I'm not in the Philipines, but our best friends are Philipino (here in Cali) so I know what you are up against. Rice, pancit, lumpia, desserts...the fish is usually battered, etc.

No matter where you live, IMO you have to cook in order to survive on LC.

When I cook here in the States, I make the same meals for the most part, but I take out my portion before adding starchy ingredients. Like if I make chili, I add the beans last, after I take out a bowl of everything else for myself. Or I make fish or chicken and veggies, and make a carbohydrate side for everybody else.

Try to make familiar dishes using the ingredients that are not starchy or sweet. Maybe make lumpia filling, and have a bowl? Or if you feed more than yourself, make extra lumpia filling, and set aside a bowl of it for yourself before making the actual lumpia rolls? Same with Pancit (no noodles for you). For sinigang (sp?), I'd make it without potatoes, then cook the potatoes separately and add them in to eveyone else's bowl.

Chicken adobo is good, as are any stir frys as long as you don't use cornstarch or other starch to thicken the sauce. Shrimp, fish...just don't batter it. You might be able to request it not battered in restaurants.

In restaurants, you could ask that sauce be held, if you think it is thickened. Don't have any idea though if that is accepted in the Philipines though. It was a long time before those kinds of requests were accepted in the US restaurants.

You might be able to convert desserts using an artificial sweetener. Not sure what else is in them that might be starchy though. I use this sweetener: http://sweetzfree.com/index.html They don't ship to the Philippines, but if you'd like to have the product, we could work something out and I'd ship it to you.

I hope you find someone on this site who in Manila! And welcome back!