Esquire UK samples sisig and balut

Recounting his encounter with former First Lady Imelda Marcos, Esquire UK magazine’s "gallivanting gourmand" Tom Parker Bowles feasted on signature Filipino fare such as fried pigs’ heads (sisig) and warm duck embryos (balut). Parker Bowles– yes, the stepson of Charles, Prince of Wales – details his culinary adventures in the August issue of Esquire UK in his article titled "Anyone for Filipino?" He also sheepishly admitted to actually bowing before the Imeldific one upon meeting her. The British magazine’s food editor recalled trying but failing to convince others that he was a food tourist and not a sex tourist because, according to him, Manila is "not the most obvious choice" for gastronomic adventures. But first Parker Bowles began by writing about his first taste of kare-kare, dinuguaan, and sisig with food tour guide Ivan Henares. You’d have to get the August issue of Esquire UK to find out which he favored and which he did not. (Henares blogged about the article and posted it on his Facebook account.) He wrote little about the history of Filipino food – the Malay, Chinese, Spanish, and American influences – but failed miserably to find out that kare-kare was the result of British occupation of the Philippines during the Seven Year War. The peanut-based dish was whipped up to look like – but oddly does not taste like – Indian curry for the British troops composed mainly, well, of Indians. Well, at least Parker Bowles was able to point out that “[t]here must be around 150,000 [Filipinos] in London alone" who keep a “great hidden cuisine." He also recounts lunch at the famous Claude Tayag’s house in Pampanga, where he dined on pako (fern salad), adobo and sinigang (two kinds, guava and kamias), as well as second helpings of a different kind of kare-kare and sisig. Parker Bowles then got schooled by food blogger Ivan Man Dy in the Filipino art of eating balut, which the British citizen said was “certainly a surprise." Dy's company, Old Manila Walks, has posted on Facebook a link to an advance copy of the Esquire UK article. Parker Bowles then narrated his last supper in Manila with Cibo owner Margarita Fores – whom he described as a “small and sexy" chef who had, in turn, introduced him to Joel Binamira, another food blogger who also wrote about the Esquire UK article. They talked about the virtues of the vice ceremoniously served in town fiestas, more commonly known as lechon. Sure, Manila got bashed again in the Esquire UK article. But the cuisine, ah the cuisine, is supreme. You don’t need an almost royal to decree that. — RSJ, GMA News