Filipino food has a bad reputation outside the Philippines - most people think of it as being heavy, greasy, garlicky and vinegary. And it can be.
It can also be delicious. Although I've never visited the country, I learned about Filipino home-style food from the Filipino line cooks at the first Hong Kong restaurant at which I worked. Every day, they'd cook lunch for the staff, and while adobo often featured, so did lighter dishes such as scrambled eggs with bitter melon, pork bone and vegetable soup, tangy fish with tomato (above right), and grilled chicken (above centre).
"I made my mom's pork adobo for the first time and it was delicious," he writes. "It instantly whisked me away from my homesickness and took me back home, back to my family just for a fleeting moment."