canada is a cultural melting pot of cultures and that is especially true of toronto. in danforth avenue alone, where i live, which was once known as toronto's greektown, the landscape has changed in the last several years. it used to be that danforth for the longest stretch of about 8 subway stops or a little more than five kilometres, was dominated by immigrant greek merchants and restaurants. now the greeks are relegated to less than half of that stretch; the landscape has indeed changed. toronto (the city) has a population of 2.79 million (as opposed to the 5.5 million for the greater toronto area), 47% of which are part of a visible minority. the top five visible minority groups are: southasian, chinese, blacks, filipino and latin american.
filipino cuisine is popular among other cultures because its origins are of those very same cultures. the philippines, before it was colonized by the spaniards, was once the 'pit stop' of trade vessels from china and europe.
the filipinos, like other cultures, are proud of their cuisine. when you go to a filipino party, no matter how discriminating your taste is, you are bound to love at least one or two dishes. you will leave overly sated and what's more, you will leave with a big bag of goodies. perhaps the "pancit" or noodles, or the pork on a stick, or those tiny deep-fried spring rolls. and the sweets! goodness, the sweets.
look what one-night stand made me do! i bought a week's feast, all for me. except for the skewered pork, partner would have to eat that. the orange noodles have pork rinds so partner would also have to eat that, too. the bowl on the lower left is a kind of vegetable indigenous to southeast asia and cooked in coconut milk. there's a package of pork rinds which i shall give to a friend on the weekend, some fresh spring rolls (these are to die for) and sweets!
@trbo - you must let me know when you come to toronto, travis. i will treat you to a nice filipino dinner. i promise no blood pudding and i'll have them cut off the head of the fish. :-D
@jsw0109 - those are the fresh spring rolls, made of flimsy egg crepes with lettuce and sauteed diced veggies, mostly carrots, string beans, coconut hearts, cabbage and they are served with a special garlic sauce, if you're into garlic, or just plain sweet and sour sauce, with some coarsely ground peanut pieces. yummmy! methinks i'll have another one. :-)
@sarasdadandmom - have you ever been to a filipino home? when you do, you would have to come with a really empty stomach and a big appetite. they get insulted if you don't eat a lot. :-)
That looks amazing. Funny after years of hearing my Dad talk about being stationed in Manila and the food he lived there, and the food he hated, I've never even tried any Filipino food. I think there is none around me
@pandorasecho - you live in california and you've never had filipino food? that's a travesty! :-) well, how far away are you from LA or san francisco? my bff lives in castro valley near SFO. i have a 365 friend who's near san fran also. now, i will meet bff LA in november or somewhere near there to photograph some fundraising that bff is organizing. but i don't think i will be in SFO as that would be the other end of cali. but when i do meet up with you, i will make sure we will have some filipino food to partake. thank you, dixie.
@summerfield I have to drive south for seven hours to get to San Fran. So we joke that we are almost 400 miles north of northern CA. on the other hand my husband teaches in Oregon and that is at a school 22 miles from our house.
Hello! I'm your Get Pushed partner for week 36. I've gone through quite a bit of your project and I see that your shots tend to be full of life, action and busy living. Perhaps it's also the fact that you seem to like to fill the frame with all sorts of interesting details, colours and things to see. My challenge for you is to find serenity and calm from your surroundings, cutting the distractions out of the frame. I would love to see a really quiet street scene, for example. But I'll leave it up to you how to interpret this and find the "zen" in the shot. I hope that's an ok challenge for you. :)
March 24th, 2013
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@trbo @jsw0109 - thank you, guys.