like a kid in a filipino candy store

I am filipino. I am a filipino who grew up on mom and dad's cooking... I've got patis, soy sauce, MSG, and bagoong running through my veins. So when my family and I heard that they were opening the filipino grocery chain, Seafood City in the Southcenter Mall, we were pretty giddy. I know right, a grocery store in a mall... it's pretty weird. Filipino cuisine is not well known. Sure, every person I've met has tried lumpia, pancit and adobo at their friend's house, but not at a filipino restaurant. Somehow we haven't quite made it into the culinary world. A few mom and pop restaurants here and there, but certainly not like a Starbucks on every corner. I'd like to call our food "con-fusion"... chinese-spanish-malaysian-indonesian-american-andwhoknowswhatelse influences.

Filipino ingredients can be purchased at virtually any asian market, but with Seafood City now open, we now make monthly trips to stock up on goodies... snacks, hopia, ensaymanda, empanada, pan-de-sal, ube/macapuno ice cream, lumpia... OH MY!

The wonderful thing about having Seafood City, is the food court. Yes! There is a mini Filipino food court! Years ago, my family and I went to one of the big malls in Manila, Philippines and I remember having had a pretty good lunch at the famous Jollibee. I had to have it again...

See what I mean by "con-fusion" this is fried chicken, corn and mashed potatoes with gravy! But the yummiest thing in this photo happens to be that dessert right at the top... halo-halo: sweet beans, jack fruit, coconut gels, creamy milk, slushy ice topped with ube ice cream.



Ice cream is the one dessert that I crave the most... macapuno (it's like young coconut) ice cream is the yummiest of all, nutty and sooo creamy!

Puto is the best when warmed and dipped into freshly grated coconut.

Durian... not my favorite. Tastes like mushy, sweet garlic-onion... and did I mention that it's really smelly? So smelly that it's illegal to cut this open in public in certain countries.

Ready-made, frozen lumpias for the lazy cook. It's a pain in the ass to make your own lumpias at home (plus it comes with making your hands smell like garlic for the next week) but homemade is worth it.

There's nothing like frying a whole fish and eating it with rice and diced fresh tomatoes in patis. This is the kind of meal my mom craves the most.

It's almost time to stock up again...