The Hospitality of the Filipino People Though Food

A big part of the Filipino culture is how we treat our guests, meaning our hospitality, where they are served warmly at any times and any cost regardless of who they are hence when you watch vlogs of people travelling in the Philippines most of their comments is that they were treated with great care and most is not all of the people they meet are very friendly. Well there might be some exceptions like in any place or scenario but these are extreme cases.

As one of the most visited countries in Asia, the Filipino hospitality is one of the reasons why the Philippines is a popular destination among travelers. Whether it’s a fellow Filipino from another country or foreigners with different nationalities, they will be treated like family which makes them feel right at home.

A big part of this hospitality is the food, I still remember when I was young most of our relatives was not well off but when they have visitors my aunts and uncles start to scramble in preparing nice food for the guest, even those who does not have money to buy them they borrow some or ask for a pay later scheme “utang” on a near sari sari store or butcher. You won’t believe even the poorest of the poor, the ones who barely eats on a regular basis manages to serve nice food just for the guest, Filipinos just put the best every time a guest comes to visit us.

Even though we are out of the country we still experience this when visiting friends, you know when you visit someone unannounced they start preparing something for you even if you just asked for water, we even do that as well. Just on our last visit to the Philippines we have a first-hand experience on this and the best way to experience this was in our home country, countless times when we visit friends or family we were fed well regardless it is breakfast, lunch, snacks or dinner where most of they prepared for their specialties.

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The most common dishes served during visits like this are kare kare, lechon kawali, crispy pata, pancit, spaghetti, paella and inihaw to name some, but this is only for the announced visits, for un announced ones usually they just buy something like lechon liempo, lechon manok or pancit sa bilao and this usually is accompanied with an ice cold soft drink.

For snack mostly its kakanin if they know you are coming but if not the friendly panaderia is just around the corner so expect Spanish bread, pan de coco, monay or pandesal to name some.

I know for non-Filipinos this sounds crazy specially the part where even if you don’t have anything you try to please your guest whatever it takes, I know for other it will be taxing but this is how Filipinos are, this is our culture and we love doing it. It’s just right timing for this post as it is Independence Day back in my home country, so for all Filipinos out there “Happy Independence Day”