Veggies and Insects...

Some clarifications about a few of the Veggie words:1. The more common pronunciation of "sili" is similar to how we pronounce the ending of "lalaki". That is, although the vowel is "i", the pronunciation is somewhere between the sound of "e" and "i" and may actually be closer to the sound of "e" than of "i".2. It is true that some of us would call "kintsay" as celery in English. However, if you'd go to the market and ask for "kintsay", what you would most likely get is coriander or cilantro. If what you need is celery, just ask for "celery" and that's what they'd give you.3. I have not actually heard of anyone use "oliba" for "olive". I only hear "olives" or "olive" or "oliva" (Spanish).4. "Puso ng saging" (heart of the banana) is correct as "banana blossom" in English. It is sometimes used as an ingredient in "kare-kare". However, I don't think we use the English translation for it at all. When we say "bulaklak ng saging" (banana flower, which may also translate to "blossom"), what we refer to are the dried ones that are used in some dishes of, perhaps, Chinese origin.

5. Although we actually pronounce it as "pechay", we spell it as "petsay". That's because the old Pilipino alphabet did not include the letter "C" so, to produce the "ch" sound, we spell it as "ts". Now, when we just say "petsay/pechay", what we mean is that which is sometimes called "petsay Tagalog" and it looks like a type of Swiss chard. The Chinese cabbage is also a type of "petsay", but if that's what we mean, we'd call it "petsay Baguio".

Baguio is a city up in the mountains in the northern part of the country. It used to be known as the "summer capital of the Philippines" and the president also has a mansion there where until some decades ago, he would actually hold office at times during the summer months so as to avoid the summer heat in Manila. Because of the colder climate there, some vegetables were considered endemic to the place. Thus, the name "Baguio" got attached to them. We still say "petsay Baguio". Some people still call the green beans as "Baguio beans" and the iceberg lettuce used to be called "Baguio lettuce" or "litsugas Baguio", but since it has already become quite common, it's just called "lettuce" or "litsugas" nowadays. And similarly, we pronounce it as "lichugas", from the Spanish "lechuga".

Under Insects, I think that most of the time we use "uod" to mean "maggots". For caterpillar, I think the word more often used is "higad".

@Tagamanila Thanks for the clarifications! I removed celery, olive, and petsay from the vegetables list, and modified the uod definition.

Another clarification. The Filipino concept of "pepper" and "sili" may also be confusing to foreigners.When you say "pepper" here, we think of peppercorns, either whole or ground. The Tagalog term for them is "paminta".When you say "sili", it is the "siling berde" (green pepper) or "siling habâ" (elongated pepper) that we'd think of. They're used for cooking and they're usually just mildly hot. You'll see this often as an ingredient in "sinigang" and "dinuguan". The bell pepper is also called "bell pepper" here, but some would call it "siling pula" (red pepper) even if it's not the red one. I think this identification as "red" came about because decades ago, it's the pimento that was popular here and they're all red. Since it was common to see red bell peppers also and there's some similarity in their appearance, the association with the red color eventually got carried over to the bell pepper.Then there's the "siling labuyò". They're small, but very hot. "Labuyò" is a wild fowl/chicken. I don't know how the term got associated with the pepper, but maybe it has to do with its being "wild" in spiciness. It is often add in vinegar dips.
With both "sili/siling berde/haba" and "siling labuyo" in it, you can expect this dish to be very hot.