White Guys and Their Filipino Store Adventures

If you're just tuning in, I'm married to a white Midwestern guy. You see I grew up in the Philippines and just like any Filipino who moved to another country I miss my Filipino food (more than my family..but shhh! Don't tell them that.) Fortunately, I live in LA where there are a lot of Filipino stores. The nearest one, located in Koreatown is a 15 minute drive from my apartment. Seafood City is probably one of the most popular Filipino stores in the US. They have stores all over LA, San Diego, NorCal and Las Vegas. Yes. Whether you like it or not we are everywhere (don't worry we only bite when provoked!). Now going back to the whole point of this blog. Once a month my husband and I drive to Seafood City to get my Filipino food fix. I call it the Tour De Freak only because I think I kinda freak him out with the stuff I expose him to. I bring him along because I want him to experience my culture (plus he's my chauffeur). My husband is such a good sport. He eagerly walks around the store with me. Most of the time he is the only white dude in the store and everyone gives him that look -- like WTH-is-this-white-guy-doing-here look. The first few times I brought him along he would have this confused/shocked/amused look on his face and would ask me a lot of questions -- What is this? How do you eat this? Is this food or decoration? What is this called? How do you pronounce that? Why is the fish staring back at me? You actually eat those? WTH are fish balls? Why does shrimp paste smell like old fish?. That was before. Now he's more acclimated and comfortable.

Today was one of those Tour de Freak days. My husband waited in the car while I went shopping. In the seafood section I saw a white guy with his Filipino wife. While the woman was shopping the guy stood in one corner with their cart. He had the same confused/shocked/amused look on his face. It seems to me that he wasn't enjoying this adventure at all. I can't blame him. If you're not Filipino, there is some weird stuff in that store that will give you nightmares. For example:

1. Chicken feet - Especially with the nails on, they are freaky.
2. Pig Blood - When cooked it actually looks like chocolate but doesn't taste like chocolate.
3. Liver, heart, kidneys, intestines, tripe - In other words ORGANS that you don't see in your local grocery store.
4. Duck eggs (Balut) - Hello? They made it to Fear Factor.
   
5. Fish head - They stare back at you but they smile at you.

A newbie might find Filipino food to be a little overwhelming, but it's time to take a break from Olive Garden, Applebees and Panera Bread Company.

How Dumpster Diving Made Me A Celebrity

OK. Maybe not celebrity but I MADE THE NEWS! Not the 30-min-car-chase kind of NEWS but I was mentioned in today's morning TV newscast. Yesterday, after coming home early from work I noticed that one of our trash cans in my apartment building was open. And if you know me, that shit annoys me. So as I was closing the bin I noticed a bunch (like a hundred) of cards inside. They were all addressed and labeled without stamps. I saw one of the envelopes opened so I looked inside and realized they were holiday cards. I thought that it was weird that the cards were in the trash unless of course they decided to cancel CHRISTMAS. I took one of the opened cards to show my husband when he got home because the card was pretty entertaining. I thought the woman was familiar but I couldn't figure out where I saw her or how I know her. I didn't think about consulting Google until my husband came home. He googled her and yes of course the woman is Wendy Burch the reporter from KTLA 5. But that's not how I know her. See I'm a huge fan of the reality show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I follow every single one of the women on the show on Twitter. Adrienne Maloof is one of them and she is a very good friend of Wendy. I've seen Wendy on one episode of RHOBH and I've also seen her name pop up every now and then on Adrienne's twitter. So now that I put two and two together, I reached out to Wendy on twitter and told her I found a bunch of her cards. She immediately responded and said they were stolen from her car. Seriously? Why would people do that? I asked if she wanted them back because if she did I was going to dig out the trash and retrieve all the cards. I don't normally dig through trash but it's Christmas and I'm a good person (yeah right!) so sure WHY NOT? After exchanging a couple messages and phone numbers on Twitter she said she would come in the morning to pick up her cards and that she would talk about me in her show (video below or here). WHOA?! Are you serious? I mean I didn't wanna sound all excited but I made sure I recorded her show and I was awake at 6am to watch it.

My husband and I met Wendy this morning and we found out we live right next to each other. She's a really nice person and I am just happy that she got all her holiday cards back. She now calls me her CARD ANGEL. Angel? Me? Ok. Sure. I'll take it. So what's next for me? After this I'll probably star in my own reality TV show. Stay tuned!