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At the very beginning of my seashore foraging and fishing study, I thought it might be right to find out what the local townsfolk actually ate every day. I gave each of my five 'bead ladies' a notebook, and asked them to record their meals in detail each day for a month. They did a great job - very consistently. The results showed that they and their families lived on a regular diet of rice and fish, with occasional vegetables and fruit. The fish is usually just a topping for the rice, and is cooked in various ways:

The four most popular dishes were: 

• Buyad (dried fish) - fried crispy - usually for breakfast - with rice

• Paksiw - Fish stew with garlic, ginger and vinegar - with rice

• Tinola - Clear fish soup with some vegetables - with rice

• Fried Fish - well, just fried fish - very well-cooked, so the leftovers can be kept without refrigeration - with rice

Other dishes eaten were:

• Sari-Sari - mixed vegetables stir-fried

• Ginisa - Stir fried vegetables or shellfish - not mixed

• Adobo - Stew flavoured with soy sauce - usually octopus or chicken

• Mongos - Dried mung bean (lentils) stew with coconut milk and dried fish 

• Pancit - Noodles with soup and egg - often pre-packaged 'Instant Noodles'

• Kinilaw - Raw fish with vinegar, chili and onions - popular for men's drinking parties as pulutan - finger food.

• Scabetche - Sweet & sour fish with vegetables

• Ginata'an - Coconut milk soup with fish

• Ninijugan - Coconut meat special - with kayabang land crabs at full moon.

• Salads of papaya, agar-agar seaweed, banana buds, etc, sometimes with coconut milk

• Ninidgid - Mashed camote sweet potato, sugar and coconut milk steamed in banana leaf.

And fast food has arrived:

• Chicken or 'hot dog' barbecue - There are several stands around the town - they sell mostly the very cheap cuts of chicken - wings, feet, necks, gizzards, and hearts, liver & stomach, marinated always in a 'secret' sauce. Eaten 'out' when socialising in the evening. Always more available after the Sunday cockfights. 'Hot dogs'  are the same repulsive violent purple or pink things you get worldwide, made from God knows what.

• There's a story about a Filipino, visiting New York for the first time, and pining for his native foodstuffs. When he sees a 'HOT DOG' stand, he sighs with homesick relief, and orders one, but rejects it politely when it arrives, explaining 'We never eat that part of the dog'. 

• There has recently been a small 'trade war' between the Americans and the Filipinos - nobody in America eats chicken winglets, feet, necks, gizzards, or hearts, liver & stomach, so they've been dumped here, frozen by the container-load, in the name of 'Free Trade'. 

• I have never seen a nice fat, plump chicken breast on sale here, except from chickens locally grown, and they certainly ain't 'corn-fed'.

Adie

Baning

Morena

Myrna

Wilma

Breakfast: Rice, dolphinfish soup, water
Lunch: Sari-sari - eggplant, beans & squash

Supper: Rice, barbecued chicken neck, water

Breakfast: Bread & coffee
Lunch: Her daughter Nene's birthday
Rice, fish kinilaw, chicken with bihon noodles, chicken with soup, grilled fish, Coke
Supper: Rice, Fish Paksiw

Breakfast: Coffee
Lunch: Hamburger & Coke
Dinner: Beef loaf

Not a very good advertisement (that day at least) for 
The Siargao Diet ™

Breakfast - Boiled camote tops & rice
Lunch - Rice and Ninijugan - crabs & coconut milk
Dinner - Rice & grilled Bolis - skipjack tuna

Breakfast - Rice & fried fish
Lunch - Rice, sardines & banana
Dinner - Rice and tayad (small fish)