Life in the Philippines

One of the things we do whenever we live in a foreign country is  try as many of the customary native foods as we can. Sure we miss our American favorites but we like to know what the common foods here are too. TAHO is a Filipino cuisine that seems to be a comfort food or one that is enjoyed very much by the local people.  Taho is sold in the neighborhoods.  I was not sure what was going on the first time I heard the guy with his call to sell his goods.  I can’t really describe the call, it is a long drawn out call of the name like Ta-hoooooooo, said just like the vehicle Tahoe.  For those of you who have any time on the farm, I liken it to calling the cows or pigs as to the way the call sounds. It echoes through the village so that anyone who may want some knows he is in the area.  It’s about as effective as the music on the ice cream truck too, because people will hurry out to meet the Taho guy.

So what is this delicacy? It is a snack of soft bean curd in a caramel like syrup with tapioca beads. So essentially tofu and tapioca in a syrup.  Taho sounded like my kind of snack but the kids were not so sure.  Ariel took one bite and decided that tofu is not for her.  Chris was a bit more open to it, and did taste it but didn’t care to much for it.  Johnnie thought he would not like  it but he actually thought it was ok.  I am the tofu fan of the bunch but for me it was just to sweet.

Taho can be served warm or cold and can be eaten with a spoon or slurped.  If you wonder how this is sold in the neighborhoods, take a look at the buckets in the picture.  I made this picture on the way to the orphanage last week. I was not sure what they were. I was thinking milk buckets but there are no cows that I have seen.  They are taho pails. The guy carries two pails with a bar on them, over his shoulders balanced kind of like the bar is a yolk.  If you do a wikipedia search on taho you can see a picture of the guy carrying his pails.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS