Yesterday, I realised that we have been living in Siargao for almost two months and I haven’t written a single thing about the island apart from the effect that lockdown has had on us physically and mentally. So I thought I’d do a much more positive post, only mentioning the dreaded Covid this one time, full of things I’m looking forward to when things are back to near-normality: tips and tricks, my favourite eats, how to keep things cheap.

I feel like we are very much ‘living’ here rather than just visiting: we are cooking every single meal at home right now, have established a little life routine and have found a ‘new normal’ instead of just existing and waiting for the first flight home. I’ve never been sure what makes somewhere home, instead focusing on where my heart and head are at in the present moment, and making a home wherever that may be - so for now, Siargao, we love ya!

Home cooking & finding produce

We are blessed by so much local produce it’s crazy! It’s hard to explain exactly where things are, but after a few days or asking the lovely locals for directions, you’ll definitely be able to locate these shops easily in the small town of General Luna. It’s fun to shop around, see where you can find your best options and ask how the locals would usually prepare something like a banana heart, which I’d never tasted until this year!

The best produce markets to visit:

The dry market by the port, for refrigerated green veggies, large-scale dry goods like peanut butter, rice, spices, sauces etc, as well as a good selection of mung beans, lentils, corn and more.

The actual market by the port is also great for all your veggies, fruit, fish and meat, with a better selection earlier in the morning. It’s all incredibly fresh and the locals are super friendly.

The place opposite Ronaldo’s, called Neneng Vag (who recently also got fridges) for fresh herbs, a good selection of fruit & veg, you can get fresh coconuts ground up here for 25 pesos (only 5 pesos if you take your own coconut) and they also have plenty of dry goods.

Tuna on d’Road & their neighbour, also known as the pot ladies - you can eat from the huge selection of hot food they have sitting out - you really must try this style of eating, and if you stick to veggies you can get so much for your money. We love to get four different veggies each, such as banana heart, bamboo shoots, stir fried squash and beans, cabbage etc then share them all for a filipino tapas of dreams! But also their fruit & veg produce is unbelievable, with regular fresh deliveries and tips on how to cook the more local items.

Dale, by the petrol station, is the best & cheapest place to get fresh milk, yoghurt and general dairy supplies (even squirty cream, whuuut!) They have fridges & freezers full of the stuff, so it’s worth having a gander - we even found 1kg of raisins for 350 pesos, which is such a bargain compared to buying smaller amounts elsewhere.

Tag Grocery - dried herbs & spices come & go here; a really well stocked shop for dry goods, but it can feel a little overwhelming if they are putting away a fresh delivery. Currently endorsing a facemark-only entry policy.

Sari-sari stores are a #1 go-to if you’re after something smaller, super local, snacks or advice on where to find something. If one store doesn’t have it, pretty much guaranteed that their neighbour will - some offer rice or mung beans, you can load your phone with credit, treat yourself to a beer, pick up a chocolate bar… Consider this your local newsagent (and try a peanut ChocoMucho bar, you won’t regret it!) Most sari-sari stores get a fresh bread delivery every day, and I’d recommend just working your way through the different types. My favourites have a stripe of yellow/green sweet mung bean paste through the middle, and you’ll find it hard to stop at just one (I buy a bag of six and they keep well in the fridge for a couple of days).

Barna - thank the lord for Barna! Offering imported goods and the widest selection of beautiful wines, they are our go-to for tins of beans, fresher dried herbs, tahini, chickpea flour - basically anything a little more ‘fancy’ or foreign than the products you can find everywhere else.

Other food tips

Keeping an eye on the Facebook pages [see below] for offers is a good way to snap up an amazing deal. For example, if local fishermen catch an amazing sailfish, they can feed their family and sell the rest off for 150 pesos for 1kg of fresh fish. That’s only £2 for approximately six steaks of their catch - it could be tuna, mahi-mahi, barracuda… We also found a lovely family who sell their farm produce and message us whenever new veggies arrive!

Another thing to bear in mind is being adaptable and open to change - there’s not much point in having a specific recipe in mind, as something that was in the market yesterday probably won’t be there today (or the whole shop might have moved around!) That’s just part of the fun of ever-changing local supplies - we’ve learnt to just roll with it and experiment with new ingredients and styles of cooking that we had never imagined before.

Other quick tips that took us a while to work out for ourselves:

If you’re going to stay here longer (and eat a lot of eggs) it works out cheaper to buy a tray of 30. You can just keep them out, they don’t go bad and you don’t have to run to the shop so often when you fancy a quick scramble.

Getting a coconut ground up at Neneng Vag opens up so many doors! You can easily make coconut milk, pol sambal, energy balls, pancakes, sprinkle it on top of curries, toast it for on top of porridge… The possibilities are endless and it costs next-to-nothing.

The same goes for milk. Once you have bought (or bartered) a yoghurt culture, most rental properties come with a rice cooker, so you’re sorted.

Barter is a group that came about as a result of Covid, enabling people with items lying around to exchange for items they require. For example, we bartered a tub of homemade hummus for an internet router. It was the wrong router for us, so we bartered it again for a jar of tahini. We also bartered some hummus for a box of pure cacao powder, homemade yoghurt for 1kg of peanut butter.. It’s pretty incredible once you realise you can make something that people desire. For the locals, it means they can exchange household items for trays of eggs, tattoos for food for their family, and has re-created a beautiful community-driven ecosystem similar to how the Philippines used to work years ago.

Likewise, other groups to be aware of: Siargao Classified, BeSiargao, Heals 911 - just good to join and be a part of the news and island chit-chat.

Bring any extra medical supplies with you, if you need anything specific. For example, just to be safe, load up on contact lenses, contraception, probiotics, antibiotics - it turns into a bit of a faff if you need to see a doctor for a prescription, and isn’t cheap.

Got any other Siargao tips you’d love to share? Get in touch!

Big love x