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🇵🇭  Interesting discussion on whether Filipino food is unhealthy or not? Our take: it's not. Lifestyles and food selections can be unhealthy. An entire country's cuisine cannot be unhealthy.

And the notion that vegan food is better for you is false. Bad food is bad food, whether it has soy/wheat/lentils/rice or meat.

Foods mentioned: 

• Spam
• Caldereta
• Lumpia

🇺🇸 Filipino cuisine can be found in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Guam. Here are the best places to find it.

Food & Wine magazine

🍔 The burger is from US-based Filipino restaurant PogiBoy

Lechon isn’t only a tradition passed down by our parents and grandparents; it’s also a point of pride.

"We are Filipinos. We roast and eat pig. This Is What We Do."

KQED magazine

"...In many ways, it's surprising that this boom is happening now, in 2022, when in 2012, Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods, boldly declared that Filipino food would be the "next big thing..."

The word pinakbet is derived from the Ilocano term meaning ‘shrunk' or “shriveled” and refers to a dish that originated in the northern part of the Philippines. This vegetable stew is packed with a mix of greens found in abundance all over the country, but don't worry, you should be able to find all of the ingredients in most stores in the United States (or in local grocery stores anywhere outside of the Philippines).

Known for its savory taste, the dish is stewed with broth and shrimp paste to give it more depth, make it more appealing, and make it more fragrant. A classic savory vegetable dish with a Filipino touch.

Pinakbet Recipe

In Taiwan, two food trucks recently went on a two-week tour of Taipei, providing free Filipino dishes such as pork sisig and pork adobo, along with San Miguel beers and mojitos.

Characterized by combinations of distinct flavors, Filipino food is bold and often hearty with ingredients such as vinegar, calamansi (Philippine lemon), and tamarind at the forefront of many of its dishes.

Read the article

Tim Flores and Genie Kwon fly the Philippine flag high as their restaurant in Chicago — Kasama — is recognised as the first MICHELIN-Starred Filipino restaurant in the world.

“The Filipino culture is such a proud one, and we are so proud of our food.

Our biggest goal was to make Filipino food more accessible to people that have never had it before. Since we do breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it kind of helped us become a little more relatable; our diners ease into the experience whether they come in during different times of the day."

Caldereta, which can also be written as kaldereta, is a tomato-based stewed dish that Filipinos often eat for dinner, reheat for lunch the next day, or enjoy with a glass of beer. The name ‘caldereta' comes from the Spanish term caldera, meaning ‘cauldron', the vessel in which it was originally cooked. The dish was inspired by meat stews from the Iberian Peninsula and brought by Spanish colonists to the Philippines. It's now a popular Filipino food dish but retains the essence of Spanish cuisine. 

In the traditional preparation, goat meat is stewed with colorful vegetables such as bell peppers, olives, carrots, and potatoes. Everything is cooked with the usual Filipino aromatics like garlic and onions. In this recipe, we're using chicken thighs (also called chicken drumsticks)

Caldereta Recipe

Being the only Filipino residing in the immediate area, Chef Morris feels the weight of responsibility to make Filipino cuisine known and appreciated.

That is what Chef Morris has been doing in Sicily for the past three years-promoting Filipino flavors and fleshing out the stories behind them.

Chef Morris Danzen on Filipino-rooted cooking

The San Miguel Corporation is one of the biggest companies in the Philippines and today it dominates 90% of the beer market in the country.

When Enrique María Barretto was given the royal grant to brew beer in 1890, the Philippines was still a Spanish colony, but there was growing support on the islands for Filipino independence.

A Story of Filipino Beer, a Story of the Philippines