Grub

I eat good food the way I regard nice clothes--- like they're going to go out of fashion. But despite my enthusiastic feasting especially on food that I did not have to prepare myself, there is grub that I steer clear of.

Saluyot. Or maybe it's alugbati. Anyway, it makes no difference because I hate them both. One tastes like the soil it grew out of, and the other feels like it's coated in some mucous that reminds me so much of saliva.

Tripe. Though I like callos and absolutely love kare-kare, I don't eat tripe. Anything that remotely feels like something you wipe your hands on after using the bathroom and--- as if to emphasize the resemblance also goes by the name "tuwalya" in the wet market--- should not, in my book, be for human consumption.

Lengua. I know, i know. This is most everyone's favorite dish. But tasting food that, in my mind, is tasting me back freaks me out.

Some fruits, like atis. The process of constantly having to spit seeds out of my mouth mid-meal does not sit well with my tummy. For the same reason, I don't eat watermelon (as a shake, i love it), lanzones, star apple. I'm big on mangoes, peaches and lychees. A fruit should have only one seed. A big one.

And chesa, despite it's having met my one-fruit-one-seed requirement. The texture is just all wrong, like it's been masticated, disliked and regurgitated.

And durian. It took me years to get over the smell, but I still wanted to taste it because so many of my friends from the south claim that the ordeal was worth the flavor ("it's creamy, it's milky, it's sweet and it's melt-in-your-mouth goodness..."). They lied.

I've maintained good relationships with my durian-worshipping friends, and they don't have to bring me any of the fruit when they come to Manila. All is good.