[ food Category ]
February 07, 2005

Filipinos

I had heard about Filipinos through another blog, so when I spied this cookie in an unlikely section of the supermarket (someone had second thoughts and left it in the soap section?), I couldn't resist the impulse to buy it. The cookies are manufactured in Spain, but the idea of a cookie being named after an ethnic group cracks me up

so much that I'm grimacing for the fact that I didn't think of it first!! Now don't get me wrong, I'm 1/2 filipino myself, yet the idea of eating a cookie named Filipino is such an off-the-wall gimmick that I believe it would go over as a big hit if some distributor carried it in Hawaii. With all the ethnic jokes that get passed around at home, during parties, at work, and even by local comedians, the serving instructions on the back of the package is a punchline in itself. I kid you not, it reads (ironically only in portuguese, spanish, and english)... Try Filipinos after one hour in the fridge
Click here to see Filipinos.

Posted by Rowena at February 07, 2005 11:08 PM

Comments

 
Posted by Ryan on February 8, 2005 6:53 AM:

That's fascinating. You bet your sweet bippy it'd sell here. Can you imagine? "Filipinos are tasty!" Or, "I don't really like Filipinos." People can discuss how they like their Filipinos, where they keep them, where they can pick them up...

 
Posted by Lynn on February 8, 2005 10:47 AM:

CUTE! I sell FILIPINO soaps (various colors) each one for a part of the body. To make white,tight,smooth etc. Even cofee,tea and cappachino where you just add water! Filipinos, maraming SLAMA PO!

 
Posted by miulang on February 8, 2005 7:54 PM:

Up here at the day-old bread store, we can get giant loaves of "Bimbo" bread! I think that must be a Hispanic brand, but I've never seen it except at the bakery outlet.

 
Posted by rowena on February 9, 2005 12:08 AM:

I just had to add here that I sent my dad that photo of Filipinos and he responded with a request to send a whole bunch of Filipinos, C.O.D!!!! Okay dad, here's your Filipinos fresh off the boat (well, more like a plane!)

 
Posted by rowena on February 10, 2005 12:04 AM:

Lynn, do you have an online website to sell your soaps? Just wondering if there's a link to info and images.

 
Posted by Sin on February 10, 2005 7:26 AM:

Hey Rowena, I'm curious to know...what do Filipinos cookies taste like? Are they sweet? Chocolatey? Crunchy? I'm dying for a food product review here...

 
Posted by Lickity Splickets on February 15, 2005 12:09 AM:

I happened to come across Filipinos cookies in Spain last year! When I was in the supermarket they caught my eye and I thought it was hilarious, so I bought a WHOLE bunch to bring home to my hapa-Filipino family. I even bought "Mini Filipinos" which were a smaller snack size version. I made my dad pose for a picture holding the regular size Filipinos, and my little nephew pose with the minis. Glad to hear someone else got a kick out of the same product!! Thanks for sharing.

 
Posted by rowena on February 15, 2005 1:07 AM:

Hi Lickity Splickets! I am glad that somebody else got a kick out of those filipinos! I haven't seen the mini-version, but I've also found that they also have a variety using dark chocolate (in a red package) as opposed to the milk chocolate version in the blue wrapper. Wish I could see the pic that you took!

 
Posted by Glen Miyashiro on February 16, 2005 9:38 AM:

I found a web page about biscuit commercials that includes an ad for Filipinos. (It's #2 on the list.) Unfortunately, there's no video clip, just a still photo. Here's another from a few years earlier (#25 on this one).

 
Posted by rowena on February 16, 2005 10:31 PM:

Glen, I checked out the site....Bwaahahahahahhahaha!!No fair that they are only showing the ads in Portugal, now I REALLY gotta see the clip. Too funny :-P

 
Posted by benjo on March 9, 2005 5:53 AM:

LOL - my Dad & I spotted some Filipinos being sold in a shop in Rota, Spain. We about pissed our pants laughing.

And of course we bought some. And ate em with a cannibalistic fervor. Now I wonder what I did with the wrapper.

 
Posted by Teri on March 9, 2005 1:06 PM:

They're actually pretty good. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw them at a grocery store in Madrid. My friends and I had a good laugh about it. Before leaving Spain, we bought so many bags of those cookies. Needless to say, they're all gone now. But I still have the red filipinos fridge magnet.

 
Posted by Bob Couttie on June 11, 2005 11:40 PM:

I came across this blog while reserching an article which includes Filipinos biscuits. The reason they're called that is that Filipino chocolate was regarded by the Spanish as the best quality in the world.

Just thought you'd like to know.

 
Posted by rowena on June 13, 2005 11:41 PM:

Wow thanks for the input Bob. Now it only confirms my suspicion that spanish chocolate is a foodstuff that I'll need to look into. I notice the use of chocolate in spanish cooking but have never seen it in filipino dishes.

 
Posted by Bob Couttie on June 21, 2005 7:55 PM:

I have had a rather nice Mexican dish with turkey cooked with chocolate and chili, but, apart from the usual cakes and ice cream, Chocolate isn't used much in cooking as such (Filipinos have their own unique flavours, like cheese ice cream and a purple yam ice cream called Ube. Traditionally it's a drink, and until you've had chocolat-e made with tabletas you don't have the foggiest notion of the meaning of chocolate!

 
Posted by rowena on June 21, 2005 11:03 PM:

I love the idea of chocolate and chili and have actually made a sort of chocolate chip cookie with pepper flakes added for extra kick. Surprisingly, it went over well with my husband's colleagues.

Turkey with chocolate and chili sounds interesting and needs to be looked into.

 
Posted by Eve on June 22, 2005 11:03 AM:

Hi Rowena,

Is there a store I can order these from? I'm in California and have done a search online with no luck. =(

 
Posted by rowena on June 22, 2005 9:28 PM:

Hi Eve,
I have no idea if they can be found in the States. Filipinos are made in Spain and I've found them here in Italy although they are probably available elsewhere in Europe. Somebody needs to look into bringing these cookies into the US of A!

 
Posted by rowena on June 22, 2005 9:32 PM:

Not to get off subject with the Filipinos (cookies) but when Bob Couttie mentioned that he had a Mexican turkey/chocolate/chili dish, I had to google a recipe and made it last night. Interesting flavor, and reminds me of a chocolate chicken recipe that I found on an italian website. The taste of chocolate and poultry may not go over well with some folks, but I thought it was pretty good. I believe the key is in the quality of chocolate used. Dark, bittersweet is best. Milk chocolate will just disappear on the tastebuds.

 
Posted by Glen Miyashiro on June 23, 2005 10:15 AM:

Not to be confused with Filipino "chocolate pork", which is something entirely different. :-)

 
Posted by Pedro on June 23, 2005 12:10 PM:

Rowena, I'm pretty sure you're talking about Mole sauce, which is usually served on chicken but in the US it's quite popular with different kinds of dishes. I had been eating for years before I realized that my mom put chocolate in it. It really doesn't taste like chocolate at all, it's more of a deep spicy dark sauce, right? You can go into almost any Mexican restaurant and order Mole, although it's usually served with chiken and rice.

 
Posted by Bob Couttie on June 23, 2005 7:51 PM:

Indeedy, the chocolate used with turkey has to be the dark, preferably unsweetened kind, not milk chocolate (Invented, by the way, by the US ambassador to Switzerland). Chocolate with vanilla used to be drunk by Aztec kings when they were covered in gold dust, as I'm sure you know. I don't know where you'd get unprcossed chocolate in the US or Europe, maybe I should send a few crates over.

 
Posted by rowena on June 24, 2005 2:36 AM:

Pedro,
After comparing the ingredients in that recipe I tried with the turkey and a recipe for Mole sauce that I found, I am led me to believe that yep, it must the same thing. Deep, spicy and a hint of dark chocolate flavor. I suppose it shouldn't be any surprise that spanish and mexican cuisine would have similiarities. But as Glen mentioned above, FAR from anything like chocolate pork!

 
Posted by sandra on September 6, 2005 3:25 PM:

hello!! I just came back from spain, and eventhough I was raised there with the Filipinos's cookies, I had never noticed the connection and always ate them withouth even crossing my mind what It can mean to another person...
You know how we have donnut wholes in the bakeries here right? Well there now they have FILIPINOS HOLES!!!!!! "OH, CAN i HAVE ONE OF YOUR FILIPINOS HOLE"?...IT sounds very funny....

 
Posted by Jesse on January 9, 2006 11:12 AM:

Thanks for this post, I have just wrote about this myself and used some of the infos here.
http://www.beautiful-people.org/vantriloquisms/?p=69

 
Posted by Jesse on January 14, 2006 7:37 AM:

Thanks for your comment on my blog Rowena. After discussing this with some friends, we decided to start an online petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/Filipinos_Cookies/
to gather support. All help wanted!

 
Posted by simao on January 18, 2006 7:55 AM:

Hi, here is a Spaniard from Barcelona and it is my first time reading this blog. Feel completely amazed of how getting things out of context. Ive been eating Filipinos for almost 15 years and I never had any problem with them. They are lovely!!my opinion is that it does not makes sense all this annoyance with the name. Probably it is because Im so used to it that I find no problem.
Do you find Agujeros scandalous? Then have fun with the delicious Bigsticks!!

Finally, If you are about to scream at all names you do not like, I propose to start a list. Ill give you the first one: CONGUITOS. They are lovely legendary peanuts covered with chocolate. But from your point of view they would be "people from Congo" in a despective way.(in order to comapre the names, Filipinos would be likes "Dutchs" while Conguitos would be like "Dutchies")

Cheers!

 
Posted by rowena on January 22, 2006 11:30 PM:

I agree with neither side, but it is interesting to see how much publicity this cookie, of all things, is getting and giving. Perhaps it might be construed as petty on account of what's behind the fuss, however, everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion.

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