Driving through Headington about a month or so ago, I saw a delivery man bringing in boxes into a local grocery store. One particular stack of boxes caught my attention.
I had never heard of Filipino style spaghetti sauce. What spices or ingredients make an Italian classic Filipino? What other variations of spaghetti sauce does Del Monte make, I wonder.
As a confirmed “foodie”, this stopped me to think long enough to enter “Filipino” and “Spagetti” in Google. Well a whole new world opened up.
I quote from one web-site
“Filipinos love spaghetti…so much so that it’s a staple at fast-food restaurants in the Philippines, including American franchises like KFC and Wendy’s. The Philippines biggest fast-food chain, Jollibee, offers burgers, fried chicken and spaghetti under one roof.
Filipino spaghetti is sweeter than a traditional Italian spaghetti, usually from the addition of sugar or banana ketchup to the sauce. It’s other defining characteristic is hot dogs, which sounds weird to non-Pinoys, but it acts as a salty counterpoint to the sweet sauce”
I suspect the influence of our American friends here, “hot-dogs” being one clue!
Not sure the good people of Oxfordshire are ready for banana ketchup as an ingredient?
Thanks CMD for using up some time I will never get back!
Keir
@ Keir –
Blimey! That’s some quality research. I agree that the good people of Oxon are not ready for bananas and hotdogs in our spaghetti sauce … although I recently discovered curry ketchup, which is apparently a bit hit in Holland. Go figure.
Don’t think of your food research as wasted time … think of it instead as preparing for your successful run to become Mastermind of Britain. John Humphrys won’t be able to stump you on the key ingredients in Filipino spaghetti sauce!