I'll be the first person to admit that my palate is strongly influenced by the Western Hemisphere. I'm a guy that looks for Burgers and pizza over Caldereta and Mechado. I lived in the United States when I was around three years old, and moved back here to the Philippines when I was six, and I still remember the first thing I ate when I got back here was, Believe it or not.. Spam.
That's because I took a look at all these strange looking meats drenched in sauces, all with different colors and thinking to myself, "What a strange country I'm living in".
My Yaya then made me try the wonder that is Liempo, which I instantly loved. From there, she slowly broke me in to more exotic local dishes, which not coincidentally, were predominantly meat based.
Through the years, my appreciation for the food of my homeland has grown exponentially, but I still wouldn't consider myself a huge fan of Filipino Cuisine.
One lunch at Chef Tatung's changed all that.
