Will Filipino food finally have its moment to shine?
It’s a question that many, including major publications, are asking. Back in 2012, Andrew Zimmern predicted that Filipino food would be “the next big thing.” Since then, there has been an ongoing fascination with the cuisine across the country, like in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Austin, for example, where pop-up events and new establishments have sprung up to present it in a more upscale, yet inclusive manner.
In April, The Washington Post published an article on new Filipino restaurants that opened in the DC-area, begging the question: what took so long?
Los Angeles has seen a crop of Filipino food events in the past three months: Yana Gilbuena brought the SALO Project to the city, an ambitious undertaking to have a Filipino dinner in all 50 states; Charles Olalia, former executive chef of Patina, hosted a series of intimate dinners called A’postrophe; brothers Chad and Chase Valencia have their LASA pop-up at the Elysian in Silverlake every last Friday of the month; and Geo Quibuyen and Chera Amlag from brought their Seattle-based pop-up, Food & Sh*t, to POT at the Line Hotel in Koreatown for a weekend.
At the end of May, The Point, a breakfast and lunch joint in Culver City, transformed its outdoor patio for two fine dining dinners prepared by Chef Mayet Cristobal. Originally, one dinner was planned, but the demand for seats was so high that another night was added.
Cristobal, who is executive chef at the Getty Center Restaurant, shared that these dinners “brought back memories of childhood,” and filled some sort of Filipino food void in the city, particularly in the Westside, albeit just for a short period.
“It’s unfortunate that not a lot of people are familiar with Filipino food,” she said. “When I do the pop-ups, it’s mostly because I want to share what I enjoyed eating growing up, but also put the touches of what I’ve learned here in Los Angeles.”
Though, she would be presenting Filipino food (which she noted has delectable, “complex” flavors), she added her own touch to it, recognizing what is fresh and in season.
“Being in LA, we are so exposed to different cultures. There really isn’t an ‘LA food’; when I look at [the city], it’s a combination of different cuisines. Being a chef here, you’re exposed to so many flavors. However, Filipino food never comes up even though there are so many Filipinos here,” Cristobal told the Asian Journal. “For me, having that background and knowing what I know from the Getty, cooking fresh and seasonal. It just makes sense to do something Filipino paired up with what I do daily at the museum.”
A ‘California-inspired’ menu
The dinner, priced at $50 per person, presented a five-course meal, starting with three appetizers.
As each dish made its way to the tables, Bobby Bognar — Cristobal’s husband and co-owner of The Point — walked around to introduce and explain the ingredients.
The first dish to come out was okoy (traditionally a shrimp fritter), as a rendition of one of Cristobal’s favorite childhood snacks served on an eco-friendly bamboo plate (as the rest of the dishes). Grab okoy at a turo-turo and usually you’ll find a hodge podge of things packed into one crispy, large patty (or soggy, if you unfortunately get a cold serving). Cristobal made hers made with kabocha squash, bean sprouts and onions, topped with burrata cheese and garlic vinaigrette. Though, not incredibly crunchy, this was more refined, noticeably less greasy, and presented in a way that could be served at any farmers market-driven dining establishment in the city.
Next, an albacore tuna kinilaw (cane vinegar, ginger, scallions, yuzu, masago, and seaweed) paired with a kropek (prawn cracker) was put in front of us. It drew some table conversations about whether it tasted more like poke or ceviche (for Cristobal, it was more ceviche-like). Overall, the dish had varied textures and effects on the tongue — from the softness of tuna to the tang of the yuzu sauce (which would have been calamansi if Cristobal found some) to the subtle crunchiness of the masago.
The last appetizer was one barbecue pork spare doused with a palm sugar and banana ketchup glaze and pickled green papaya and salty peanuts on the side. Bognar advised us that it was OK to use our hands, despite the white tablecloth and fine dining atmosphere, because really, barbecue in its truest form is meant to be eaten by hands.
“I didn’t want to do barbecue on a stick, so Bobby’s idea was to do ribs. Then, I came up with the idea to do banana ketchup ribs, which turned out to be awesome,” Cristobal said.
For the second course, the waiters brought out a flip wedge salad. One generous chunk of chilled iceberg was given, topped with salted duck egg, duck cracklings, cherry tomatoes, pandesal croutons, and dressed with ranch. In Cristobal’s words, the salad was a “very LA thing” married with some of her favorite Filipino toppings. For three weeks, she brined the eggs to get that salty taste; though, she admitted that the eggs could have been saltier if left alone for another week. Personally, the egg was salty enough given the context and pairings. The salad would have been more flavorful with more cracklings.
Transitioning to the main courses, three pan seared scallops seasoned with Mr. Tom’s Sauce sat atop a munggo (sauteed mung beans) puree, pork belly lechon, chicharon, and spring greens with patis (fish sauce) vinaigrette. Aside from the okoy and kinilaw, this was my favorite dish from the menu, as it the traditional munggo was dressed in a polished and upscale way.
At this point of the dinner, most of the guests were stuffed, given the sizable portions that left little to be desired and made you feel that you received the worth of the dinner’s price tag. It is significant to also note how the pop-up ran like clockwork with quick staff bussing plates once you signaled you were done and making sure that glasses were never empty.
Channeling adobo (one of the easy recognizable Filipino dishes), Cristobal made beef short ribs with sesame-garlic rice cake, bloomsdale spinach, mustard greens, green beans and soy-glazed onions.
“You can never go wrong with adobo if it’s done with the right amount of vinegar and sugar. The only thing I did differently was using beef,” Cristobal said.
With the sautéed onions, the beef was more of a hybrid of beef steak and adobo. The only thing that brought the dish down was the rice cake, which was intended to be like a sinangag (garlic fried rice), but came out too soft and sticky in the middle, yet crispy on the edges. Some of my fellow diners remarked at the overpowering saltiness of their beef, although I did not experience the same sensation. The vegetables, tastefully fresh, were nice additions — rarely, do you see so many greens in a Filipino dish.
For dessert, Cristobal originally toyed around with a buko pie recipe, but found that making the crust for many people would not be feasible.
Instead, a simple round coconut cake with macapuno whipped cream, toasted piping (crispy glutinous rice — think rice krispies) and blackberry sauce ended the night. The cake itself tasted like a coconut macaroon, while the whipped cream and blackberry sauce gave it more sweetness.
Lessons from the kitchen
Cristobal moved from the Philippines with her family in 1989, first to South Carolina and then Juneau, Alaska. Though, cooking has always been a life-long passion, she only started cooking professionally 15 years ago.
“Before that, I was working in whatever kind of job I could get — not all of them involved being in the kitchen. But I have always loved cooking. For example, if I was working at one job, on the side I would do some sort of catering or work as a part-time line cook… In 1999, I felt like it was time for me to take cooking seriously so I took my mom I was ready to pursue what I wanted to do, which was to become a chef. I decided to move to Los Angeles and go to culinary school to have a foundation,” she said.
After culinary school, she got an externship at the Getty Center kitchen, which was her first and only choice.
“The next step for me was to try to get into a nice kitchen, where I could learn a lot and that just happened to be the Getty Center kitchen. I haven’t left and now I’ve been here for 15 years,” she said. “It’s one of those stories I love to tell people.”
Holding every possible job in the kitchen, Cristobal was promoted to executive chef in 2008, overseeing about 70 cooks. On the side, she co-owns The Point with her husband, Bobby, and helps train new employees.
Even with 15 years of professional cooking experience, Cristobal candidly shared that she is still learning more about the craft.
“Teamwork is key. I work in a kitchen with 70 cooks, so I had to learn how to share everything and follow directions from everyone. You learn from everybody. It’s amazing what I’ve learned from the cooks, even now. They teach me something every day. [You] just need to have the humility and recognizing that we can learn from everyone,” she said.
Adding more lessons from the kitchen, she said, that culinary school “doesn’t teach you everything about food or being a chef.”
“It really just gives you the foundation of cooking. The real knowledge of being a chef happens while being in the kitchen and just working at it for years and years. One of the many lessons I learned early on was that I had to pay attention, stay focused and work safely. Speed and knowledge with cooking really come later. Listening to the chef and paying attention to the details helped me. Working hard, not complaining about the long hours, and just enjoying the moment,” she said. “I think I was given the opportunity to move up as a chef because I really enjoyed my time and my chefs saw that I was passionate and I would do anything to become a chef.”
To bring more awareness to Filipino food, Cristobal said, it’s “really about exposure — good exposure.”
“What I hope to get out of the pop-up dinner is the joy of cooking [especially] Filipino food — and that’s the truth. It’s getting out of my daily routine and doing something different, but familiar at the same time. From a bigger business standpoint, the goal is to really get Filipino food more mainstream,” she said, hinting at that a restaurant could be in the works in a few years.
Cristobal is eyeing another Filipino pop-up before the fall. To receive updates, follow The Point on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/thepointculvercity.
