Filipino food, is this a thing now?
Take a look at this interesting graphic pulled from the pages of none other than Travel & Leisure's April 2013 issue, AKA "The Food Issue"....
On a scale of Overhyped (closest to this: cupcakes, tomato foam and no-bookings policies) to Underrated (closest to this: paletas, or ice pops; tomato sauce and accepting reservations), just to the right of Just Right, Filipino Cuisine falls on the Underrated side of the continuum. Is Filipino food becoming a thing now?
I don't know, but it's always been my thing.
Having been the kid in the lunchroom with the "smelly" Tupperware full of ulam (Tagalog shorthand for main dish) and jasmine rice, while my classmates had apples and peanut butter jelly sandwiches on Wonder bread, it's nice to see this. I don't need this validation, but it makes the little-girl-me in Catholic school Wonder bread Midwest America smile just a bit. And then,
Oh, HELL YEAH! Finally the food I love is getting props!
In more adobo-related news, restaurant proprietors of New York City's Purple Yam, cookbook authors and culinary heritage warriors Amy Besa and Chef Romy Dorotan introduce PBS's America's Test Kitchen to Filipino chicken adobo! ATK's John "Doc" Willoughby interviews Besa and Dorotan in this segment in their "Big, Bold Chicken Braises" episode (scroll up to 14:19, right after they test commercially available chicken breasts). Chef Dorotan's recipe from southern Luzon - and American's Test Kitchen's version - demo video and recipe (latter's free with ATK registration) - uses coconut milk... And I can't wait to try it!
Related links:
- Filipino chefs runnin' thangs on Bravo TV's culinary competition reality show, Top Chef! Love, love, love Chefs Sheldon Simeon (most recently), Dale Talde and Paul Qui, featured on WikaMag by Jof Cubol.
- A purple yam in Tagalog is ube (pronouced ooh-beh'), and it's half of one of my favorite ice cream flavors, ube macapuno. One of my fave food bloggers, Jun Belen, shares U is for Ube and How to Make Ube Macapuno Empanadas.
- Eat at Uncle Mike's Place off Grand Avenue for Filipino breakfast. Blog post forthcoming.
- Stuff I wrote one time about chicken adobo, Filipino street food, ginataan bilo-bilo, lugaw.