Burnt Lumpia: Filipino Food | Filipino Recipes | Culinary Hijinks

Swill to Twenty: Food and Wine Fundraiser

On Saturday September 10, and Sunday September 11, the 20th Anniversary Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture will take place in San Pedro, CA.

Although I've participated at FPAC in some capacity (either as an attendee, or as a vendor) for the last 4 years, I'm still amazed that this will be the 20th year of the two-day festival that brings together the best of Filipino community, heritage, and cultural pride.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, FilAm Arts will be hosting "Swill to Twenty": a kickoff Food and Wine Fundraiser on Thursday September 8. According to FilAm Arts:

"SWILL TO TWENTY", which benefits and kicks-off FPAC, takes place at Swill Automatic, one of Los Angeles Arts District’s hottest new destinations, offering a continually updated array of interesting, reasonably priced self-dispensing wines from all over the world, complemented by a dynamic menu of eclectic, Modern American bar cuisine.  (Guests must be 21 or over).

For this special fund-raising event, attendees can feast on the following selection of tapas, desserts, and drinks:

• “Longatacos” - Longsilog Tacos
• Hottentots - tater tots with Gruyere cheese and spice
• BanhMi Sliders - Filipino-Vietnamese-style pork sandwiches
  
• Moroccan Meatballs - house-made meatballs infused with North African spices in a tangy tomato sauce
• Roasted Stuffed Peppadews - tangy South African peppers, wrapped w/prosciutto & stuffed with cheese
• Dessert - Gourmet cotton candy from Tasty Clouds Cotton Candy Company
• Two Drink Coupons - for wines, beer, or wine cards (pour your own drinks)

In addition, there will also be a meet and greet with FPAC headlining artist, and Latin Soul Legend, Joe Bataan.

General admission to this event is $55, or $100 for VIP tickets. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

A portion of the proceeds benefit The Association for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture, also known as FilAm ARTS, a multi-disciplinary community arts organization whose mission is to advance the understanding of the arts and diverse cultural heritage of Filipinos in the United States.

And if you can't make it out to the Swill to 20 kickoff party, do make sure to attend FPAC on September 10 or 11--more info on FPAC 20 coming soon...

Banana 2 Conference

This Saturday February 26th, I'll be participating in the Banana 2 Conference at CBS Studios in Los Angeles.

The Banana 2 Conference will be an event spotlighting the efforts of Asian American and Pacific Islander bloggers. According to the Banana 2 website:

"BANANA 2 is a follow-up to the inaugural convening in Nov. 2009 co-hosted by Lac Su, author of I Love Yous Are For White People (HarperCollins, 2009) and Steve Nguyen, a television/film producer and head of the ChannelAPA.com's Los Angeles division, who enlisted the help of a small group of bloggers and community activists to produce an event highlighting and amplifying the online voices of Asian Americans.

The conference will provide an opportunity for bloggers and their readers to build a stronger community by beginning conversations and building relationships beyond the conference. Conference panels will include topics on using blogs and social media to create meaningful social change, working with businesses and corporations and defining the role of Asian American bloggers."

I'm definitely flattered to have been asked to participate in this great event. I'll actually be taking part in a panel that day specifically devoted to Asian American bloggers who blog about a specific topic--my blog topic being, of course, Filipino food. I'm definitely looking very forward to sharing my thoughts about my blog and about Filipino food.

Again, Banana 2 will be taking place this Saturday February 26th, from 8am to 6pm at CBS Studios in Los Angeles. Conference admission is $20 per person, and you can register online at http://www.banana-2.com/register/.

For more information on Banana 2, visit their website here.

 

Four

Four Valentine's Days ago, I started writing Burnt Lumpia. Yup. This here Filipino food blog is now four years old.

Four years is a long time to be writing anything, let alone to be writing a blog solely about Filipino cuisine. At the time, on that first fateful Valentine's Day when I wrote some lil' test post and hit the "Publish" button, I wasn't sure anyone knew what Filipino food was exactly.

And now? Four years later?

I'm still not sure.

But despite my own uncertainty, there have been signs of increasing interest and appreciation of Filipino cuisine as of late. Adobo in the New York Times? The "next Asian cuisine to hit prime time"? "Filipino cuisine is finally entering the mainstream"? Who would'a thunk it?

Four years.

Four years of testing and developing recipes. Four years of note taking. Four years of calling my grandmother and aunties with questions about ingredients, measurements, and family stories. Four years of posting random movie clips for my own amusement. Four years of making fun of my mom's indifference and my dad's drunkeness, puppy punching prowess, and overall awesomeness(?). Four years of working towards...

Has it all been worth it?

Well. Yes.

Believe me, it's been gratifying enough taking what I've learned from this blog and executing that in real time. And at the very least, I now know a hell of a lot more about my culture than I did four years ago. And thankfully, this didn't happen in a vacuum. I've gleaned a lot from the readers of this blog, and from the people I've connected with all around the world because of this blog. And for that I am very, very thankful.

And even with all the recipes I've managed to post, there's still more to come from me and this blog. Much more--on a grander scale. I promise hope...

But until then, I just want to thank everyone out there who has read and supported this blog for the last four years, months, weeks, days, hours, or even if you've just tuned in four seconds ago.

Thank you.

Thank you for BELIEVING in Filipino food.

And stay tuned...

Giveaway: Asian Ingredients 101 App

I've never been grocery shopping with my grandmother, though I imagine such an experience would provide innumerable perks.

Aside from helping me pick out the best green papayas for her atchara recipe, or perhaps telling me straighaway which Filipino vinegar is best for any particular dish, my grandmother would be indispensible in proving my ethnicity to doubtful fishmongers at the Asian market.

Alas, my grandmother lives 4 hours away from me, so my excursions to the market (like most everyone I'm sure) are always grandma-less.

But thanks to Asian Ingredients 101, an iPhone app created by cookbook author, Pat Tanumihardja, you can now have a robot Asian grandma in your pocket!

Asian Ingredients 101 is a comprehensive guide to East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian ingredients at your fingertips. Whether you are shopping at an Asian market or traveling in Asia, this app will help you to identify close to 100 ingredients ranging from spices to herbs to sauces using color photographs as well as their common names in different languages. It also tells you where to find the ingredients at the market (i.e. frozen or dried goods section) and offers little tidbits on selection and preparation.

Oh, that's what oyster sauce is for! Thanks Robot Grandma!

Pat's an old friend of mine, and is the author of The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook, so I can vouch for how cool this app is. And luckily for you, dear readers, Pat has provided me with three (3) promo codes that will enable three of my lucky readers to download her app for free.

For a chance to win a free download of Asian Ingredients 101, just leave a comment telling me what your favorite Asian ingredient is. I'll then randomly choose three winners who will each recieve a free download.

All comments for this post will be accepted as entry for the giveaway and this contest will end on Sunday January 16, 2011 at 11:59 PM Pacific time. I'll randomly select three winners and announce the winner later that week.

Here's The Filipino Food

Well folks, in spite of my best intentions to continue on my previous teaser post with a timely follow-up, more information, and answers to your questions, it turns out that I got sidetracked. Rolling hundreds of lumpia by hand, cooking hundreds of chicken thighs and legs for adobo, breaking down and butchering sides of beef and slabs of pork belly, and prepping who-knows-how-many-pounds of green papaya and carrots for homemade achara, takes up just a bit of time.

Actually, all of that takes up a GINORMOUS amount of time.

What's with all the cooking, you may be asking?

Well, if you haven't heard by now (from say here, here, here, here, or here), I've started a new venture outside the confines of this Filipino Food Blog of mine.

This new venture? It's called The Manila Machine: Los Angeles' First Filipino Food Truck. Crazy right?

For my international readers who might not be very familiar with L.A.'s mobile food culture, let's just say that serving different types of food out of a wandering restaurant on wheels is kind of a big deal. And for my local readers... Yup, another food truck.

But this food truck is different! Different, I say!

Along with my business partner, fellow Fil-Am, and fellow food blogger Nastassia Johnson (of Let Me Eat Cake fame) we are THE FIRST truck to bring Filipino food to the masses of Southern California. And besides being THE FIRST FILIPINO FOOD TRUCK in SoCal, Nastassia and I are also the first food bloggers to enter the crowded arena of mobile eateries.

So why did we choose to serve Filipino food? If you're a regular Burnt Lumpia reader, my reasons for doing anything with Filipino food should go without saying. But I'll say them anyway. I've spent the past few years researching, cooking, and writing about the food of my culture. It's been my mission to promote Filipino culture and cuisine via this blog in my own quirky ways. And although I'm not a professional chef, Filipino food is something I'm passionately passionate about (that's right, passionately passionate).

And besides my own personal and cultural reasons for starting a Filipino Food truck, you might have heard that Filipino food is hard to come by in Los Angeles. Thus, The Manila Machine is simply our vehicle (pun?) for making Filipino cuisine more accessible to the good people of L.A. and beyond.

With a menu that features adobo, pan de sal sliders, lumpia, and turon (among other Pinoy goodies), The Manila Machine officially opened to much fanfare on June 10, 2010 at the Downtown LA Artwalk.

How did we do?

Rolling Soon...

So for the last few weeks, I haven't really been updating this here blog with many new recipes. And I haven't been visiting or commenting much on any of my favorite food blogs either.

Sorry.

Besides my usual excuses (kid, travel, laziness), I have another really, really, really good excuse for my absence in this space and the rest of the blogosphere.

Really. I do.

I just can't say exactly what that excuse is right now. But I can say that I've been working on a HUGE "project" with another food blogger friend of mine for the past few months. Unless things go horribly wrong (and I wouldn't be surprised if they did), we will be announcing this project very soon.

And I promise, it's a doozy. A doozy, I say!

I know, your wheels are spinning from that vague tease, but you'll have to wait just a while longer.

Until then, buckle your seatbelts...

Filipino Flavors: A Symposium

Attention all Filipino food lovers!

On May 15th and 16th 2010, the Asian Culinary Forum will be hosting a symposium on Filipino cuisine entitled Filipino Flavors: Tradition and Innovation. The symposium will be held at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of California in San Francisco.

Included in this weekend-long celebration of Filipino food and culture will be various classes and seminars taught and hosted by a variety of Filipino food experts and Filipino celebrity chefs (yes, there is such a thing).

According to the ACF:

"Featured speakers include Amy Besa (Memories of Philippines Kitchens), Margarita Araneta Fores (Cafe Bola and Cibo restaurants in Metro Manila), Reggie Narito (Master Sommelier), Chef Kelly Degala and Chef Tim Luym, plus many many more authors, culinary experts and special guests.

Select from a fabulous buffet of choices or join in the entire feast.

Online registration closes May 12, or earlier if sold out."

To me, a couple of the standout classes/seminars of that weekend include the hands-on cooking class taught by Amy Besa (also of Purple Yam fame), as well as the Chef's Panel entitled "Inspiration and Innovation: The Future of Filipino Food". Heck, there's even an Adobo Throwdown!

Just from the looks of it, I am very hopeful that the symposium will do much to elevate Filipino cuisine.

To register for any (or all) of the symposium events, CLICK HERE.

Remember, registration closes May 12, or earlier if sold out!

Where's the Filipino Food?

Filipino American Chefs Andre Guerrero, Crisi Echiverri, and Gary Menes
[photo via L.A. Times]

In today's Los Angeles Times Food Section, Amy Scattergood has an excellent article about Filipino food and its absence from the mainstream dining culture as a whole. To uncover some of the reasons as to why Filipino food has not assimilated into the mainstream, Scattergood interviewed a number of Filipino American chefs working in prominent Los Angeles restaurants (she also happened to interview some random Filipino food blogger, ahem).

Scattergood writes:

"Some cuisines, such as the deeply flavorful mélange of foods from the Philippines, seem to resist assimilation into mainstream culture, thriving in home kitchens but stubbornly remaining there.

And for the many chefs of Filipino heritage who cook in some of the finest restaurants in Los Angeles, there is a very distinct line drawn between their private and professional kitchens — the food of their home culture may be cooked for staff meals, but it rarely crosses the pass into the dining room itself."

So who are these mysterious Filipino American chefs? And in which restaurants can they be found? Here is a list of those featured in Scattergood's story:

• Rodelio Aglibot: Formerly of Yi Cuisine in Los Angeles, now Chef/partner at Sunda in Chicago
• Allen Buhay: Sous chef, Church & State
• Crisi Echiverri: Chef/partner, Providence
• Mary Jo Gore: Chef instructor at the Cordon Bleu school in Pasadena
• Andre Guerrero: Chef/owner, The Oinkster, Marche L.A.
• Marge Manzke: Chef, Church & State
• Joe Marcus: Chef de cuisine, Pizzeria Mozza
• Gary Menes: Executive chef, Marche L.A.

That there, is a whole lot of culinary talent. Of course, all across the Southland there are hundreds of turo-turo joints and mom-and-pop restaurants that do a great job of representing some aspects of Filipino food. But considering the talent and resumes of the Fil-Am chefs that Scattergood interviewed, it is still quite surprising that Filipino food isn't featured on a grander scale. Or perhaps it isn't so surprising, given the different chefs' own reasons for not serving Pinoy food to their clientele.

As some of the chefs inferred in the article, perhaps Pinoy cuisine doesn't fit into the mold of fine dining, or maybe our food is often too misunderstood? Or as I was quoted as saying in the article, maybe Filipino food is too regional with too many variances between recipes for it to become widely accepted.

Granted, I did have a lot more to say on the subject than my one quote in the story. So to expand on that point, I think that non-Filipinos can't really pinpoint a singular characteristic of Filipino food--and that is perhaps because there is no singular characteristic. See, I told you this was hard.

So why exactly hasn't Filipino food become as popular as say, Thai or Vietnamese food? It may seem like a simple enough question, but the answers are far more complicated and multifaceted than can be covered in a single newspaper article or blog post.

What do you think? What's holding Filipino food back? Will our cuisine ever be accepted by the "mainstream"? Does that even matter? How would you describe Filipino food to a non-Filipino?

To read Amy Scattergood's article in the L.A. Times, click here.

In addition to the interesting points made in Scattergood's article, the Times also features three Filipino recipes:

• Andre Guerrero's chicken adobo
• Crisi Echiverri's bichu-bichu
• Gary Menes' nilaga

And finally, the Times also has a review of one of the best Filipino restaurants in Southern California, Magic Wok in Artesia.

Pancit Pointers in the Chicago Sun-Times

In today's Chicago Sun-Times food section, Janet Rausa Fuller navigates through the tangled maze of Pancit. Although the term "Pancit" refers to Filipino noodles in general, there's a little bit more complexity to this seemingly simple dish. In her wonderful article, "Filipino noodle recipe secured at last" Fuller writes:

"There are about a zillion variations, largely depending on the type of the noodle but also on all the colorful garnishes. The ones I’m familiar with include pancit canton (egg noodles), pancit bihon and palabok (rice stick noodles), pancit sotanghon (bean thread or cellophane noodles) and pancit luglug (thicker rice noodles).

Some versions mix two types of noodles. Chicago chef Jennifer Aranas’ book, The Filipino-American Kitchen, lists at least four renditions I’ve never heard of.

Also, no two Filipinos make pancit the same way, and all Filipinos, as a general rule, cook their native dishes from memory, not paper."

And therein lie the maze, not only of Pancit, but of Filipino food in general--one dish can differ completely not only from region to region, but from household to household and cook to cook. But like many other Filipino-Americans, Fuller finds answers to her Filipino food questions with a few phone calls to her mother.

After a few long-distance tutorials, Fuller is finally able to record and write down her mother's fantastic Pancit Bihon recipe--with measurements and all!

And while I'm very certain that Fuller created her Pancit Bihon recipe on the strength of her mother's advice and her own good taste, she did interview me as well for her story. In Fuller's article, I provide a few basic tips of how I make Pancit Canton (of which I learned from my cousin Kathy, and will post about very soon).

So if you're interested in some pancit pointers, check out Janet Rausa Fuller's Pancit arcticle in the Chicago Sun-Times, as well as her Pancit Bihon recipe.

And because no two cooks make pancit the same way, I'd like to ask one question of my readers:

How do you make your Pancit?

Maligayang Pasko!

Tidings Everyone!

I know I've been woefully absent from this blog for the past few weeks. But along with all the holidays suddenly sneaking up on me, a rather pesky flu bug managed to breach the sterile confines of the Burnt Lumpia Worldwide Headquarters.

Although we were lucky that our little one was able to elude any illness, my wife and I were each out of commission for days at a time. And despite my huge increase in ginger tea consumption, no amount of hot salabat could fend off the cooties wreaking havoc in my body. Not good times.

While all is fine and well now, I wanted to quickly stick my head into the blogosphere and check in with everyone. I will definitely be back to posting here on the regular very soon, so stay tuned! In the meantime, here are a couple of holiday-themed posts from the archives to tide you over:

• Arroz By Any Other Name
• Out on Parol

Lastly, I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas--or Maligayang Pasko, as they say in the Philippines.

Maligayang Pasko!