Don't mind the mess in the background—we’ve just moved into our new, more affordable house, and we’re still getting everything settled. Tonight, Jessa cooked sweet potatoes and dried fish. It turns out I may have requested this exact meal earlier in the day and completely forgotten!
If you’ve followed our journey, you know I’ve become a huge fan of local Philippine food. I truly believe that many foreigners living here are missing out because they're too set in their ways and only want to eat what they had back home. We made a spread of boiled sweet potatoes (which we call camote), mixed vegetables, and my absolute favorite: dried fish.
The dried fish we had tonight is a bit of a premium type. We also had some mixed vegetables that Jessa got for a great price at the market. She did admit she might have gone a little heavy on the soy sauce, which made them a bit dark, but they still tasted great.
I have a very specific way I like to eat my camote. I need my "special sauce," which is really just a simple mix of coconut oil and a bit of salt. Jessa always teases me about it, but it’s the only way to go! I even eat the skin of the potato, which is something I actually taught Jessa to do. Back in Norway, we often leave the skins on, and they're full of nutrients.
During dinner, we talked a lot about the cost of living and food culture. I’ve traveled all over the world, and I truly believe Philippine cuisine is underrated. I even saw a ranking recently where it placed higher than many European countries! If you want to live affordably in the Philippines, you have to learn to eat like a local. Importing European cheese and liver paste (which I still do once in a while as a treat) gets expensive fast.
We also shared a bit of a sad observation from our recent trips to the city. We often see families out for dinner where everyone—from the kids to the grandparents—is just staring at their phones or tablets. To me, dinner time is family time. It’s time to talk and connect. I’d much rather have a conversation than have us all sitting in silence with our screens.
Speaking of family, Liam was in a great mood today. I finally let him hang out in my office for a bit. I’m usually pretty careful about letting him in there because of all the expensive camera gear and computer screens, but he was such a good boy. He sat on my lap while we watched videos about Philippine Airlines—getting him ready for our upcoming trip to Manila!
It was a simple, healthy, and cheap meal that left me feeling completely full and satisfied. I’m proud to be a Norwegian who genuinely loves the local flavors of my adopted home. Thanks for sitting down to dinner with us!
