An initial reaction I got when I returned home from our trip to the Philippines was, "You didn't get shot" and a handshake, as if in congratulations that I had not been taken hostage and summarily executed by Islamic terrorists. My wife was insulted when she heard this and immediately turned her back to the person who said this. I took the remark in stride. More often than not I am taken off guard when I am the butt of such stupid remarks that are defused by the person uttering them with a guffaw or nervous laugh, as if it was "only a joke" and so harmless. We were in the Philippines during the crisis in Mindanao, specifically Marawi. At least the joker who made the remark was reading the news.
I was more interested in observing what was around me, not in far off Mindanao. For example, I observed that stores in the Philippines had shelves and shelves of junk food. One store in particular in Manila seemed to have only shelves of junk food and it was interesting to observe that most of the customers were Muslim women, one of whom had a shopping cart full of junk food consisting of snacks in brightly colored bags.

After I had pondered the remark, I asked the person who had made the remark if he had been on the freeways, as if to imply that the possibility of his being killed in a car was greater than my being taken hostage by an Islamic terrorist group in Mindanao and killed. He rejoined, "You were in Manila!" 'Touché' I thought.
Here is a picture of Manila traffic in the rain taken through the windshield:

Filipinos also like fast food. The predominant fast food restaurants in Manila are KFC, McDonald's, Jollibee and Chowking. And Starbucks seemed to be everywhere in Manila.

I particularly liked wonton mami or beef mami, which I had several times at Chowking:

Also, I became fond of sizzling pork sisig:

In fact, Anthony Bourdain chose pork sisig as one of his favorite dishes of the Philippines. I watched the interview on CNN Philippines that Pinky Webb conducted with him when he was in Manila. He said that Filipino cuisine was underrated on the world scene and it had great potential of coming to the fore in world cuisine, especially its street food. I particularly like how it is presented. It's presented on a hot oval-shaped plate. The egg in the middle fries before your eyes, and then you mix it in with the rest of the dish, which consists of pork belly and chopped green onions. It's kind of crunchy and chewy.   

Check out the Black Pig if you are in Manila:

It's upscale and specializes in pork from the Iberian or black pig, which has the best bacon of all kinds of pigs. The black pig is found wild in the Philippines. Gusto ko nang babui!