cost of food in the phils

[Heruamen]

  could one of you kind gentleman give me and average cost of food on a monthly basis in the philippines. Also factor eating out a least 4-5 times a week.  I am trying to see what kind of good budget i need.  My fiance wil also cook for me.  Thanks guys

[joemc58]

that all depends in cost, do u plan to eat like a Pinoy or an American

[Cbear]

you can eat for less than a dollar a day if you go local. Street food is awesome. BBQ is about 5php for a stick of BBQ. That is about 10 cents. Have your girl by it at the market without you and cook it yourself.

BTW, Just give her 5000php and let her buy for the entire family for a month.

I spent about $100 a day feeding 3 people at restaurants every day. This also included the hotel rooms and the driver or transportation. Drinks included in that figure.

I had a blast.

Gotta try some balut, and try all the BBQ, not just the ones you recognize. You will be surprised how good some of that food is.

We had a 2KG blue crab at a very expensive place in Manila, frog legs and a huge bowl of Shanghai rice plus drinks for about $40.  This meal would have been $200 in the USA.

We had a party and fed 12 people for $120 and had enough left over to feed all their children when they got home. And this was at a nice restaurant.

Your gonna love it over there!!!  The people are super nice (except the ones that want to kill you) So get ready to have a blast
 

[piglett]

Heruamen
You may have said but it looks as though i misssed it, What city are you going to?

[Heruamen]

 your replies are hilarious hehehehehe, not very helpful but making me laugh hard especially when cbear said except the ones that want to kill you.  And Mindanao there may be a lot.  $100 a day on dining out wow. Oh sorry piglett she lives in Cagayan De Oro city, the capital of Misamis Oriental which is on the island of Mindanao. Seriously I need to try to plan some kind of budget for food and I have no idea.  My girl said some kind of number but it sounded more high than I would expect, i cant remember what she said.

[Dave H]

Hi Heruamen,

We spend just over $100 per month for 3 adults and a 5 year old. My American style foods probably accounts for half.   My wife and her aunt buy food at the fresh market and cook it. Sometimes my wife buys cooked Filipino foods at restaurants or stands. My McDonald's Quarter Pounder or Big Mac meal is around P120 ($2.50 US). A large burger meal at Jollibee is much less.

BUT we don't have to buy rice, since we have a rice farm. Even though the cost of rice has risen sharply over the past few years, it is still cheap. Rice is P33 (70 cents) per kilo. Cheaper if you  buy bulk (50 kilo sack). One kilo of rice will feed 4 adults. One kilo of rice would probably last a year for me personally. Rice makes up the bulk of the Filipino diet. Filipinos eat rice at least 3 times per day (3 main meals) and often as snacks and desserts. They don't consider it a meal without rice! I've stuffed people at burger joints and Italian restaurants, only to see them eating a plate of rice an hour or two later. They say that the previous meal without rice was only a "snack" and they still feel empty or hollow...while I remain full for hours. On the other hand, when I eat rice or Chinese food, I am hungry soon after.  

After you arrive in the Philippines, buy an automatic rice cooker (220V). It will be well used!!!

Dave

[Jeff S]

What is it with Asians and rice. The word for meal in Japanese is go-han. It's same as the word for rice. In Japan they revere their rice. In fact by old monetary standards, the US dollar was based on gold or silver, in Japan it was based on rice.

I had a good friend come from Japan to visit the US a number of years back and he was shocked that rice here was cheaper than dog food. A 25 lb sack of rice was on sale for $8 while Purina dog chow was $10. 10 kilos of rice in Japan was US $30 to $50 then.

[Heruamen]

   my fiance loves to eat, and she always eats good since she stays with her parents. I always ask her what she had for one of her meals, and it came to me one day that she never mentioned eating rice.  She always said I had fish or pork or whatever.  So after about 2 months i asked her the other day why she never eats rice, and she gave me this crazy look and said i eat rice with every meal. Rice is such a part of the fabric of her life that she totally took it for granted that I would automatically know she ate rice with every meal.  $100 American dollars a month sounds good Dave, mabye I will make that my budget.  it will only be for two adults so perhaps that will work.

[Dave H]

Hey Heruamen,

It is OK to shop with your lady at grocery stores or markets where prices are fixed. I would avoid going with her to the wet market or some of the vendors may charge the "Kano price." But if she knows the standard prices she can always haggle them back down to normal.

Dave

[piglett]

Rice makes up the bulk of the Filipino diet. Filipinos eat rice at least 3 times per day (3 main meals) and often as snacks and desserts. They don't consider it a meal without rice! I've stuffed people at burger joints and Italian restaurants, only to see them eating a plate of rice an hour or two later. They say that the previous meal without rice was only a "snack" and they still feel empty or hollow...while I remain full for hours. On the other hand, when I eat rice or Chinese food, I am hungry soon after. 

    She always said I had fish or pork or whatever.  So after about 2 months i asked her the other day why she never eats rice, and she gave me this crazy look and said i eat rice with every meal. Rice is such a part of the fabric of her life that she totally took it for granted that I would automatically know she ate rice with every meal. 

I always ask Marily what she had to eat & almost always it's rice & fish or adobo either chicken of pork.
she does like hawiian pizza , so i asked her one time if she likes any other kind of pizza & she stated that she has never tryied any other kind. 

[Ray]

Good old Hawaiian pizza, a Filipino favorite. With ham and pineapple.

Ask her if she gets those at Greenwich Pizza... 

[Ray]

Hey pig,

Did you know that you could order a pizza to be delivered to your girl in the PI? I'll bet that would surprise her!

http://www.greenwich.com.ph/pizza_global.asp

Ray

[piglett]

Hey pig,

Did you know that you could order a pizza to be delivered to your girl in the PI? I'll bet that would surprise her!

http://www.greenwich.com.ph/pizza_global.asp

Ray

Really .................... well i didn't know that 
I may have to check into this but i will have to time it rite
she works 12 hour shifts & i don't want to interupt her sleep

I can tell you that a 5Lb box of goodies sure did make her happy
I don't think anyone has ever sent her anything in her life.


piglett

[Heruamen]

  Hey ray does that apply to any city there in the phils?  How about Cagayan De oro? Have you already done it? Wow I am very excited to try that, my girl loves pizza heck she just loves to eat!

[Dave H]

Good old Hawaiian pizza, a Filipino favorite. With ham and pineapple.

Ask her if she gets those at Greenwich Pizza... 

Hey Ray,

Yesterday I bought the Filipinas at Greenwich Hawaiian pizza, while I had a Cheesy Blockbuster Overload.

Dave

[Dave H]

 

Hey ray does that apply to any city there in the phils?  How about Cagayan De oro? Have you already done it? Wow I am very excited to try that, my girl loves pizza heck she just loves to eat!

Hey Heruamen,

It is 2:45 PM here (everyone is probably sleeping there), so I will take a stab at it. It probably doesn't apply to every city, since not all stores deliver. But CDO is on the Greewich delivery store locator page, so it is likely that they do. Go to the website or call the International number or on the webpage Ray listed. http://www.greenwich.com.ph/pizza_global.asp

www.pinoy88.com or dial 1-888-74669-88 and 1-888-PINOY88 (toll free for US and Canada) "to order sumptuous Greenwich meal packages for your loved ones in the Philippines." If you dial the store number directly they probably can't help you since they don't accept credit cards at the stores. I will have check out the price difference locally compared to the packages on pinoy88. Too bad I don't live in the same town, as I could have saved you some mad pisos!  Oh well...the food probably tastes sooo much better when it is ordered from the US! What do you think Ray?

Store Name  
Ororama Cagayan Ororoma Super Center

Store Address
JR Borja St., Cagayan de Oro City

Delivery Number
(8822) 854-5555

 
 

[Ray]

Heruamen,

I haven’t tried the pizza delivery…I just saw the ad on-line.

No problem finding pizza in Cagayan. Shakey’s is big over there and I think they have Pizza Hut there also.

We ate at a little place in Cagayan a few years back called Pizzanet Café. Don't know if it's still there(?). You make your own pizza and then they bake it for you. It was actually very good. Your girl might get a kick out of making her own if she likes pizza.

Ray

[Dave H]

Hey Ray,

I will probably be going to CDO soon. Pizzanet Café sounds good! I will let you know if it is still open. Maybe I will be there at the same time as Heruamen and we can eat there. I wonder if they have squid ink pizza? I could bring some squid to add...we can't let Jeff eat all of the good stuff! 

Dave

[Jeff S]

Hey - don't knock it 'til you've tried it - YUM!

[Bob_S]

You mean like these?
   shrimp and squid with seaweed;

   big chunks of tuna and mayonnaise;

   eggplant pizza!

   Mmmm, shrimp and egg.

[piglett]

Hey i know Dominos offers corn as a topping in China
so why not squid too?

[Dave H]

Hey Bob,

Those Japanese pizzas actually look good! I am still contemplating Jeff's squid ink pizza and Ray's whaledog on a stick. 

I went to a party the other day at the house of a  Japanese/Filipina couple. I didn't recognise all of the food, but it tasted very good. The Japanese chocolate was excellent! Except for the karaoke, I had a great time.  Ok, even bad karaoke can be fun...probably more fun!

Dave

[stevjulietb]

Jeff,

I grow the Japanese egg-plant in my garden.  Juliet has me cook it on the grill until it gets soft, she then peels off the skin, smashes it, dips it in an egg batter and fries it,  pretty good food!

Steveb

[Dave H]

Jeff,

I grow the Japanese egg-plant in my garden.  Juliet has me cook it on the grill until it gets soft, she then peels off the skin, smashes it, dips it in an egg batter and fries it,  pretty good food!

Steveb

Hey Steve,

Tortang Talong...I like that. That is a good idea to do it on the grill...way out in the yard. They cook it on a gas burner in the dirty kitchen here, but it still smokes up the house when they are burning the skin.

Dave

[Bear]

It took quite a while after Honey got here to stop eating rice 3x/day but slow and surely she did.  We still have it 4-5x each week and I've notice my cubs might balk at something but always eat the rice?  MOF one of their favorites (my wife just can't understand) is when we go to Chinese they will get fried rice mixed with egg drop soup.  They might not eat anything else but they always finish that.

Two things was while I was their I noticed most of my meal ran between 3-400p.  x3 x 400 = 1200p /50 = 6$ /day or $180/month if you eat out every meal.  Before I left after Honey and I married we went to a local food mart and loaded the baskets.  Mothing for me since I was leaving and no rice.  It cost me $25 and I was told that it would probably last about a month.  That didn't include any meats and much vegetables but items they rarely can afford.

Trying to correct a rumor being spread by Honey's evil cousin, I took all our wedding sponsors out to eat at an exclusive restaurant.  Every one except Honey's parents had steak, Honeys parents had chicken.  The party included 24 sponsors (husband/wife), the best man/woman, Honey's parents and Honey and I.  The bill was just under $70 and I left a 3000p tip.  Total $100. 

We had 6 lechons (pig) at our wedding at a costs of 3000p each, not a spec of meat left on one of them!

Best sea food I ate was at a restaurant a few blocks from St Luke's where you could pick your fish and how you wanted it cooked.

Note also that almost every restaurant you can find here, you could find there although many might have some radically different menus.  Like Dairy Queen was exclusively ice cream there where here its hamburgers.  The one item that got me my wife ordered more than rice and that was spaghetti and chicken.

Never got the nerve to try the balut and wish I had.  BBQ was awesome but scary because of sanity of the roadside cooking.  The only time I got sick was while driving to our hotel on the north end of Cebu Island our driver stopped at a road side restaurant.  The food was okay but way too many flies.  I was bed ridden sick for 2 days.

The Bear Family