Once upon a time, I was eating at a one of the many Thai restaurants in San Diego with some friends (who also, in fact, identified as Pilipina/o American). At one point, I asked, "Have any of you ever seen a sit-down Pilipino restaurant? Where you have a host/ess, a server, and menus?" Everyone thought long and hard about it, but none of us could think of a single Pilipino restaurant like that. Instead, we recalled our favorite mom-and-pop restaurants where the sisig and tilapia are always served in styrofoam trays, ready to go.
Now the San Francisco Chronicle has published a story on a "new wave" of Pilipino food in the Bay Area. Over the last two years, quite a few Pilipino restaurants "in trendy settings" have opened, such as Intramuros in San Francisco and the Attic in San Mateo. Pilipino food trucks are also on the rise in the area. Tim Luym, a consulting chef at the Attic, says of this, "There's been this resurgence of Pilipino cooks wanting to look toward their cuisine and push that forward. It's an exciting time."
But just a year earlier, the Los Angeles Times reported that although there are many top Pilipina/o American chefs, few actually professionally cook Pilipino food. It is not an issue of whether they like Pilipino cuisine or not. Andre Guerrero of the Marche L.A. restaurant says, "I love [Pilipino food]. I grew up eating it. But how does it fit into what we do? It really doesn't." As a result, Guerrero and many other Pilipina/o American chefs stick to cooking Pilipino food at home only. This article argues that Pilipino food is resisting assimilation into the mainstream.
Should Pilipino food go mainstream, or stay just the way it is?
I would love to hear everyone's opinions on this, but as for mine? The final line of the aforementioned L.A. Times article sums up my thoughts: "'The food is so regional, we don't have one unifying dish,' says Marvin Gapultos, a Pilipino American who runs the Los Angeles food blog Burnt Lumpia. 'There's adobo, but there's about 7,000 ways to make it.'"
Perhaps this is why it has taken a relatively long time for Pilipino food to be integrated into mainstream cuisine. But arguably, Indian food is just as regional and diverse, yet it has become increasingly mainstream over the years. With Pilipina/o Americans being the fastest-growing Asian immigrant group in the U.S., I think that the "mainstreaming" of Pilipino food is inevitable. Although Pilipina/o food is indeed very regional and diverse, I predict that mainstream Pilipina/o American food will largely originate from the Tagalog and Ilocano regions of the Philippines, for most Pilipina/o Americans are originally from these areas and there is a trend of "Tagalog-ization" of Pilipina/o American culture in general.
As for San Diego, I have yet to see one "sit-down" Pilipino restaurant here with a waitstaff and all. Instead, there are an abundance of mom-and-pop, "cafeteria-style" Pilipino restaurants, where you order your food at the counter.
Sit-down or not, the food is delicious.
For you other San Diegans and those of you who plan on visiting San Diego, my local favorites are Conching's Cafe in National City and Pinoy Food Mart in Chula Vista.
What do YOU think about the possible "mainstreaming" of Pilipino food?
Any local favorite restaurants that you would like to share? "
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I live in South San Francisco and yes I live next to all these fine dining Pilipino restaurants such as Intramuros. Feel free to come and try it whenever you are around the area. You will be surprised with the food, the flavor and its presentation. They also have a bar/karaoke/club inside.
Hi Paola! Thanks for sharing this! It's interesting, because in Chicago where I'm from, a lot of the Pilipino restaurants are sit-down, in that there is a menu, a server and wait staff. I've actually noticed a few more turo-turo style places come along in the last few years, mostly inside Pilipino grocery stores. There used to be a place by my office that had this...eating homemade Pilipino food on your lunch break is like heaven! (They sadly went out of business).
But I would say that more restaurateurs are trying to make Pilipino food mainstream. We've had some restaurants in Chicago come and go. I can think of a place called Rambutan that did well for awhile, but closed down. Now, we have places like Sunda, if not the only place, which is one of the fanciest Asian resturants I've ever been to in Chicago. It serves some Pilipino dishes (as well as sushi and amazing drinks), head by a Pilipino chef, GM and owner. We're lucky to have it here!
Another place I know of in the Midwest is Subo, a Pilipino tapas-style restaurant that opened in a trendy Minneapolis, MN neighborhood.
I think it's definitely possible for Pilipino food to go mainstream, but still be delicious and as authentic as possible, AND without lacking creativity. My big thing is, as long as the food is true to the culture, then why not have as many Pilipino restaurants as there are Thai or Indian restaurants?
Here are some links to those places I mentioned:
http://www.sundachicago.com/
http://suboexperience.com/
Thanks for the info!! A friend who read my article was JUST talking about how great of an idea it would be to have Pilipino tapas-style restaurants. Good to see that the Midwest is ahead of the game :)
Zarlitos in National City? http://www.zarlitos.com/ That's sit down.
Gerry's Grill in Artesia is delicious. Salo Salo in Cerritos is classic. Goldilocks in Cerritos...is Goldilocks! hahaha
!!!! Thanks for sharing! Definitely going to try this place out soon.
Thanks for this post, Paola. I'm always surprised to hear, especially since I've been on the east coast, that people have never tried/heard of/know Pilipino food. It's a little disheartening. Pilipino food also has come up in conversations when talking about Asian American identity and non-Pilipinos saying that "we" are not Asian, based on their ideas of what is in the mainstream, a.k.a. the foods that they know are from Asia (i.e. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and sometimes Indian). I could go on and on about the pros and cons about bringing Pilipino food into the mainstream ... I'm glad you've brought up the issue here!
As for SD restaurants, like MV posted, Zarlitos is a sit-down place in SD. I've gone here with family as well as late at night (they were once open around 12am. Not sure what their regular hours are). I haven't tried it personally, but there's also Villa Manila in National City. Manila Sunset has also expanded their location and has a similar setup to Conching's.