I know that you’d agree that Momma’s cooking trumps fine dining in all meals of the day. We’d all love the cooking imperfections because we all grew with it. It has this unique flavor, only us, hapless children of our mothers could understand.

But what if, we find ourselves worlds apart from our houses and that faint smell of adobo would just be a fount of our imagination. Would you sacrifice your high earning job and tread your way back to your house? Nah… that’s impractical.

I suggest that you look for a close alternative.

See, the infamous isaw can’t be found in most places of the world, and if you could – it might cost you a fortune. And having your food shipped from country to country may not be practical as well (shipment fees and shelf life of the food may not suit your needs). So again, I suggest that you look for a food that tastes close enough to that one at home.

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A good alternative for adobo is…

Katsudon (Japan)
A katsudon (カツ丼)

This dish from Japan is simply a bowl of rice with chunks of pork atop of it and condiments that almost makes for the taste of our very own adobo especially if it’s complimented with Worcestershire sauce. You may have to pass the chopsticks out and chomp on it with a spoon and fork so the un-homey feel will be lessened.

A good alternative for dinuguan is…

Czernina (Poland and Lithuania)

This dish from Europe is a soup made up of duck blood. It, too, like our infamous dinuguan has black as its color. Czernina, in the first place, roots from the word czarny which means black.

With blood as a main ingredient, I think its taste would not be far off from our good ol’ dinuguan. But I wish you good luck in finding a puto.

A good alternative of isaw is…

Yes, the street foods of Thaliand. Need i say more?

A good substitute for sinigang is…

Thai Tom Yum Soup (Hot and Sour Soup) (Thailand)

One major characteristic of sinigang is that it is served hot and it tastes sour. Tom Yum, in Thailand, means hot and sour. And luckily, they have Thai Tom Yum soup as a dish on their relatively intricate cuisine.

People from Thailand like the Filipinos, further enjoy their respective sour soups when served with fish sauce. And luckily, I don’t have to explain further.

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See, there would be no problem if we settle for less.

And I agree with Mr. Ramon Bautista when he says that lowering your standards is key to happiness. Moreover, if you work abroad and you miss the home-made opuses of your mom; don’t miss it too much because more often than not, there’d be an alternative food to satiate our home-sick tummies.

There will be a time where we must stray away from home to love it even more. And being away from home must not necessarily mean a totally different world.

Online Reference: Wikipedia.org

Written by: Joel James Cubillas