Sampling Filipino Night Club Food with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Sampling Filipino Night Club Food with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

We have always had a Filipino restaurant that doubles as a nightclub at night in one of our strip malls in Marina, California that does karaoke, dancing, and dinner.

The nightclub has changed names and owners over the past twenty years that I have lived in the neighborhood, but Filipino nightclubs resemble one another as does the food, so I am writing up a nostalgic restaurant review about the spot where I discovered Filipino food with my daughter Florence that no longer exists.

The review for Fiesta Manila is an excellent introduction to Filipino food.  The following restaurant review appeared in The Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200, 000):

Love that Lumpia

Hidden in a U-shaped mall off Reservation Road in Marina (California).  Fiesta Manila has been quietly perfecting its Filipino Cuisine – one of the world’s first fusion cuisines.  All the customers at the restaurant were Filipino the day I went, which I took as a sign that the food must be as tasty as what they would cook at home.

I used the “turo-turo” system of pointing at what I wanted to order from the hot table in this small eatery that evokes the “carinderias” that dot the 7, 000 islands of the Philippines.  Fiesta Manila’s co-owner advised me that the portions easily serve two as she set out a Rabelaisian feast for my daughter Florence and me.

Menu items change daily at Fiesta Manila, but lumpia, pancit, and pork adobo are always offered.  Lumpia, the egg rolls of the Philippines made with the same ingredients as their Chinese cousins, get spiced up with sweet-chili dip here.

Pancit, savory transparent rice noodles stir-fried with scallions, green beans, and carrots reflects another Chinese contribution to Philippine cuisine.  The dish gets its bright, orange color and flavor from a sauce of shrimp juice and annatto seeds.

Fiesta Manila serves scrumptious pork adobo, the national dish of the Philippines.  Pork adobo is made from vinegar, soy sauce, and garilic.  This stewing sauce does not taste sour.  It has a slightly tangy-savory flavor.  Reynaldo Alejandro speculates in The Philippine Cookbook that Mexican puerco en adobo is related to a Spanish dish brought to the islands.

The restaurant’s longanisa sausage recalls Spain’s pork, garlic, and paprika sausages.  These sausages were mild-flavored and tasted great with the coconut juice I ordered.

The restaurant’s longanisa sausage recalls Spain’s pork, garlic, and paprika sausages.  These sausages are mild-flavored and tasted great with the coconut juice that I ordered.

These Spanish also brought beef from the Americas and other foods like tomatoes and peppers to the South Seas; they show up in Fiesta Manila’s unctuous mechado beef stew made with soy sauce.

The owner also served us indigenous Malay fare in a dish called lanka, otherwise known as jackfruit stew.  I had never eaten this before.  It reminded me of tender, somewhat sour artichoke hearts.

The stew is made with coconut milk and shrimp paste.  The coconut milk tempers the pungent flavor of the shrimp paste, leaving a sweet tang in the mouth.

A Philippine meal would not be without fish, and I loved the crunchy, tart taste of the bangus milkfish.  The owner told me that San Miguel beer from the Philippines goes well with this food.

Next, I tried pinkabet, which the owner’s wife suggests for vegetarian guests in addition to stir-fried soy, which her husband whips up in the kitchen.  Pinkabet could be described as a Southeast Asian ratatouille.  It is made with squash, spinach, eggplant, bitter melon, and green beans in a shrimp-flavored sauce.  The sweetness of the squash balances the bitter taste of the melon.

The owner’s wife asked me to try sin-kiang soup.  Tamarind juice polishes off this soup made with barbecued ribs.  The salty, sweet pork had a caramelized crust and tasted better than lollipops.  One thing that I noticed about Filipino food is that it is mild unlike the chili-hot dishes of many Southeast Asian countries.

The one dish I did not care for was the Filipino fried rice.  The scallions, corn, and carrots in the brown rice made it look appetizing, but it was bland.  I prefer salty, hot flavors, so other people might find that rice to be just fine.

You should leave room for “Halo-Halo” dessert.  “Halo” means “mix” in Tagalog, which is exactly what goes into this layered Filipino sundae of caramel custard, diced gelatin, presented jackfruit, ice cream, crushed ice, and sweetened beans.  The crushed ice makes it taste lighter than it is.

I must say that I had never thought of using caramel custard in a sundae before, but it certainly marries well with ice cream.

I am more interested in food and ambience, so the utilitarian décor did not bother me.  I was more impressed with the Holy Child altar above the cash register than the linoleum floor, which was perfectly clean.

End of Article

Just as a note – there is starting to be an American food writing tradition that I feel has been established with these books:

M.F.K. Fisher

Laurie Colwin

Mark Kurlansky

Jay Jacobs

Colman Andrews

Anthony Bourdain

Ruth Reichel

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Teen in China, and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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Sampling Filipino Family Food with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Sampling Filipino Family Food with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Strip malls have many good ethnic restaurants in them.  They usually have lots of parking without time limits, modern plumbing in the restrooms and kitchens, and larger dining areas, so the tables do not have to be tightly wedged together.

As I drove my daughter Florence home from her charter Waldorf School in Pacific Grove one day, I looked for the Filipino Restaurant my Filipina co-worker told me about and queried the editor at the Monterey County Weekly  (Circulation: 200,000) to do a review.   This was the year 2000.  I am not quite sure they knew what that cuisine was, but wanted to find out. 

So, off I went with my family to try another Asian cuisine.  The following is the Weekly article I wrote:

Filipino Feast: Lola’s Kusina Serves up South Seas Island Charm

When my Filipina co-worker told me that she eats lunch at least once a week at the newly opened Lola’s Kitchen, I knew I would have to try it.

The restaurants hot table with 20 steaming entrées appears daunting at first, but the chef quickly explains the various delicacies.  Choosing among Lola’s many offerings is a first-class problem.

The owner of Lola’s was introduced to the cuisine of the Philippines was introduced to the cuisine of the Philippines by his Filipina wife.  He said they make all their dishes fresh every day at 11 am with new batches cooked up two hours after that.

We chose the two-item combination plate, which comes with rice or pancit, Filipino rice noodles.  My husband Laurent ordered coconut juice, and I ordered a chocolate energy drink called Milo.

We chose the two-item combination plate, which comes with either rice or pancit, Filipino rice noodles.

My husband Laurent ordered coconut juice, and I ordered a chocolate energy drink called Milo.

Florence ordered à la carte; two lumpia, Filipino egg rolls and one entrée of rice.  We used the Filipino “turo-turo” method loosely translated as “point-pint,” to order our food.

My two entrées were salted pork cooked with shrimp paste and kare-kare, beef-and-tripe in peanut butter sauce.  The shrimp paste called bagoong, made from salted and fermented shrimp, gave the pork a sweet taste.  I almost thought the dish contained coconut milk due to the salty-sweet flavor.

I liked the kare-kare a little less, but that is because I did not know how to season it.  I was expecting the peanut sauce to be hot and spicy like Thai peanut sauces.

I had forgotten that Filipino food, unlike its Southeast Asian cousins feature mild flavors.  A quick look in Reynaldo Alejandro’s The Philippine Cookbook reveals that diners usually add bagoong to this dish at the table.

That would no doubt add a sweet, salty tang to the spongy tripe and beef salad over green beans and boiled eggplant.

My husband and daughter both selected adobo, the national dish of the Philippines.  Adobo refers to a method of cooking with soy sauce, white wine vinegar, garlic, and peppercorns.

The vinegar mellows as it cooks and helps preserve food in a tropical climate.  The chicken and ingredients boil together, but then the chicken is usually broiled while the sauce gets reduced before being added back to the chicken.

In Lola’s version of this dish, there remains a slight tang of vinegar along with a sweet taste, when makes me suspect that some sugar goes into the preparation.

Diners skeptical about trying Filipino food would probably like the mechado, a beef stew, which Laurent ordered as his second entrée.  Basically, this is a dish of boiled beef with tomatoes, bell peppers, and potatoes that have been cooked with soy sauce and seasoned with garlic.  There is just enough salt in this dish to bring out the full flavors of the meat and the vegetables.

Diners new to Filipino cuisine would probably like the pancit (rice noodles) that Laurent chose instead of rice to accompany his order.  Boiled pork gets simmered with the noodles, along with shrimp, scallions, and whatever vegetable the chef might like to add that day.  The savory, slick noodles are like an entrée by themselves.

Florence’s dish was made up of long, thin lumpia egg rolls that came stuffed with ground beef, carrots, corn, and peas.  Since my daughter does not care for these vegetables, she did not like the lumpia even though she ate them to be polite.

The owner suggested that on her next visit, she might try the Shanghai lumpia made with ground pork as these contain no vegetables that a child might dislike.

Florence liked the homemade leche flan better than her vegetables.  Lola’s thick flan is homemade and exudes a delicious juice that tempts you to ask for a spoon to get every drop.

Laurent ordered this as well and declared it too rich to eat at one setting.  It went into a take-home container for midnight snacking.

I ordered maya blanca, which does not appear on the menu.  It certainly pays to ask, “What desserts do you have today?” in a place like Lola’s where things are being freshly made throughout the day.

Lola’s version of maya blanca turned out to be a thick, coconut pudding cake made with sweet corn.

The corn gave the dessert texture.  I thought that putting vegetables in pudding form might get our daughter to eat some of them.  This was another dessert that I took home for midnight snacking.

Lola’s Kusina features a special “Seafood Day” on Fridays, but the owner is quick to point out that the restaurant serves seafood daily.

End of Article

Books you might want to look at for information on Filipino cuisine:

-7,000 Islands: A Food Portrait of the Philippines by Yasmin Newman

-The Philippine Cookbook by Reynaldo Alejandro

Note:  Lola’s Kusina is small, buy maybe they could do a reserve-ahead-and-pick up system for sandwiches.  I like fried bangus fish – maybe that could be turned into a sandwich with a pumpkin muffin with nuts and a gazpacho.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Teen in China, and Marrying France

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Attending a Filipino Festival with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget in Salinas (California)

Attending a Filipino Festival with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget in Salinas (California)


“Not another festival!” my pre-teen daughter Florence cried.  I thought she was suffering from festival fatigue syndrome.

I was undaunted in my efforts to make Florence into a world citizen however.  “Oh, come on.  You’ll like Filipino food,” I said.

“No, I won’t,” she said and ran to see my husband Laurent to get out of the excursion.

Before Laurent could say anything, I volunteered to drive to the Steinbeck Center in Salinas where the Filipino Festival was taking place and pay for lunch.

“We get to leave after 20 minutes if it’s boring, right?” Florence said on the way there.

“If it’s boring,” I said.  I knew she would become interested in what was happening as the day wore on.

When we arrived at the Filipino Festival, I noticed that almost all of the attendees were Filipino unlike the Greek, Turkish, and Sicilian Santa Rosalia Festivals held on the Monterey Harbor.  Those three festivals had many tourists attend them. 

Many of the beautiful, dark-haired women wore long, flowered formal dresses with the stiff sleeves that puff up at the shoulder.  They looked like graceful butterflies flitting about the festival with children and grandchildren.

The long lines at the food booth moved slowly.  The food smelled so good at the Filipino Festival, however, that people patiently waited their turn.  Florence was impatient with the wait.

“Why don’t you go for a walk with your dad,” I suggested.

I was trying to decide what to order.  The names meant nothing to me except adobo.  I had eaten adobe, a kind of stew, before.  I tried to attach names to the delicious looking dishes that people were ordering, but everyone was speaking Tagalog, which hampered my efforts.

When I got close enough to see what was happening behind the scenes, I saw a man tossing noodles and vegetables in a three-foot wok.  I was going to order that – pointing would help me there.

Finally, it was my turn.  The mystery noodle dish turned out to be pancit.  I ordered that, a serving of chicken adobo, and two egg rolls called lumpia Shanghai with two waters and a soda for Florence.  I was happy with the Filipino sampler menu I had put together.

The thin rice noodles in pancit reflect the Chinese influence on Filipino food.  (The Filipinos themselves have intermingled Malay, Chinese, and Spanish roots.)

“Did you know that the Philippines are named after a Spanish king?” I asked Florence.

“No,” Florence responded, more interested in the Filipino dancing than a history lesson.

“The king was Phillip the Second,” I said.

Florence was becoming more interested in the festival as she ate the adobo, which was made with chicken, vinegar, spices, and pork.

Later when I read Reynaldo Alejandro’s The Philippine Cookbook , I saw that he refers to Mexican adobo as the origin of the dish.  Alejandro writes that Spain administered the Philippines as a colony out of Mexico.  Or, was it Filipino cuisine that influenced Mexican cuisine?  Some things in life remain a mystery.

The origin of the long, torpedo-shaped egg rolls I was eating obviously made me think of China with their stuffing of ground pork and onions.  They were crunchy despite mass manufacture for the festival and tasted good dunked in the red, spicy – sweet dipping sauce.

The child dancers left the stage to be replaced by the director of the first all-Filipino cast film called The Debut.

“If we can’t do well in Salinas with an Asian cast, we’ll never make it in Middle America,” the director said.  “So, bring your ‘lolos’ and ‘lolas’ to the film with you!” he told everyone.

“I just learned the words for ‘grandpa’ and ‘grandma’ in Tagalog,” Laurent said.

“Aren’t we going to the cute store?” Florence asked.  As soon as the director finished his sales pitch, we went down to the “Reflections of Asia” market that was a roofed stall covered with palm leaves.

Florence looked at necklaces.  The coral ones seemed to be de rigueur fashion gear for all Filipino young men.  “Always ready to go surfing,” I thought.  I told Florence she could have one if she let me look around in peace.

I gravitated to the book section.  I looked through cookbooks and a beautiful book about Spanish influences on Filipino religious architecture and art.  (The Philippines is Asia’s largest Christian country with more than 80% of the population being Roman Catholic.)  These items were beyond my budget, but I found a small children’s book about José Rizal.  Rizal is the Philippines’ national hero.

“Who’s that?” Florence asked with her coral necklace with a scallop shell on it in hand.

How do you explain a martyred liberation leader to a young Californian?

“He’s José Rizal.  He’s like the Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez of the Philippines,” I said.

“Neat,” Florence responded, having regained her curiosity about other cultures.  I doubted she would remember Rizal’s name, but I would slip the book into her bookshelves to be “discovered” one day.

Florence had outgrown Barbie dolls, but they had several on sale that wore the Filipino dresses with the puffy sleeves that I liked.  I asked the saleswoman what the dresses were called.

“We call them Santa Claras,” she said.  I later read that they are also called “ternos.”

I bought some postcards of the Philippines, too.  The first postcard I bought showed terraced rice fields in the mountains.  I remembered reading a book about them called Rice by an author named Grist at the University of Chicago.  I recalled that maintaining these terraced fields, especially the retaining walls subject to heavy rains, and overseeing irrigation tend to create communal societies.

Another postcard showed the verdant green foliage around the waterfalls on Basilan Island.

Both postcards would go into our family journal along with a write-up of the day’s outing to make Florence a world citizen, who knows about the Philippines.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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