12 Real Filipino Street Food in the Philippines

The World Street Food Congress was held in the Philippines from April 20 to 24, 2016. It was cool, especially considering that it was the first time it was not held in Singapore and all, but the line were all so long that I didn't see the point. It's restaurant grade food being sold in either food carts or food carts, at restaurant grade prices. When I think of street food I expect little bites of things at very affordable prices. 

So one Pinoy Urban Day I got to thinking about the real Filipino Street Foods being sold in the streets of the Philippines itself? 

Fish Balls/Squid Balls/Chicken Balls

pepper.ph

These balls may bear Fish, Squid, and Chicken in their names but when you taste them you can swear you get none of those flavors in the balls. But these are some of the most famous (or infamous) of the Filipino street foods.

Survival tips for commuting to and from work in Metro Manila

I'll be honest with you all since we're friends... We are, right? The main reason I resigned from my first job after four years was because the daily commute had gotten so bad. That's why one Urban Pinoy Day I chose to take almost the same position but in a night shift. I had to adjust my sleep pattern but the commute was less stressful. Voila! I started experiencing success in my career. 

This is coming from the perspective of someone who lives in Cainta and used to work at a Bank's headquarters in the Makati CBD. If you have decided to rent a room (or a bed, I'm not judging) near your office good for you. If you're bringing your car everyday through that congested traffic? Well good luck to you. 

Commuting to work

1. Wake up early (like really early)

lauravirginia.me

That's a gimme. In my case I used to wake up at 4:30 am and be on my way around 5:30 am. That was during the early part of my career, when I still cared. Right before I resigned I was leaving our home at 6:30 am. And you know what? There will be times when I would not make it on time at 8:30 am, more often when I was leaving home at 6:30 am. The frustration of waking up early and still being late was part of the stress I had to go through.

That was about 8 years ago (as of this writing). Now I've heard that it gets so bad you have to leave Cainta at 4:30 am to make sure. Okay, that's exaggerating. 5 am would be ideal, if you can.

Ang alamat ng santol at iba pa, mga kwentong pinoy

If you haven’t heard about the Legend of Santol then you haven’t spent too many times drinking in the provinces of the Philippines. I’m referring to the joke version that would never fail to cause a group of inebriated people into a laughing fit. Here goes the short version:

Person 1: Pare, anong pangalan nitong puno na to?

Person 2: San’ tol?

Didn’t find it funny? You need a drink. A shot of brandy is advised.

One pinoy urban day, I was telling my officemates (well my staff really) about the Alamat ng Cubao (the legend of Cubao) being that our office was situated in one of the new skyscrapers in the Araneta Center. It sounded absurd but oddly enough actually made sense to me. And it got me thinking about the other legends of places I have heard from friends and wanted to write an article about them. Let me know if it’s the same version you have heard of in the comments below!

Ang Alamat ng Ilog Pasig (The Legend of the Pasig River)

Photo credits: foodmetromanila.wordpress.com

This one was told by a classmate in elementary and the gist of the story was corroborated by an officemate who lives in Pasig. I’m telling this based on the hazy details I can remember (it has been more than 20 years as of the time of this writing after all) and I may have filled in some details.

When you see them don't just walk past them

I have been riding the LRT Line 2 (which starts at Santolan, Pasig City, as of this writing, and stretches all the way to Recto, Manila City) since I was in College. I cannot remember when I first saw people asking for alms in the pedestrian overpass but nowadays there are always several of them here. 

Note the discoloration of her face compared to the rest of her body?

Philippine Election Campaign season 2016

It's that time again in the Philippines. Incumbent and aspiring politicians are once asking for our precious votes. Aside from the political sorties, campaigning here in the Philippines involves posting a lot of posters. This is prohibited in the well developed business districts and affluent villages but everywhere else is fair game.

Although there have been noticeably less of these in the past two elections, some are still hilarious as hell. In my hometown of Cainta, there are some concrete pipes lying around on the side of the road for drainage improvement and some campaign posters actually got tacked on these.