- Kalamay (muscovado): a patty of sugar, which she says is healthier. Used in rice cakes, desserts or as a condiment. 25 pesos a bag, about 50 cents
- Flour, mung beans and even cooking oil are sold in little bags. The oil (coconut, she thinks) "looks like a bag of urine"
- Ginger: 100 pesos a kilo, versus very expensive at Walmart. Good for soup and stir-fry and has medicinal uses
- Her joke "myth": ginger tea is the secret to why Filipinos can sing
Dried and fermented fish
- "The dreaded dried fish." She acknowledges viewers say the smell is horrendous and has driven tons of foreigners out of Filipino homes when their Filipinas cook it. More pungent than durian
- Salted fermented shrimp, one of her favorites, mixed with vegetables or eaten as an appetizer, sometimes with calamansi
- Ginamos, her favorite: fermented fish made from tiny minnows soaked in lots of salt for at least a month
Water in a bag
- A self-service water vending machine: get a bag, hold it under the spout, drop in a 1 peso coin
- Twist the bag, make a hole in a corner and suck it out
Rock salt
- "We sell snow. No, not really." Cups of rock salt for 40 and 20 pesos
- Iodized salt is in grocery stores, but most people buy rock salt at the market because it's the cheapest
Random moments
- A vendor brought his orange dog to the market. "Don't bite my face, please"
- Chilies: "You know you're dating a Filipina if you find these in your kitchen. Because we Filipinas are spicy"
- Lots of cats wandering the fruit section
Fruit section
- Pomelo: like grapefruit but sweet instead of sour; eaten as a dessert or snack, usually with salt
- Filipinos eat lots of fruit with salt, including apples and watermelon
- Guavas: these are big, but as a kid she had tiny ones and traded them with classmates for school supplies like writing paper because they had no money
- Bananas, both yellow and green varieties
- Guyabano (soursop): sweet, high in antioxidants, eaten as dessert or made into juice
- Mangoes: 100 pesos a kilo. "Nothing tastes like Filipino mangoes." She tried mangoes in the US and, no offense, they're nothing like these. She admits she's biased and plans to eat a lot
- "They say the uglier the mango is, the sweeter it is. Just like foreigners, you guys." She adds that some Filipinas "marry the ugliest, but we're actually the sweetest"
- Small, very sweet pineapples in many sizes
- Mangosteen: high in antioxidants, which she calls "the pride of the Philippines." Only in season about twice a year, so she was glad to find it
Halo-halo, the traditional Filipino dessert
- The name means "mix-mix," a mix of good things. The local market version costs 25 pesos (about 50 cents), versus more upscale restaurant versions
- Her cup: gelatin, rice crispies, frozen fruit, sago, corn, bananas, ube, mung beans, pinipig (she compares it to oats), lots of brown sugar ("because Ate is very sweet, and so am I"), shaved ice, a scoop of ice cream ("I'm so special"), sprinkles and a spoonful of milk
- In Leyte they say "mangaon kita," meaning "let's eat"
- The proper way to eat it: dig in and mix everything, then take a big scoop with a bit of everything. Result: brain freeze
Fish market
- A board lists fish and prices set by the government. They're suggested prices meant to stop vendors from price gouging. "I know it doesn't sound like capitalism"
- Various fish around 350 pesos a kilo; usually fried, made into soup or eaten raw. "These fish are flatter than me"
- Tuna at 300 pesos a kilo; yellowfin tuna; dorado ("a monster fish")
- Kinilaw: like ceviche, raw fish with vinegar, salt and condiments. In Leyte they mix in coconut milk. Her basic version is calamansi, salt, onions and ginger
- Milkfish look like catfish without whiskers and don't taste like milk. Very bony, but good deboned and fried
- Tilapia, and squid, which she loves cooked as adobo
- Parrotfish, 300 pesos a kilo. Her mom used to fry it and make it sweet and sour
- Pompano, which she'd been searching for for ages; likes it fried or in soup
- Grouper, snapper, and boneless minnow-type fish good for kinilaw
- She addresses viewers who say it looks unsanitary and isn't refrigerated: "This is how we sell it here. We've been doing this for centuries"
- Two kinds of seaweed, guso and lato (grape seaweed), 20 pesos a batch
- Live shellfish that move and squirt water, blue crabs and tiger crabs (400 pesos a kilo), and massive tiger prawns good for tempura
- A government public weighing scale locked in a cage ("secured in Alcatraz")
- It exists because of reports that some vendors rig their scales, so customers can confirm a kilo of fish is actually a kilo
Meat section
- Chicken: every part is sold, including liver, necks, feet, heads, intestines and what she thinks is the esophagus
- "Don't mind the flies, guys. It's part of the charm. It makes the food tasty"
- Tocino balls: ground meat with fat mixed together, a Filipino version of sausage. "We love our sweet balls"
- Pork: legs, ribs, backbone with the tail still on, lean meat, and the face, including ears and nose
- Filipinos don't waste parts. The face (called "maskara") goes into sisig, and even the hooves are sold
Wrap-up
- Food in the Philippines isn't all that cheap, but the public market has the best prices
- She planned to show how to cook the food but the video got too long, so the cooking segment is on her Patreon
Outro bit
- She compares herself to a bartender who listens to your questions and serves up "intoxicating content," and asks for a "tip" in the form of a thumbs up, subscribe, share and notification bell. "You wouldn't want to shaft your bartender, would you?"
