A nightmare experience in the Philippines
By emptychair
@innertalks (23789)
Australia
May 24, 2026 12:44am CST
I was in the Philippines recently, with my wife, to visit her old Papa.
We took the extended family, 12 people, to what was supposed to be a high end restaurant, costing nearly 1200 pesos (around $30 Australian) each.
It was a toxic disaster for me.
Plastic everywhere.
The meal was served on an outdoor table, in our own pavilion, that had a plastic screen, all around it to stop mosquitoes getting in, l guessed.
There was an old plastic tablecloth, fixed to the table, with the menus underneath it, a semi permanent fixture, it seemed.
Car, truck, fumes, were high, from nearby roads, and movement, in the carpark.
They had also spread thousands of old reused plastic flowers all around for Mother's day, l thought, as it was Mother's day, the next day.
But, then the food came out.
Plastic old, reused, scratched, plates, plastic serving dishes, old scratched, peeling, too. Plastic knifes, and forks.
Plastic drink jugs, and the food stews, soups, steaming hot, were in old aluminium large pots.
The aluminium was bad enough, leaching aluminium into foods, from their acidic vinegar heavy dishes, but the plastics, giving off millions of particles of microplastics, and toxic fumes, phthalates, and other chemical compounds, etc, was a disaster.
Of course, all of the Filipinos knew no better, they lapped it all up, until full. After all, it was their signature dishes, pinakbet, containing pumpkin, vegetables, dried fish, noodles, plenty of rice, etc.
I ate nothing, except when the fruit came out, again on a plastic dish, l risked taking a piece of papaya, an alkaline fruit, not the pineapple, it being moist, and acidic, it would have been far worse.
When the bill came to me, it was handed to me in a small plastic black tray, and it was printed on thermal paper, a very dangerous medium to use, especially if you handle it before eating. Full of poisons, your hands absorb, straight into bloodstream, made worse if you ignorantly clean your hands with a hand sanitizer, which increases absorption then, manifoldly more.
I paid it, and then l went straight to the toilet, to wash my hands, with soap and water, but as the liquid soap was in an old plastic container, l only used water.
To cap off a bad night, at the end of the night, they put the leftovers in plastic bags, to take home.
The food had already been in the hot steamy air, for two hours, and with the 2 hour drive home, to me, it was now inedible, but they ate it for their breakfast the next morning, and again, the next day too, even offering me some, which l refused.
Scientists tell us that with all the ingested plastics in us, our brains are now close to 1 percent plastic, but in the Philippines, in those sorts of toxic soups, their brains must, unfortunately, contain way more than that.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
A holiday in the Philippines was a disaster for me.
5 people like this
6 responses
@innertalks (23789)
• Australia
24 May
Yes, they are still backwards in a lot of things that are better handled here in Australia.
Even on the Philippines Airlines aeroplane coming home, everything was served up in plastic, from cups, to plates, to knives and forks, even the serving tray was plastic. Most progressive companies are phasing out the use of plastic these days.
@Jehanne (2477)
• Philippines
24 May
this is sad to hear your experience here in our country and I clearly understand where you're coming from. All the things you stated does exists in our country, in some places, in some homes, in some Filipinos who still adapt the culture they grew up doing.
You know Philippines could have been better and progressive just like the other countries if we could only have a better government. Which have been long by many Filipinos.
Anyway, when you talked about the place where you ate. I'm sure that wasn't a high end restaurant but it seems like you are being brought to a eatery in a sidewalk. I am so sorry about this experience of yours. :(
Have you shared your sentiments to your wife? What did she say about it?
3 people like this
@innertalks (23789)
• Australia
24 May
It was an exclusive restaurant in Tagaytay, even written up about in the internet.
There is no rubbish collection in the provinces either, and the old folk still burn rubbish, including plastics, in their back yards, creating a toxic chemical mess to be breathed in too, and that is why I stayed inside the house all of the time too.
I told them to contact a junk dealer, and they will take it all away, which I offered to pay for, but they are set in their old ways, and will not change lifetime habits.
I have been trying to educate my wife, but she mostly sided with her family.
Plastics are slowly killing the world, as we know it.
Everything from toilet paper, to high-end suits are made with plastics; (with toilet paper, plastic is inserted so that the tissue paper is stronger); even the cotton singlet, my wife brought today, now is partly plastic, containing elastin, to make it stretch better.
Every time plastic clothes are washed, plastic fibres are washed into stormwaters, and find their ways into food, and oceans. Every time, they are worn as clothes, we breathe in the plastic microparticles, and fumes, given off from them.
It is a nightmare everywhere really, even here in Australia. Even our money is plastic now.
@Shiva49 (28690)
• Singapore
24 May
@innertalks I prefer cotton clothes and mix with polyester leads to skin irritation.
We should be well educated when it comes to plastic contamination and assimilation through food packaging. Plastics can be a good friend but a deadly enemy too!
2 people like this
@Jehanne (2477)
• Philippines
24 May
@innertalks it's hard to change people's habit and some people couldn't even understand us who dislike not disposing the garbage properly. Even if we try to help and educate it's hard if it lacks cooperation from everyone.
We can only simply do consistently what we can do about the plastic and garbages around us.
3 people like this
@Traceyjayne (13156)
• United Kingdom
26 May
Sorry to hear it was such a disaster.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23789)
• Australia
27 May
Yes, I was glad to return to Australia. At least, it was an education for me, of sorts.
@Shiva49 (28690)
• Singapore
24 May
High end restaurants anywhere should fare much better.
And the food was not cheap either.
The authorities should look into plastic usage in food containers seriously and warn the public so that they are aware of the consequences.
I try to avoid outside food to the extent possible but in Singapore food safety is updated to avoid plastic contamination. Styrofoam food containers are used but it is said to be safe.
India does not have plastic container culture in restaurants. But the overall hygiene levels are not good.
I avoid oily food and also fast food but the young has a fancy for them. There is a stand off between generations when it comes to food.
It is deflating to face such a situation when you went out to spend quality dinner time with family and also spent a small fortune.
It would have left a real bad taste in your mouth, obviously.
I am reminded of "water water everywhere but not a drop to drink" from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - the irony of being surrounded by resources you cannot use.
The standards do differ between countries. I am more careful now as I do not want to take a misstep especially when it comes to food. Talk of "the last straw that broke the camel's back"!
2 people like this
@innertalks (23789)
• Australia
24 May
Of course, the MacDonalds, KFC, fast foods over there, were bad even wore than here too.
If you ate in, they provided plastic plates, plastics knives, plastic forks, and spoons, and plastic drinking glasses. If you took away, the cardboard container is plastic lined to stop the greasy, oily food, leaching through the cardboard. The drink, provided in small plastic bottles, was of course, coca cola, which I never drink anyway, as it is a poison, to my mind too.
Styrofoam is just another form of plastic, and sheds microparticles into foods too. Styrofoam gives off gases, and chemicals, especially if a hot drink is in them.
Standards differ in some countries, I guess, but here in Australia, the fast food industry, still gets away with murder too, slowly to the eaters.
At least, the drinking water here is better than in the Philippines, where they used hard well water, full of bacteria, and minerals, so thick that they caked on your skin, and made your hair unmanageable. My eyes were badly affected, and so were my sinuses, full of mucus.
No safe water to drink, you have to buy it from shops, and it is in large plastic bottles, that if you buy locally, sit in the sun all day, being filled with even more nasties. I bought mine in large supermarkets, but their house was so hot, and they placed the bottle on a sunny bench in the kitchen, so I had to take means to keep it cool, and dark, placing wet towels over the bottle. I would transfer it into my steel drinking bottle to take out with me, and which I drank from in that horrible restaurant.
The whole trip probably cost me a few years off of my life, the pollution was so bad everywhere. A nightmare, as I said, with only one benefit; we saw the in-laws again.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23789)
• Australia
25 May
@Shiva49 I notice that some Indian religions, like the Sikh religion, use stainless steel plates, cups, and cutlery, as they think they are purer, for their religious reasons.
I went to an Indian shop here, just the other day, and bought a food grade Indian stainless steel glass, for my bathroom, which I use to rinse my mouth, after teeth brushing. I tossed the old plastic cup out. It was cheap too, only $2 Australian.
Plastics in the brain also causes more Alzheimer's disease, and dementia, too.
I did not waste my time in the Philippines,as while in my room, I researched microplastics. I have also tossed out our plastic kitchen cutting boards, and bought bamboo ones now. Plastic chopping boards add plastic directly into foods cut on them.
@Shiva49 (28690)
• Singapore
26 May
@innertalks My wife is particular to eschew all plastic utensils and we use wooden cutting boards though she now wants a stainless-steel one now. We use only stainless steel utensils and cutleries.
There is a spurt in cancer cases even among children and that needs looking into. Plastic usage could well be the culprit and people overlook that. They need to be educated on the harmful side of rampant usage of them.
The harmful effects of smoking has sunk in in countries like India where the young is no more into it. Health care costs are mounting and a healthy lifestyle is the only way out for individuals and society as a whole.
This trip is an eye-opener for you and I hope others too who visit such countries highlight such a vital issue. .
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23789)
• Australia
29 May
That was an expensive high-end restaurant in the Philippines.
We sat down, ordered, and the food was brought to us by waiters, placed on the table in plastic serving bowls, and aluminium stew pots, and we were then meant to serve ourselves, smorgasbord style.
I would have expected porcelain plates, and metal cutlery, but, no, they reused old solid plastic plates, not disposable ones, but obviously used before, from scratch marks on them.
Even here in Australia, when I order a takeaway pastie from the food court of our shopping centre, they give me a plastic knife, and fork, and place the pastie onto a plastic plate, and give it to me in a plastic lined, paper bag.
If I eat it in the food court, I ask them for a porcelain plate, and metal cutlery, and I do not use their tomato sauce, in the plastic squeeze bottle.
I got take away from them once, but now, I always eat it in the food court. Once bitten, twice shy, as they say.
@innertalks (23789)
• Australia
31 May
@thelme55 It's not just in the Philippines that plastic dangers are ignored.
I was in the largest shopping centre in Australia yesterday, and my wife wanted to eat at a sit down authentic Malaysian street style food restaurant.
I was very annoyed that the foods were served on plastic plates, the soup, was in a plastic bowl, the water jug was plastic, as well as the small cups to pour the water into. I looked across where they were cooking the food too, and all of their storage containers, with foods, and ingredients, that they were using to cook with, were all plastic.
On top of that, the actual table being used was constructed from thick plastic too, and was already flaking plastic in places too, even the chairs were moulded plastic, as well.
I only ate a small amount of boiled chicken, from my reused plastic plate, after removing the skin from it, which would have contained the most plastic in it, and I drank water from my own stainless steel water bottle, instead of drinking their water.
My wife had noodles, served on a reused plastic plate too, and her friend had hot soup, in a reused plastic bowl, with a plastic reused large scoop type spoon to eat it with. The older friend could not eat it all, and paid for a container, (plastic too) which she took half of her soup home with her, to eat later too.
It was also overpriced, and expensive, and it, being a Saturday, they even added a large surcharge for providing food on a weekend, which they do here now, grafting money from customers, in any way that they can do so, while providing very poor service, and a very bad food experience too.
There were actually queues of people waiting outside of this restaurant to be seated in the restaurant to experience the authentic Malaysian styled street foods. They were all paying, ignorantly, for adulterated food, which the owner's got way with, by saying they were just copying Malaysian food methods here.
So, every country seems to get away with this, and regulations here in Australia are lax, and not strict enough either. There are many loopholes, exploited here to the max.
1 person likes this
@thelme55 (79721)
• Germany
30 May
@innertalks that was a bad experience for you indeed. I wouldn’t like that and I hope I will never experience that in my home country Philippines . I would prefer it if they would serve the food in a wilted banana leaves.
2 people like this
@daryl316 (23)
•
31 May
Oh, I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience. I'm from the Philippines myself, and I feel utterly embarrassed that even at what is considered a high-end restaurant, you still had to go through something like that. It's really disappointing and unacceptable. May I know which part of the Philippines is this?
2 people like this
@innertalks (23789)
• Australia
31 May
That was in Tagaytay, and the restaurant is often written up on the Internet, but I will not name it here.
I was disappointed, as I had expected better of such a restaurant. It meant that I could not eat much there as I hate to eat food tainted from plastic.
@innertalks (23789)
• Australia
31 May
@daryl316 Yes, and sinigang, and pinakbet, all signature dishes of the Philippines, but the presentation was a real put-off, and I ate very little, waiting for the fruit, instead, but which also came out on a plastic serving plate.
The stews were placed directly on the table in the aluminium old pots, that I suspected that Adam used to use, all those years ago. I never touched it, as aluminium is well-known to leech into foods, cooked in it, especially acidic, and hot, liquids.
@daryl316 (23)
•
31 May
@innertalks Oh man. Given that it was in Tagaytay, I assume you guys had bulalo, I imagine the grease + plastics. ughhhh.
2 people like this
