Excerpted from AMBOY: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream © 2020 by Alvin Cailan. Photography © 2020 by Wyatt Conlon. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. Serves 6 The first time I met Auntie Cita, she brought this dish as a gift for my parents. It looked different from any other bibingka…
LAST December, Alvin Cailan put a down payment on the former Chego spot inside Far East Plaza in Los Angeles’ Chinatown without the immediacy, or a defined concept, to occupy it. One possibility was a 12-seat steakhouse offshoot of his “Amboy” project — based on his childhood nickname referring to an American-born Filipino — with…
NEED something to add to your Hulu queue? The streaming platform has just added “Ulam: Main Dish,” the first feature Filipino food documentary on its roster. With Filipino cuisine’s popularity in the U.S. over the past few years, this distribution announcement is another testament to that. “Ulam” (Tagalog for main dish) by Filipina-American filmmaker Alexandra…
THE Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival (LAF&W) this past week brought together dozens of renowned culinary personalities from across the country for five days of events. From Wednesday, August 22 to Sunday, August 26, the 8th annual festival occupied spaces around LA from Grand Avenue in Downtown to Barker Hanger in Santa Monica for…
“I think ultimately the key to everyone’s heart is through their stomach.” —Filipino-American chef Alvin Cailan With the immense admiration that Filipino food has received over the last few years, it’s no surprise that the cuisine is also getting big screen treatment. “ULAM,” (Tagalog for main dish) an hour-long documentary by Filipina-American filmmaker Alexandra Cuerdo,…
Driving through Los Angeles’ Chinatown, Far East Plaza on Broadway is one of those complexes that is easy to gloss over. But with curiosity awakened and judgments of its outdated exterior aside, the two-story shopping center encases a culinary haven with options so abundant that multiple trips may be necessary. Inside, you can find Roy…
IT all started with eggs. Growing up as a latchkey kid, Alvin Cailan’s father taught him how to cook eggs when he was tall enough to reach the stove. Who would have thought that years down the road and experiences at fine-dining restaurants under his belt, he would circle back to what he first learned…
