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Filipino Food Popularity
Why is Filipino cuisine very underrated and unknown to non-Filipinos? Especially here in the east coast in the US not too may people know about Filipino food. I know it’s anecdotal but, the most common responses I’ve noticed range from the completely unfamiliar, “What is Filipino food like?”, to the uncertain, “This Filipino friend of mine brought me to their house and we ate something like…”, to the vaguely familiar, “One of my buddies is Filipino and his mom would make lumpia”. That’s it? I don’t understand and I’m quite perturbed of by this.
Is it that Filipinos are apprehensive to share because they think that non-Filipinos would not like the food? Are we ashamed to share? Do we think that Filipino food is not “high class” and not worthy to be served to other non-Filipinos? Is it that there aren’t great restaurateurs and chefs outside the Philippines?
There are lots of great restaurants in the Philippines but here in the NYC area there’s practically none. At least none that I would highly recommend to non-Filipinos who are willing to try Filipino cuisine. None that has a menu that’s friendly to non-Filipinos who are not familiar with the food. The majority of the places here are cafeteria-style (turo-turo), styro to-go platters and plastic utensils. Why is that? I’m not saying that it has to be a fine dining place but just some real plates. There are lots of Cuban and Mexican places that are great places that aren’t expensive yet you still get to sit down and don’t have to point at your food.
Maybe I’m just being idealistic but I don’t think I’m asking for a lot. All I want is to have Filipino food become a choice in the restaurant going public. “So what do you want to eat tonight Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Italian, or Filipino?” or “What’s a good place around here? There’s this good Filipino place a couple blocks away.” Is that too much to ask? Let me know your thoughts.
February 13th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
[…] been thinking about authenticity of Filipino cuisine outside of the Philippines. In a previous post, I talked about popularity of Filipino food outside the Filipino community. I have been navigating […]
February 29th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I think i have an explanation why the Filipino cuisine just is not popular outside RP. In many Filipino restaurants I’ve been to in the US, there hardly is one that really puts a premium on ambiance. Almost all of them are alike - carinderia/turo turo style. Why can’t somebody put up something nice such as the ones in Manila i.e. Barrio Fiesta, Aristocrat, Cabalen to name a few. Looking at what we have here in the US, non-Filipinos will not be encouraged to visit these restaurants. I think the mentality that pervades is still the “instant profit” syndrome. Expatriate Filipinos are a “captive audience” in the US. The Filipino restaurant owner knows very well that Filipinos will patronize his restaurant even without a nice ambiance. But if we want to target non-Filipinos as well, try to invest on making the place look more elegant. That way our cuisine will be on-par with the Thais or Vietnamese in terms of popularity.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:32 pm
jay, I think you’ve hit it on the head right there. Most of the Filipino restaurants that I know of are pretty intimidating for non-Filipinos to go into and try (unless they are with Filipino friends who will help them navigate). One of these days maybe we’ll have that Filipino place that you and I have been dreaming of.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I’m gonna tell you why Filipino cuisine is unknown and will continue to be obscure unless something is done about it. YOu ready? It might be hard to stomach so brace yourselves:
Filipino / Tagalog Restaurants are plain horrible (On so many levels)!!!!
Even the fast food joints like Jollibee or Chow King to me are nothing special! I’m from Chicago and just last week ventured to the Philippine shopping area of West Covina, CA where there are tons of Filipino restaurants and business proprietors in one place (Not like Chicago) and the story is still the same:
Horrible Customer Service + Bad Food = Poor Dining Experience
Customer Service:
1. Lack of Cleanliness / Hygiene
2. Lack of Profesionalism
3. Poor Facilities
Bad Food (Speaks for Itself):
1. Poor Quality (Buffet is NOT Fresh! Or Clean! How many Thai, Japanese or Chinese Restaurants are 100% Buffet like all Filipino restaurants? Ok so maybe a small few are NOT buffet but still…)
2. Sub-Par Taste
Not sure how it is anywhere else in the US other than Cali and Chicago but willing to bet it’s not much different!!!
It’s something about the business approach of Filipinos in the way they operate food service business that makes for such a bad dining experience, and hence, no desire on part of Non-Filipinos to try the food.
It’s bad enough that there are very few places that can deliver AWESOME food and still get away with bad customer service but I haven’t even found that place yet to say the least. Consider some dirty Chinese restaurants that Filipinos LOVE to eat at but still have pretty bad customer service. They’ll still eat there!
Weird I think.
Solution: An operator has to have the sense to go out and deliver a well balanced approach to winning over not just the the Non-Filipinos, but still try to also retain the harshly critical Filipino Foodies like myself! Well balanced to me means: Good Food, Good Portioning, Well Thought Out Menu, KILL THE BUFFET! (Filipinos like to be treated nice and receive fast and courteous family style service too! Were not cattle at a trough!), Good Pricing and most importantly -not sure why I have to emphasize this - CLEANLINESS and HYGIENE!!! Why must all Filipino restaurants have facilities like were still living 2 doors next to a dirty Palengke?!?!? We live in America where the dining choices for Filipinos has now gravitated away from Filipino cuisine to other Asian (and more mainstream) cuisines!!! Why can’t we have someone who can deliver all this and be clean! How awful.
I guess if you want a job done right gonna have to do it yourself in this case.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Mike- I definitely agree with what you are saying. It’s a weird relationship between Filipinos and food. I say that because on one hand we love our food and the want the traditional stuff but on the other we’ll just settle for what almost tastes like home. The service part is a whole different story. For a people to be known as very hospitable (and are quite proud about it too) we don’t show it in our restaurants. It’s just a big dilemma us Filipinos.
If you’re ever in NYC you should check out Cendrillon. They have their own set of critics but I think they’re headed in the right direction.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:44 am
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