Food in your daily way of life...

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Since all of us here in the USA except the native Americans are from someplace
else, we all have different habits.
The American workplace has little regard for mealtimes. Many people eat breakfast and lunch on the run. The fact is, that a big meal does tend to make people sluggish and sleepy, so they tend to eat a quick bite that often consists of unhealthy junk food.
My husband and I are not breakfast eaters. He has coffee, and I have iced tea. I eat a very light lunch, usually soup, and my husband and his co-workers go to various home-style restaurants for lunch.
Our big meal of the day is supper, which we eat about 7-8 PM. I try to offer a well balanced, healthy meal consisting of meat, greens, and some kind of starch.
I don't eat many sweets, but my husband has a sweet tooth, and usually has something like Oreos stashed away to satisfy his cravings.
 
Urmaniac, it is lumpia, as Anau said. It's one of my favorites! Lumpia is basically mixed vegetables rolled up in a paper-thin wrapper. It's of Chinese origin (probably southern China). There are several versions in the Philippines. In the U.S., I think it's what they would call Chinese egg roll though I've never tasted it in the U.S. and I should think there are many differences.

Eating authentic Chinese lumpia is always a family gathering event. Usually a humongous batch is prepared and close family relatives are invited to join in. All the prepared ingredients are laid out at the center of the table and everybody rolls up their own lumpia. First you put a paper-thin flour pancake on your plate. Then place 2 to 3 Chinese lettuce leaves. Then put in the vegetable filling. Then add toppings such as crushed peanuts & sugar, crispy rice noodles for texture, seaweed, hot sauce. Roll it all up into something ressembling a burrito. You have to use your hands to hold up the lumpia and bite into it from one end. Delish! You eat all the lumpia you can make. I used to stare at my dad in wonder as he would be eating his 7th lumpia in one sitting. (You can make the lumpia as big as you want, and my dad liked his really big!)

The Philippine version of fresh lumpia is similar and simpler and without the family ritual. Instead the lumpia is served already rolled up, and topped with a gravy made with water, brown sugar, and lots of raw crushed garlic. Garnish wiith ground up peanuts.

Another Phil. version is the fried lumpia. The same Phil. fresh lumpia is rolled up and deep-fried until crisp. This is then dipped into vingegar with salt & chilies.

Which version did you have Urmaniac? I'll gladly dig up a recipe for you.
 
Haggis, not sure about your question. Local produce in the wet markets are unlabeled. However, you can expect them to be labeled in the bigger supermarkets. Did I answer your Q?
 
Haggis: Yes, for law all the products, meats and vegetables, must be certificated with a label in which is formally explained the provenience and the date. Not only in supermarkets, but, officialy, in the open markets too. Of course, not always this law is respected (it's a recent one), particularly in the little countries, where the products often come from the neighborhood field. Just yesterday, UE has adopted the italian way to certificate the meats, chicken particularly.
Buckytom: thanks for the comprehention. I was only worried that I could be misunderstood.
Ishbel: We too have particular situations in zones particularly hot, like Sicily, f.I, or in the deep south. But I think that this can generally depend from the really high temperature that you have in those hours. Morevore, isles have often particular habitudes, often different from its own nation's. It's so in Sicily and Sardinia for Italy, in Corse for France, and I've seen that in Cyprus there are different behaviours than in Greece, to which the south part of island says to be strongly connected. What can I say? Evidently, I've have used a refer (anglosaxon) that ha shurted you. Sorry again. But it seemed me the best expression to divide two..."thinking currents", one from US, UK, Australia, and the other one , from me (Italy), thai, Philippines, and (I know it very well personally) Spain and portugal. Germany is effectively in the middle, for my own experience. I hope this can clear every misundertanding could have been here. And close it.
 
I definitely think that Americans (Anglo-Saxon or not) quite often have much less interest in food. Eat more, don't get me wrong. And people who have found this web site are obviously not included in that generalization. Like all generalizations, it in no way applies to the 300 million people who live here. But a friend of mine, a few years younger than I, once commented in surprise, "You actually cook dinner every day?!!" Many, many remarked on the fact that I cooked every day in the trailer when we were on the road. Most often it was, "There's only two of you, why bother?"

In my house, since hubby was diagnosed with diabetes, he takes care of his own breakfast and lunch. I clean and slice (depending on what it is) all the fruit, so he can grab what he needs for snacks. Now he also makes his own lunch -- after we've scrutinized the shelves for the correct carb counts and such. I go to an exercise class at 9, and come home hungry, and usually eat a plate of pasta or bowl of soup. But most nights I put together a real dinner. During that hour, we do not answer the phone. There's usually a salad of some sort, the cup of starch hubby is allowed to have (dirty rice last night) and most nights some meat, but at least once a week we skip the meat and have extra greens. Neither of us are big on sweets, thank heaven, which allows him to have a little more in the starch department.

However, most people I know maybe cook once a week. And they're the ones with children at home. Most couples and singles I know don't bother unless they're having company. The rest of the time it's convenience, fast foods, eating out, carry-out, sandwiches, breakfast cereals, etc. I don't cook quite as much as I used to (with the diabetes thing, it sometimes seems like a lot of trouble)

Oh, BTW, people here are amazed when I say a family in Hawaii put rice in the rice cooker every single morning.
 
A Kenyan breakfast would be brewed tea and a couple of slices of bread or porriage.Sometimes if rice was left over from the night over, then we had tea with it, or with corn on cob.This is how I was brought up, but my kids have cereals,tea and toast, or just cereal and fruits. When the kids are home on school holidays, then we do have brunch occasionally consisting of bacon, sausages, eggs, mushroom and tea. I also occasionally like to treat myself to miso soup and rice for breakfast.Lunch here, I am usually alone, and I prepare myself something, in the winter it's usually soup, but kids carry sometimes pasta to school, or french toast of sandwiches.In the evening we all sit down to a proper well cooked meal, ranging from a roast dinner to pasta with various sauces to other kenyan meals.
 
Chopstix said:
Urmaniac, it is lumpia, as Anau said. It's one of my favorites! Lumpia is basically mixed vegetables rolled up in a paper-thin wrapper. It's of Chinese origin (probably southern China). There are several versions in the Philippines. In the U.S., I think it's what they would call Chinese egg roll though I've never tasted it in the U.S. and I should think there are many differences.

Eating authentic Chinese lumpia is always a family gathering event. Usually a humongous batch is prepared and close family relatives are invited to join in. All the prepared ingredients are laid out at the center of the table and everybody rolls up their own lumpia. First you put a paper-thin flour pancake on your plate. Then place 2 to 3 Chinese lettuce leaves. Then put in the vegetable filling. Then add toppings such as crushed peanuts & sugar, crispy rice noodles for texture, seaweed, hot sauce. Roll it all up into something ressembling a burrito. You have to use your hands to hold up the lumpia and bite into it from one end. Delish! You eat all the lumpia you can make. I used to stare at my dad in wonder as he would be eating his 7th lumpia in one sitting. (You can make the lumpia as big as you want, and my dad liked his really big!)

The Philippine version of fresh lumpia is similar and simpler and without the family ritual. Instead the lumpia is served already rolled up, and topped with a gravy made with water, brown sugar, and lots of raw crushed garlic. Garnish wiith ground up peanuts.

Another Phil. version is the fried lumpia. The same Phil. fresh lumpia is rolled up and deep-fried until crisp. This is then dipped into vingegar with salt & chilies.

Which version did you have Urmaniac? I'll gladly dig up a recipe for you.

Wow Chopstix, somehow I missed your reply, sorry it took so long but yes, Lumpia was exactly what I was talking about!! The version we had was fried, but the other non-fried version sounds good also, (and healthier...) I would like to try that as well... now that you told me the correct name I found lots of recipes from the net, combining your tips I would love to try this soon!! According to your description it sounds a lot like Oriental version of vegetarian fajitas... we will have some fun with this, thanks again!!
 
Whenever I meet someone from the PI I immediately think lumpia, pancit, adobo. When we lived in Hawaii, one neighbor couple were a Guamanian married to a Filipino. I'm quite tall and fair, hubby is a little shorter, also fair. We used to go to parties at their house and were giants. But she made all the above dishes, and would have mango that you'd dip in salt and chili powder. As a matter of fact, last night I made a salad based on the latter, and every drop was licked up. We were always the tallest and lightest people at the party. I guess I think in terms of food. Whenever I meet someone from a different country, I immediately think of the food they were raised on. So, I'm a foodie!
 
Chopstix, I'd love to have all versions if you have the recipies on hand. I've had the fried ones and fresh ones. Both are delicious.
 
it is so versatile. on my avenue, we have 2 Italian restaurants, 4 delis, 3 Japanese/sushi restaurants, a Kosher vegetarian restaurant, a Thai restaurant, a Filipino restaurant, 4 pizza restaurants, 4 Chineserestaurants, a Frenchrestaurant,a Hong Kong cuisine restaurant, cafes, bakeries, etc.
we consume many types of stuff.
won't find a Mc's or most other types of restaurants.
 
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I live an hour away from any type of restaurant, so needless to say, we cook everyday--unless we have a craving for Kentucky Fried chicken, that is :pig:

We work about 30 minutes from my house, so, breakfast is usually skipped. I exercise every morning, so it's hard to fit eating in. Lunch is usually soup. We go all out at dinner, though. Usually we get home from work and have to work out in our gardens. We have about 40 tomato plants, 40 pepper plants, 8 rows of greens, lettuce and spinach, radishes, asparagus, eggplant, squash, dill, cilantro and basil. Phew, it's a lot of work, but it's worth it! Anyway, after that is done, I go in and begin dinner. This time of year, lots of greens and salads. Usually grilled chicken, fish or steak. Lots of pasta. Pizza is a favorite.
 
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