Celebs on their most, least favorite dishes

MANILA, Philippines - In Sony Pictures Animation’s US No. 1 hit Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, food took on the dual roles of heroes and villains, as inventor Flint Lockwood and his friends embark on a dangerously delicious mission to battle hungry foodimals (food-animal hybrids) to save the world.

In the same spirit of celebrating the duality of food and its effects on us, we polled a group of Filipino celebrities with interesting taste buds to find out what their most and least favorite dishes are.

From home-style cooking to exotic cuisine, let’s take a look at what gets the mouths of the stars watering... and which food they’d rather spit out.

• Eugene Domingo, award-winning drama-comedy actress: I like fish, salads, pasta. I do not like fast food.

• Jim Paredes, legendary singer-songwriter: Favorite is beef salpicao, least favorite — dinuguan.

• Cherie Gil, iconic screen villainness: My favorite food is sinigang na ulo ng salmon. Least fave? Hmmm, that’s hard. I don’t like any food with raisins and pineapples in it.

• Joey Reyes, multi-awarded writer-director: My favorite food: Hard to pinpoint just one. A toss-up between delicious Thai yellow beef curry or a bowl of steaming hot Japanese ramen! My worst food: Betute or the stuffed field frogs I ate without knowing it was exotic amphibian (which I have a phobia for). It sent me screaming straight to the bathroom.

• Liezl Martinez, MTRCB board member: My favorite foods are spaghetti Bolognese and aglio olio, steak, sinigang na hipon and sushi. Least: Lamb, oysters, dinuguan, curry.

• Claude Tayag, renowned chef and restaurateur: Favorite is a toss-up between Lechon Kawali/Bagnet and Bacalao ala Vizcaina. Least fave is dinuguan.

• Quark Henares, filmmaker: Sizzling Keema with eggplant and special Chelo Kebab Combo at Mr. Kebab. OMG, I miss it so much. Least favorite, ampalaya. I hate it so much. Sometimes, I taste it just to remind myself how much I hate it.

• Alma Concepcion who recently starred in Babagwa: I prefer food that is easy to eat like siomai. I don’t like beef, it’s hard to chew and digest.

• Chico, RX931 Morning Rush disc jockey: My favorite food is ice cream. You have to enjoy it at once, or it’s gone… just like life. I don’t like okra. It’s like eating a nose! It’s shaped like a nose, has phlegmy slime and it even has little balls for boogers!

• Dolly Anne Carvajal, entertainment columnist: My favorite is sashimi. Least favorite — pinakbet.

• Sharmaine Arnaiz: I like anything with chocolate. I dislike escargot or anything too exotic. I avoid meat because I studied veterinary medicine. Our class visited a slaughterhouse as part of our curriculum and it broke my heart to witness animals being killed.

• Bong Daza, businessman-gourmand: The “bestest,” tastiest beef I have tried so far in my life is not wagyu nor angus. This beef comes from white Tuscan cows called Chianina. It is commonly known as Florentine Steak or Bistecca Florentine. When in Florence, make sure you try it. The beef is incredibly soft and melts in your mouth.

• Kat de Castro, travel show host and TV journalist: My favorite food has got to be Spaghetti Bolognese, especially if it has diced smoked streaky bacon! Nothing beats this classic dish. Not only is this easy to prepare but it also serves as my comfort food since it reminds me of my childhood years. My least favorite is the steamed okra. I even cringe at the thought of having it for lunch.

• Sherilyn Tan: It gives me a shallow sort of happiness whenever I eat Japanese steak with beansprouts. I do not like kare-kare. I remember that Kuya Dick Paulate cooked a weird version of kare-kare in Petrang Kabayo and that just stuck with me.

• Lea Salonga: I don’t have a most or least favorite food — I love everything!

Opening in theaters on Oct. 9, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.