Part 24 ~(lettuce eat)

KAIN TAYO ( let's eat) or~ lettuce eat?

Here, everyone eats rice 3/7/365...it seems at least 3-4 times daily. And no, I'm not talking about a modest cup or scoop. These are Filipinos! They go all the way.
Gottzta Fill that plate or go home!

When eating out in fastfood restaurants, rice is usually served in a burger-like fashion. It's molded in a cup, so it looks like a bun, and often wrapped in sandwich paper. For heavy eaters, a cup is never enough. My son orders 2x's over what this Irishman can ever do, but he is after all 1/2 Filipino? It seems that even before we are finished with our breakfast or dinner, someone's already talking about what to prepare for the next meal????


Theres this bucket of rice which the server carries while walking around, trying to spot “unli-ricers.” People can go as much as 3 refills or even 4. Don't be fooled. The first cup that comes in your plate is smaller than the succeeding cups the bucket holder will give you. If you loosen the cupped rice, it will literally cover your whole plate. Good bye diet! What's worse is, they have bottles of soy sauce and chicken oil. Yessss. You pour them like soup over yer rice and gobble till you fatten up.

Okay, so since I'm talking about food, might as well mention this. Barkada is a Filipino term for a group of friends. When here I see the meal promos always targetted families. And because Filipino families they tend to be huge, you'll find chicken buckets in KFC. Here in the Philippines, the most bundles can accomodate are 6 people. But yeah, everything is for group of friends. Like barkada meal bundles, etc.

There's also McDonald's BFF Fries, which I find really cute.
Speaking of groups, it's pretty normal to order meals good for 3 or 4 people in a restaurant. Though single meals are also very common, it is always better to eat with company and share from the same set of food ya know???

*Jollibee
The chickenjoy (a trademark for their particular fried chicken) is like the best in the country. It's really reallly good!.
It's a normal thing to see 2 or more branches of Jollibee in one block or along the same street. It's everywhere.
What's up with the popularity of the fried chicken?
I'm not sure if it's because of Jollibee's success, but today, literally every fastfood place in the country has its own take on fried chicken. Even McDonald's, pizza shops, and bakeries sell chicken and rice. Strange to me because I always thought only Jollibee and KFC sold fried chicken. Don't even get me started on gravy. Everyone has their own gravy too. It's like they're just copying concepts.
As for me personally ~~~~ I came here for real authentic pure Filipino food!!!

Filipinos always invite other people to join them even if they were eating from a tiny lunchbox. This is something I never actually understood. I don't know if it's just

 something said out of politeness (e.g. you're eating and someone walks in the room) or legit generosity/hospitality. I was once invited by a person eating a burger. You can invite anyone, even random passersby.
The default response is usually “Sige,” which literally means okay, but people don't actually sit to join you in meal (unless they have the audacity to take the offer literally). So I guess in this sense, Sige means go ahead, as in “Go ahead. Just eat your food. Don't mind me.”