Why is Philippine food not as popular as...?, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc. food Options

[Suzuka00]

Pinakbet is not greasy and it's very healthy.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinakbet

Sinigang na Bangus is also not greasy and contains lots of Omega 3 for the heart.

the taste is okay perhaps

[diwata]

The reason that Filipino food is not as popular is because Filipinos would mostly cater to their fellow Filipinos. Have you seen the serving sizes of the dishes? Its also way overpriced.

[redhorse]

Just like a business, you might have the greatest service or product in the world, if it's not marketed properly then you're not going to make a lot of sales. Our cuisine is on par with some of the best in the world.

[Henry123]

Theres not that many Filipino restaurants around outside of the Philippines. If there were more I'm sure it would become very popular. Give it time. I think it will become very popular one day!

This post has been edited by Henry123: Oct 14 2008, 08:15 AM

[hugo boss]

seems like a lot of the foods are made with fatty meats and organs, inards, blood, and bagoong, not the type of food the typical American would like, it's more of an aquired taste

[Hi Tone]

seems like a lot of the foods are made with fatty meats and organs, inards, blood, and bagoong, not the type of food the typical American would like, it's more of an aquired taste

We use to have lots of americans at my sister's parties eating typical filipino food, but it stopped because it was just too many people and for now parties are just for immediate family and friends.

[Patton]

seems like a lot of the foods are made with fatty meats and organs, inards, blood, and bagoong, not the type of food the typical American would like, it's more of an aquired taste

And a lot of it is meant to be eaten with your fingers. Since the staple is based on rice and not a bun to hold the dripping fat people balk at the "nasty" stuff.

[Jc2]

There's a Filipino restaurant in an area heavily populated by Filipinos here in Toronto called Aristokrat. Just beside it is a Chinese buffet restaurant and for some reason, Filipinos prefer going to that Chinese restaurant than the Filipino restaurant

[Hi Tone]

There's a Filipino restaurant in an area heavily populated by Filipinos here in Toronto called Aristokrat. Just beside it is a Chinese buffet restaurant and for some reason, Filipinos prefer going to that Chinese restaurant than the Filipino restaurant

I bet they're both own and run by chinese.

[JonathanF2]

I've never had Filipino food that tried to be more than just homestyle. If Filipinos want to amp up their game, they need to start thinking about the way we cook it. I've never ate a Filipino restaurant stateside that matched the refinement of a western restaurant.

[blumage]

Between the two cuisuines i do prefer the Chinese way it's way too yummy. And no, i dont eat at chowking or any crappy chinese restaurant you have to visit the place to try the real food. Anyhow Filipino food is a cure for home sickness.

[kermit_criminal]

filipinos are busy being engineers and nurses to open up filipino restaurants. and when they do decide to open a business, they prefer filipino grocery over filipino cuisine

[PanlasangPinoy]

This is the question that I am also asking for the longest time. After reading the same article a few years back, I was challenged and asked myself this question: "What can I do to make Filipino Cuisine known throughout the world?".

The Philippines is one of the melting pots of Asia; it is the home of several cultures brought about by colonization. This is one of the reasons why some Filipino Food have a close resemblance with the dishes of other countries. Some would think that this is negative and would say that we should have our own identity in terms of our cuisine - but I personally think that this is more of an advantage to us. We are what we are and we could not change it but we can do a lot of things to make it better.

Can you name at least 100 Filipino Dishes? How many of these dishes have you tried? How many of this dishes have you prepared? I don't expect everyone to answer these questions because the first question alone would probably give some of you a hard time. My point is simple, How can we get there if we do not know the direction. We need some sort of GPS or Google Maps perhaps to lead us to our destination.

"Are we there yet?" is a question that passengers ask. Why don't we be the driver or the navigator for a change? Why don't we take some time to learn and promote Filipino Cuisine in our own little way? Sure, some of our foods might gross-out non Filipinos because there are certain Filipino foods that needed an acquired taste - there are even Filipinos who feel the same too. We can always start to promote the foods that we think is more likely to be appreciated by non Filipinos and slowly introduce the bizarre ones. I know that it is easier said than done but every journey begins with a single step. Let's try to make that step by first educating ourselves. We can't be good sales people if we don't know anything about our product, right?

I started this journey a year ago but I still cannot say if I completed the first step yet. I was able to put-up a Filipino food blog http://panlasangpinoy.com that aims to promote Filipino foods through proper education. This is the most effective way that I can think of to reach-out to everyone anywhere. Instead of just asking or criticizing, why don't we do something about it? The journey is long and tiring but I believe that we will arrive to our destination soon if we can only combine all our efforts and focus on our goal.

[KuyaRonnie]

Our cuisine lacks presentations of some sort, you cannot dress-up sinigang, and so as paksiw, pinakbet maybe too bitter for others, Kare-Kare needs bagoong, sisig is unfriendly to the heart but I don't care I like them all. I wont trade adobo for sushi.

[RangerBlue]

I've noticed that too. I live in the West, and when it comes to Asian cuisine...

30% are Chinese restaurants
20% are Japanese restaurants
15% are Korean restaurants
10% are Vietnamese restaurants
10% are Thai/Malaysian restaurants
10% are Indian/Indonesian restaurants
5% or lower for all the other Asian cuisines

I've never came across any Filipino restaurants. My friend and I were at a restaurant eating, and we were talking about Asian restaurants and cuisines. I said that I've never eaten Filipino food, and I have never went to any Filipino restaurants. My friend (also Asian) looked at me funny and said, "of course you haven't been to any Filipino restaurants, there aren't any around here".

[sweet misery]

From a family of cooks, siguro it has something to do with the spices (kulang) and the presentation ika nga ni Kuya Ronnie.

[martin_nuke]

Culinary arts in not the priority of Filipinos at this time all they care is how to get their stomachs full no matter what they eat so they can proceed to make more babies.

[LazyAzian]

I think it's because there hasn't been any attempt to make Filipino food into some kind of fine culinary art.

For example, one major turn-off is the horrible presentation of Filipino food - they just jumble it up in some place or bowl, you grab rice and mix it together or something.

At least put it in a beautiful plate covered with small banana leaves on a bamboo tray, or something, make it look presentable.

Another is the lack of any formalized institution that specialized in "fine Filipino culinary arts."

In Japan sushi chefs are trained for years under masters as apprentices, then they go on to making their own sushi places. The level of cooking is comparable to Western chefs who apprentice for as long as 30 years.

For Filipino restaurants, most of the time it's usually some old lady who had enough money to invest and happened to remember the recipes that her mother or grandma used to have. The level of cooking is comparable to a housewife baking home-made chocolate chip cookies.

[filipinoy]

there are sooo many filipino restaurants in SoCal especially san diego (even the Sizzlers there serves Filipino dishes), but it looks like 3/4 only targets filipino customers

if they really want to ..appeal to western taste ...they might have to modify some of the preparations/ingredients used... & concentrate on certain dishes that might have the potential. & create a general taste... a filipino dish taste different every time... depending who cooks it or what region it comes from... (there was this vietnamese restaurant in my area, vietnam restaurants seems to be doing pretty alright around there... but this particular one.. has cuisine from N.vietnam instead of the common S.vietnamese cuisine... the food looks good, i ate there twice, but then it had to shut down.. because people,non-viets of course; was expecting a certain taste they become accustomed to ..with the other vietnamese restaurants.)


i also been to chinese restaurants where theres is an "Americanized Menu" & a separate "Chinese Menu" given to mostly ethnic chinese customers.

when i watch that restaurant battle on food network... i was surprised the Filipino guy was picked by the judges to win... despite using ox tail/ cow tongue etc... on the dishes... but that was the main criticism by the judges.. they said words like... 'ox tail/cow tongue' doesnt look very good on the menu.
the judges are very open-minded, which i think the main reason why he won.

although many of the 'bistro' style filipino restaurants ive seen looks presentable enough...

like this one called Bistro Luneta:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQngeansG6Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gmJlyTWWWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxwAdy1oKjg

but nothing beats the high end ones in the PI..

This post has been edited by filipinoy: Dec 17 2010, 08:25 AM

[Metropolitan]

wth is wrong with some people here. "EW BALUT IS SO GROSS!" wth, why don't you sit down and actually try the liqud inside with some salt, then eat the yolk, you don't really have to eat the little formed duck. i mean you talk about filipino pride but you're throwing down your own culture

Balut is very international. Set aside from the fact every single East and South East Asian eats and have their own description of a embryo duck or chicken.....