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ANNOUNCER: And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

CHANG: Sisig... Adobo... Kare-kare... Ube.

Filipino cuisine, a true culinary fusion just like the history of the Philippines itself.

A variety of Asian influences, plus Pan-Asian through Filipino origins.

Filipino food is growing in popularity in the U.S. Due to the efforts of several young entrepreneurs passionate about sharing their heritage, we're being re-introduced to the cuisine through fresh eyes and a sense of Western accessibility.

Filipinos are the second largest demographic of Asians in America.

I've always wondered, then, why don't we know more about their cuisine?

As the Philippines are comprised of such diverse regions, each with their own specialty dishes, I'm on a quest to learn more.

Nicole Ponceca and I have been friends for a while.

We're both Asian women who changed careers because we wanted to share stories of our heritage through food.

NICOLE: Filipino food is fusion by nature.

It can be described by big, bold flavors of salty, sour, acidic through vinegar or citrus.

CHANG: I'm so excited, 'cause this is actually the first place that I've ever had Filipino food.

Can you believe it?

-NICOLE: Is that right?

-CHANG: Yeah.

-NICOLE: That's crazy.

-CHANG: [ Laughs ] NICOLE: That's awesome.

I love to hear that.

You know, when we first opened, it was really our mission to introduce Filipino food to people who've never had it before.

CHANG: Right.

NICOLE: And Jeepney is actually our second restaurant.

It's a sister to our first restaurant, Maharlika.

CHANG: Right.

NICOLE: And we always like to say Jeepney is like the brother to Maharlika, the sister.

-CHANG: Oh!

-NICOLE: And Maharlika's a place where you can bring dates and family and brunch.

In here's where you get down.

We get down and dirty.

-CHANG: [ Laughs ] NICOLE: We do kamayan, you eat with your hands.

And, I mean, just from the look of it, all the steel, it's really an homage to Jeepneys, which are our taxis in the Philippines.

-CHANG: Oh, cool.

How fun.

-NICOLE: Yeah.

It's just so dear to our hearts, and really kind of part of the culture.

CHANG: Well, I love how you, like, really infused a lot of the culture, you know, into your restaurants.

I want to know more about what Filipino food is all about.

NICOLE: You know, pre-Colonial Philippines was about in the 1500s.

-CHANG: Uh-huh.

NICOLE: Before Spain, you had a matriarchal society.

It was very self-sufficient.

We were one with nature.

You know, you can almost liken it to, like, Native American.

Lots of different tribes.

Spain comes, and we introduce Catholicism, language, patriarchal society.

-CHANG: Mm-hmm.

NICOLE: And, of course, spoon and forks and techniques, different techniques of cooking and spices and stuff.

And main Filipino food we know is Tagalog food, maybe.

-CHANG: Uh-huh.

NICOLE: Central Philippines, which includes Luzon and the Visayan Islands.

So, hold up.

Back up.

-CHANG: Okay.

NICOLE: There's 7,000 islands.

-CHANG: Yeah.

-NICOLE: Spain comes, Central Philippines and the Visayan Islands.

And you see such a rich influence of that.

-CHANG: Yeah.

-NICOLE: But the northern part, like where my mom's from -- she's from Ilocos Norte -- it's not like that at all.

You see a lot more fermented fish, funky, smelly, salty... -CHANG: Yummy.

-NICOLE: The good stuff.

-CHANG: [ Laughs ] -NICOLE: I mean, we love it all.

-CHANG: Right.

-NICOLE: But it gets very -- you see, it gets a lot more funky in the north.

-CHANG: Uh-huh.

-NICOLE: And then in south -- Moro or in Danao -- it's more Muslim.

There it's, like, the spice trade.

The cinnamon, star anise.

-CHANG: Yes.

NICOLE: And, you know, we go through different menu iterations and introduce different things.

-CHANG: Yeah.

-NICOLE: But that's the base.

I hope you're hungry.

-CHANG: I'm starving.

NICOLE: Really?

Okay, good.

It's gonna be a big tropical feast.

Banana leaves, the whole nine yards.

And I can't do it alone.

CHANG: Take me behind the scenes.

-NICOLE: Awesome!

-CHANG: Cool.

NICOLE: This is a traditional kamayan feast.

We're gonna eat with our hands.

And...I mean, have you had Filipino food before?

Have you, Chef?

-SUSUR: Oh, I have, yes.

I think it's so amazing.

It's such, like, a true fusion of Asia.

NICOLE: Right.

Yeah.

Danielle and I were just talking about that earlier, all the influences.

CHANG: Exactly.

Have you ever seen this, though?

-SUSUR: No, no.

-NICOLE: [ Laughs ] SUSUR: I'm trying to figure it out.

CHANG: I know.

Like, what is this?

How do you eat this?

SUSUR: It's like a cultural buffet happening.

-NICOLE: Yeah.

-SUSUR: You know, I see, like, sausages from Spain.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

-NICOLE: You're totally right.

I mean, that's longanisa, and in Spanish it's called longanisa.

A similar sausage is found in Brazil or Portugal.

It's a sweeter, garlicky sausage.

Yeah.

CHANG: What else do you see?

SUSUR: I see some Chinese techniques like frying fish.

And also, of course, you know, the Malay also have a lot of influence.

You know, like braised oxtail.

Probably looks like coconut milk in it.

I haven't tasted it yet.

-CHANG: Right.

SUSUR: Does it look like, a coconut...?

NICOLE: Dude, you're spot-on.

SUSUR: Oh, my God.

I know what I'm talking about!

-NICOLE: It's peanut butter.

We call it kare-kare, or curry.

SUSUR: Oh, kare-kare.

-NICOLE: Yeah.

It's cute.

-SUSUR: I like that.

It sounds so cute.

-NICOLE: Yeah.

Kare-kare.

NICOLE: Then here, this is called chicharon bulaklak.

And if you guys want to try it, you can dip it in the vinegar.

And bulaklak means "flower."

So, it's like a chicharon blooming flower.

It is offals.

It's pork intestine deep fried, and we usually dip it in vinegar and put some of the calamansi on there.

SUSUR: Mmm.

Talking about calamansi, I think it's my favorite citrus in the whole world.

NICOLE: Wow!

SUSUR: Because the citrus has such a nice flavor.

Cross between a lime, a lemon, a tangerine, and also... -NICOLE: Mandarin.

-SUSUR: ...a mandarin.

-NICOLE: Yeah.

SUSUR: It's like everything at once.

How great is that?

-CHANG: Yeah.

-SUSUR: Chef.

-MIGUEL: Hey, guys.

-CHANG: What's up?

SUSUR: This is so beautiful.

MIGUEL: Beautiful like a Filipino woman.

SUSUR: I like that.

[ Laughter ] MIGUEL: This is love by sisig.

Sisig is a traditional dish of the Philippines.

It was created in Pampanga, which is known for their chefs.

And this was created as a hangover dish.

SUSUR: Ohh.

It is like, after hangover, you must have this.

MIGUEL: Absolutely.

NICOLE: Hangover and leftover dish.

MIGUEL: Hangover and leftovers.

So, it's combination of pork belly, ear, snout, cheek, liver.

And it all comes together with a little bit of vinegar, which is suka, and some calamansi.

Thrown in a sizzling pan, all mixed together, and you get this beautiful pork hash.

NICOLE: So, do you guys want to try the sisig?

Try the hash?

-CHANG: Yes.

NICOLE: So, there's actually a way -- how to eat with your hands in the Philippines.

It's not just like this random, or like this.

There's a technique that we all kind of learn as kids from our parents.

And you push your rice together, and then take a little bit of meat.

I'm gonna take a little bit of the longanisa.

-SUSUR: Yeah.

-NICOLE: Pull off a piece.

-SUSUR: The sausage.

-NICOLE: Yeah.

Then dip it in the vinegar.

And it's almost like your own sushi bite.

[ Chuckles ] You push it like this.

With your thumb.

-SUSUR: Yes.

-NICOLE: And super-clean.

SUSUR: I did not know Filipinos eat with hands.

I thought they are using a spoon and a fork.

NICOLE: And that's when Spain came in.

-SUSUR: Okay.

-NICOLE: But, if you notice, they didn't give us knives.

-SUSUR: Right.

NICOLE: Because we're really good with our knives.

[ Laughs ] -SUSUR: It's true.

NICOLE: Yeah.

MIGUEL: So, moving on to the next thing, we have our lumpia.

And lumpia is Filipino version of a spring roll, so to speak.

It's pork and beef, and we add a little bit of Shaoxing to it.

That's our little take on it, just to pump up that flavor.

If there's one thing about Filipino flavors, that it's a punch in the mouth.

So, you're always gonna have layers of flavor, and it's gonna linger as a long finish.

Finally, we have the dampa.

Dampa, we marinate it in a combination of soy, ginger, garlic, and lemongrass.

And we let that sit for about 24 hours before we dredge it, fry it, present it with an escabeche.

And a dampa in the Philippines is the market.

So we have the fish market of the day.

-NICOLE: Wet market.

-MIGUEL: The wet market.

NICOLE: It's where the yayas, our housekeepers, or our lolas would go, and they buy the vegetables of the day, the fresh meats and the fish.

So, this is our take on the fried fish.

We call it dampa.

Dampa fish.

-SUSUR: So cute.

-NICOLE: Yeah.

[ Laughs ] SUSUR: I like the Philippine wording for food.

It sounds so cute, everything.

-NICOLE: Yeah.

SUSUR: Like from this one.

What do you call this?

NICOLE: Dinuguan.

Our chocolate meat.

-SUSUR: And this one?

-NICOLE: That's kare-kare.

SUSUR: And this one?

What'd you say that is?

-NICOLE: Lumpia.

-SUSUR: Lumpia.

It's so cute.

-NICOLE: Yeah.

[ Laughs ] -SUSUR: Lot of cute words.

MIGUEL: All right, guys.

So, let's eat.

CHANG: All right, well, I've already been doing that.

[ Laughs ] So good.

WOMAN: I do have to say, this is excellent.

MIGUEL: To finalize this whole meal... -SUSUR: Yeah?

-MIGUEL: Guys.

MAN: Balut!

[ All yell ] MIGUEL: Here we have balut.

It's a duck egg that's 11 to 14 days from hatching.

So there is a little embryo in there.

There's a delicious little embryo in there.

SUSUR: How do you feel about that?

WOMAN: Mm... [ Laughter ] NICOLE: So, I'm gonna peel mine just to the edge, where the egg starts showing.

-CHANG: Okay.

NICOLE: And you're gonna sip the sabao, or soup.

It's so natural, and... SUSUR: It's like a consommé of a duck.

WOMAN: That's good.

CHANG: I love the egg yolk.

-SUSUR: So sweet.

So natural.

-NICOLE: Yeah.

SUSUR: I just love the fact that, you know, the food is so succulent.

You know, like from stir-frying from the Chinese, braising, slow cooking from -- you know, also Indian and Malay influences.

-NICOLE: And Spanish.

-SUSUR: And Spanish.

Eating with the hands, obviously, is from the Malay, and also the Indian.

-NICOLE: Right.

SUSUR: That's what I love about learning about food and culture.

Because from eating it, that education, you know -- sometimes, you know, you read.

It's a different thing while -- it's really -- you're eating and tasting and knowing it.

It's just completely a different thing.

Cheers.

-NICOLE: Cheers.

-SUSUR: Thank you.

-NICOLE: Salamat.

What a great journey.

-CHANG: Yes.

-MIGUEL: Mabuhay!

-TOGETHER: Mabuhay!

CHANG: Before heading up the coast to the Bay Area of San Francisco, I wanted to taste the sweet delights of a young Filipino baker making her mark on the L.A. food scene.

[ Door bells jingle ] -KRISTINE: Hey, how are you?

-CHANG: Good.

How are you?

KRISTINE: Good.

This your first time here?

-CHANG: It is.

-KRISTINE: Oh, awesome.

CHANG: But a friend of mine from L.A.'s been raving about you guys for the months.

So I decided to check it out.

KRISTINE: Oh, fantastic!

Well, we are Crème Caramel custard bakery.

We do custards and confections.

It's based on our Filipino leche flan.

Our crème caramel, our bread pudding, our upside-down pie all has our mother custard of the Filipino custard.

-CHANG: It looks gorgeous.

-KRISTINE: Thank you.

-CHANG: This must be ube.

KRISTINE: It is ube.

It's that purple yam from the Philippines.

And we use it in a lot of stuff.

CHANG: Well, I'd love to try it.

KRISTINE: Oh, yeah.

Absolutely.

Not only can you try it, but we have ube crème caramel that we're about to set up in the back, so I'd be happy to show that to you.

-CHANG: Oh, I'd love that.

-KRISTINE: Oh, yeah.

Absolutely.

Come on, follow me.

-CHANG: Thank you.

-KRISTINE: After you.

-CHANG: Okay.

KRISTINE: So, this beautiful color... -CHANG: Oh, that's gorgeous.

-KRISTINE: Isn't it great?

CHANG: Yeah, it's like a kaleidoscope.

KRISTINE: It's a really beautiful tye-dyed color before it's even prepared.

But once it's heated up, it's this beautiful purple color, so it ends up being like that.

-CHANG: That is so intense.

KRISTINE: Once we have the roasted ube, we hand-blend it, and we put it through a food processor to break up the fibers.

After it's all processed, it looks like this.

At first, we didn't know if people were gonna be really receptive to it, but people have really embraced the ube.

-CHANG: Mmm.

-KRISTINE: Isn't it delicious?

-CHANG: It's so sweet already.

-KRISTINE: It is.

And you don't have to add anything to it.

We're gonna get started on our custard.

So, it starts off with some eggs and egg yolks.

And I like to whisk them.

And then I'm gonna add that sugar in.

And this is the element that makes it the Filipino custard -- condensed milk.

Traditional French custard is cooked over a stovetop... and does not have condensed milk.

It's just milk and cream.

But Filipino custard does have condensed milk.

It makes it really rich, and definitely a lot sweeter than a traditional French custard.

CHANG: Did you grow up cooking these recipes?

How did you learn how to make all of these desserts here?

KRISTINE: My mom, actually, she is the baker and the cook in our house.

CHANG: You know, what I think is so great is there's this huge community of young Filipino entrepreneurs that are coming out and telling the story of their heritage through food.

KRISTINE: Yeah.

Well, we have been really lucky to be in this generation that is really trying to talk about Filipino food a lot more.

I'm gonna add the cream.

CHANG: What's your most popular flavor here?

KRISTINE: Hands down, the three popular desserts that we have is our vanilla crème caramel, our ube upside-down pie, and our vanilla bread pudding.

At this point, we could add vanilla extract and this would be crème caramel or leche flan.

Go ahead.

CHANG: Beautiful.

KRISTINE: Nice lavender purple color.

CHANG: Uh-huh.

KRISTINE: We start off with a sugar, water, and lemon juice base and that's it.

Now it's hard.

But once it cooks in the oven, it'll just melt and become a caramel sauce.

CHANG: Ooh.

KRISTINE: That is our ube crème caramel.

CHANG: Love the lavender color.

It's perfect.

Mmm.

Very smooth.

And I love the texture of the ube.

KRISTINE: Oh, I'm glad you like it so much.

CHANG: I'm going up to see P.J.

from the Filipino Food Movement.

KRISTINE: Oh, fantastic.

Well, let me get you an ube latte to take with you on the road.

-CHANG: Great.

Thank you.

KRISTINE: Right this way.

After you.

CHANG: Heading up the coast of California, home of the largest Filipino community in America, I'm always amazed by the trend-setting food culture in the San Francisco area.

I'm eager to hear from P.J.

Quesada, founder of the Filipino Food Movement, whose goal is to make its cuisine as popular in America as are other Asian cuisines.

P.J., you know, I think it's remarkable that unlike, say, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, or other Asian cuisines, it's taken this long for a new generation of young, inspired people to really change the impression and impact that Filipino cuisine has in America.

You know, you weren't even born in the Philippines, you don't speak Tangaluk.

What made you decide to make the Filipino Food Movement your personal mission?

P.J.

: I think for me personally, I always think of my mom's cooking, I think of gathering around the family, I think of going back to the Philippines and visiting with the rest of my huge family for Christmas and New Year's.

And food is that one thing that always drew everybody together.

And that's definitely not unique to Filipino culture.

-CHANG: Uh-huh.

P.J.

: But that's what makes it so personal for me.

CHANG: Mm-hmm.

P.J.

: And when you contrast it to other Asian cuisines like Chinese or Japanese or Thai, I think it's really a question of timing.

The Chinese immigrants were here first.

Then the Japanese immigrants came.

-CHANG: Mm-hmm.

-P.J.

: So, given that the big wave of Philippine immigration really didn't start until the early to mid-20th century, looking at how long it takes -- at least from an anthropological standpoint, how long it takes for a cuisine to really permeate, we're about on schedule.

Maybe a little bit late, in true Filipino fashion.

CHANG: [ Laughs ] P.J.

: But we have some new tools at our disposal.

I think we have an opportunity to leverage social media.

And, you know, Filipinos, we're huge on social media.

We're, like, one of the biggest users of social media.

And I think, equally, there is a generation of chefs and manufacturers and foodies and writers and authors and even TV personalities who do understand that there is something really valuable in Filipino cuisine, and they're doing their best to push it out.

So what we're trying to do is build kind of this central message that anybody can adopt and, you know, kind of jump on the bandwagon so to speak.

So they can really kind of coast together on that wave of critical mass.

CHANG: Now, I've always been curious why Filipino cuisine isn't more popular, especially in America, or in California, where Filipinos are the largest demographic of Asian-Americans.

P.J.

: It's interesting that you bring that up.

I think that's probably, really, the million-dollar question.

Everybody has a huge range of answers.

In our journey, we've learned a couple of things that we know to be true, and it's still an ongoing dialogue.

But I think there's really three reasons.

The first is that, unlike a lot of the other Asian demographics that came to this country, Filipinos came speaking English, in most cases pretty fluently, because that was one of the main languages being taught in schools in the Philippines.

CHANG: Right.

P.J.

: And that enabled Filipinos here to assimilate so much differently and so much more quickly that it really changed how they built their infrastructure and their communities, and really changed how the purpose of those community buildings really happened.

The second, I think, is -- and I rattle cages a lot with this part.

I think Filipinos actually played a big hand in not promoting their cuisine properly.

CHANG: Huh.

How so?

P.J.

: Filipino food, just like all other countries, is highly regional, and the regions sometimes, you know, butt heads a little bit about whose is best.

But that carried over from the Philippines to here.

So the result was, you have Filipinos essentially not supporting their own countrymen's food because they honestly thought that theirs or their moms or their region's was superior.

And I think the third, and probably the most important, the one we can address best, is education.

-CHANG: Mm-hmm.

P.J.

: Filipino cuisine is a mix of Spanish influences and other Asian influences, as well as a heavy foundation of native, indigenous Filipino influences.

CHANG: Mm-hmm.

P.J.

: But when you have all these Spanish words and, you know, things like lumpia, which is clearly a Chinese spring roll that's just been Philippinized, it's not obvious how these things are distinct.

So people don't have a compartment to really put Filipino food, and therefore they can't fully embrace it, and they can't go looking for it.

So, just the fact that it's hard to understand what it is has stunted the growth.

So with all those three scenarios, you pretty much have a perfect storm for how to make it really difficult to promote a particular type of cuisine.

I've got quite a treat for you.

-CHANG: Yeah?

P.J.

: There's a lot of awesome Filipino restaurants in the area, but there's really one that comes to mind when I'm thinking about how it's bringing Filipino flavors and Filipino cuisine and textures and ingredients and presenting them in a way that's really open to a completely broad audience.

CHANG: Huh.

And what's that?

P.J.

: It's called Attic.

TIM: We're doing Pan-Asian sweet foods -- Pan-Asian tapas with a focus on Filipino foods.

So, about half or over half the menu, at some points, is actually Filipino dishes.

CHANG: One of the biggest chef advocates for Filipino food is Chef Tim Luym.

P.J.

brought me to experience what he calls the best, and also some of the most accessible, Filipino cuisine in the Bay Area.

What's this?

Are these buffalo wings?

TIM: So, adobo.

Everyone makes their own adobo.

And, you know, every Filipino household has their own version of adobo, and you can't win, because someone's mom is always gonna make it better.

Someone else is gonna always make it better.

So I said, "Hey," like, "we're gonna think outside the box, and we're gonna make an adobo wing."

And so it's something that hasn't been done before.

And when we presented this, no one could really compare it to anything, so they couldn't say, "I can make a better one."

And so we won that battle.

-CHANG: Can I try it?

-TIM: Yeah.

Let's dig in.

So, the saltiness and the greasiness and the acidity is great for drinking food.

-CHANG: Mmm.

TIM: And so it kind of just complements everything here.

P.J.

: The wing format in general is just great for bar food.

CHANG: So, what are some of your favorite Filipino foods?

TIM: Well, the salpicao is probably one of my favorite.

And this is another pica-pica one.

CHANG: Pica-pica means small food?

Small eats, or...?

TIM: Yeah, just like bar bites.

And, so, this is cubed filet mignon.

Put some leeks in there for that extra flavor, lots of garlic, and then we finish it off with the calamansi.

Squeeze a little bit on top.

CHANG: Like, the calamansi, is that grown locally?

TIM: Yes.

This is all grown locally.

You found a farm.

-P.J.

: Yeah.

I was completely blown away to find that there's actually a small local farm that's got about 2,000 calamansi trees.

TIM: Before he even told me about this -- see, I have friends who have calamansi trees in their back yard.

There's a market in Sunnyvale I have to go to, because an old lady barters her calamansi for some soaps and stuff like that.

And so I used to have to go there to get my supply of calamansi.

And so we'd gab here and there.

But for the most part, yeah, the calamondin tree is here and people are growing it, so...

P.J.

: I think that's one of the critical flavors of Filipino cuisine.

Would you agree?

It's really that sourness.

TIM: Right.

Right, right.

CHANG: Tim, how do you adapt your recipes to appeal to a wider audience?

TIM: Well, what I do is modernize it.

So, maybe through the plate up, something that pops to the diner.

Also using local ingredients.

It keeps the cultural identity of what the dish would be if you ate it there.

I'm lucky that I'm able to create something like this, the sisig.

And this started out on a secret menu years ago.

In a nutshell, it's a pig's head, a pig's face.

CHANG: There's that gross-out factor, for sure, when you say "face."

TIM: So we call it on the menu a pork medley, because it's not a lie.

But it's a medley of pork pieces and parts.

CHANG: Tricking people to eat some face?

-TIM: Yes.

It's like Jedi mind-tricking you, you know?

This is a perfect example of how I've made it more palatable to Americans.

Instead of just pig's face, and the ears for all the crunch, we add a little bit of the pork shoulder, and so it makes it a little bit meatier.

All right, we're gonna go ahead and mix egg into this pork.

When the U.S. had a lot of army bases in the Philippines, you know, they'd eat the pork belly for bacon, they'd eat the ribs.

So, you had a surplus of these pig's heads, and so the natives -- I mean, it's a third-world country.

You have to be resourceful.

You have to be creative.

And so they'll take the head, chop it up, sauté it, put it on a sizzling platter.

And there's many versions of this.

You have versions that have gravies, mayonnaise.

This one here, you know, we crack an egg on top.

P.J.

: It originally actually had the pig brain on it.

And that was definitely too much for even the most die-hard eaters.

So the egg seems to have replaced the brain as that kind of gooey liquid.

But the sizzling sisig has been one of those hit dishes that crossed over, and I don't think anybody could have seen that coming.

CHANG: Yeah.

Well, in the Philippines, is it considered squeamish to eat pig's face?

-P.J.

: No, this is a snack.

-CHANG: Snack, yeah.

[ Laughter ] TIM: Aha!

Here we go.

So, this here, this is the killer.

Death By Pork.

The highlight here is the crispy pata.

And so this is a pork's knuckle.

Just carve it off the bone.

We have the pork belly here, lechon kawali, and then chicarones that we spiced with some sinigang.

CHANG: What's sinigang?

TIM: It's a quintessential dish in the Philippines, which is tamarind, guava, or sour-based, acid-based soup.

P.J.

: It's a sour soup.

TIM: And so we tie it on with this because there's so much good Filipino food you don't know what to order.

So I'm just like, "You're gonna order, you're gonna have it all."

So you don't have to even think.

CHANG: I like your thinking.

P.J.

: So tender.

All that meat looks so good.

TIM: The gelatin in the tendon.

I'll go ahead and serve you guys, here.

P.J.

: I love how you call it Death By Pork, because you're not hiding the fact that this is all fried pork.

[ Tim laughs ] A lot of people view Filipino cuisine as being inherently unhealthy.

Death By Pork is probably the best example I could think of.

[ Laughter ] But the truth is is that, you know, the Philippines is a land of great vegetables, we've got amazing rice, tons of seafood.

That, at its heart, is not unhealthy.

But if you want health food, go to a health-food place, okay?

Americans like their fried pork just as much as Filipinos do.

So this is kind of what's been leading the charge, I guess you could say.

CHANG: You know, what do you want people to take away from eating here?

TIM: That, you know, Filipino food is great and wonderful and palatable, and it just...It should be in every household.

CHANG: Through this journey, I've learned so much more about Filipino culture and its food by talking with individuals at the cutting edge, expanding Filipino cuisine.

But as Asian food grows in popularity across the U.S., and our palates evolve and embrace funkier flavors, this is setting the stage for Filipino cuisine to be the next big Asian food sensation.

ANNOUNCER: To learn more about "Lucky Chow," please visit luckyrice.com.

Funding for "Lucky Chow" has been provided by... From the kitchen to the grill, Soy Vay sauces and marinades add an Asian twist to your favorite dishes.

[ Bell dings ] Recipes and more are available at soyvay.com.

MAN: The way of Thai -- our way of unique happiness, and it begins with the people.

ANNOUNCER: And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.