Manila, Philippines – Agness Walewinder and her male friend are tourists who travel the world on a food budget of $25 a day.  The Polish pair maintains an Internet blog in which they write about their experiences in the countries they have visited.

On March 17, Agness wrote about their trip in the Philippines and titled her piece, “I Would Rather Go Hungry Than Eat Filipino Food Again.” She has  since then added “Street” to the title after receiving angry emails from Filipinos.

Agness’ piece deplored the kind of Filipino street food they were served while traveling the country. She said that their pre-travel research got them all excited about Filipino cuisine like lechon, adobo, kare-kare and even balut. They got none of those, perhaps because they were looking in the wrong places. Agness posted photos of the kinds of food they were served, many of which not even Filipinos would recognize.

Many Filipinos found the piece highly offensive and flodded the pair’s website, etramping.com with irate comments. Some even invited the two back to the Philippines and offered to cook for them.

A group of Pinoys (slang for Filipino) went even further by putting together a balikbayan box to be shipped to the pair’s home in Poland.  The box was stuffed with a whole lechon (roasted pig), a huge tray of kare-kare (meat and vegetables in peanut sauce), a pot of freshly cooked chicken adobo (simmered in a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar) and a dozen balut (just Google it!). Since there was a little more room in the balikbayan box, the group even threw in a casserole of pinakbet (popular Ilocano dish of meat, seafood and vegetables cooked with shrimp paste).

Shipping of the box to Poland will take approximately 30-45 days.

“By the time the cooked food arrives, then Agness will truly experience street food ” the group said.