Traditional FILIPINO vs FAST FOOD FILIPINO w/ Boi Angel

Chicharron is the heaven right here. Look, a little... That's how tender it is. It just fell off. It's just in my backyard. Second home right here. Cabayan. I might just have to change my name to Boy Uben. Chicken feet is called Adidas? Yes. Chicken feet. What's the difference between traditional Filipino food, casual Filipino food, and street Filipino food? We're with our R&B singer friend to go find out. Hit that like button. Let's go. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to a very, very special Filipino episode of Fun Bros Food. Right now, we are in Woodside, Queens, the official little Manila, Filipino town of New York City. And we are joined today by our good friend, Ren. What's going on, y'all? My name is Ren, a.k.a. Boy Angel. I'm an upcoming R&B artist from Queens. We're here. We're about to eat, feast, take it back home to the Filipino style. Guys, our first stop on this Filipino crawl where we are comparing fast food Filipino to traditional Filipino food out here in Queens. We're starting off at Max's. This is a new location that opened up this year. This is a chain from the Philippines. This is the house that fried chicken made. Even if you've been to Max's, they got some new dishes right now. I'm excited to try them. Ren, have you ever had Max's? I've heard of Max's, but I've never tried it. I've never had it, so I'm very excited to try it. We might even have Ren kind of sing us a little tune about Max's. I don't know. You might have to serenade him. I might have. Ren, I'm just saying you might have to serenade some of the aunties in there. If I do that, I'm going to have to do this. All right, guys. Let's go check out Max's. This is round one of many, guys. They brought out the works. What will we start with? Just like any Filipino party that I would go to, I'm going first for the lumpia. The lumpia is the go-to. Might have to hit that sisig. Sisig. Ren said go for the sisig, bro. I'm going for the embudito. This is something that I've never seen before. It has an egg inside. It's got some raisins, but it's kind of shaped like a kebab meat. Oh, hold on. Ren, before you— Don't forget some— You want some java rice, man? Let me get some java rice. You can't— As a Filipino, you can't eat without rice. Gotta eat with rice. Every dish got rice. Speaking of rice, man, I'm going for the shrimp paste rice. Oh, man. This lechon right here. The way you eat lechon, the healthy way, there's a special way. What's the healthy way to eat lechon? The healthy way to eat lechon. You take a spoon and fork. Obviously, if you're Filipino, you gotta eat with a spoon. You cannot eat with a spoon. And you take the spoon, you hold it down right here, and you bust the skin off. So you're busting the fatty skin. Why? So you take the little skin off. You know what? I'm actually lying. This is actually the most unhealthy way to eat it. Because I'm only eating the skin. And you take it, you dip it in some vinegar and soy sauce. That's how you do it. Yo, this is the chicharron bulaklak, guys. Chicharron bulaklak. He said that this is really good. I saw this in the photo. This is a New Max's dish. Oh, y'all got to try this. Chicharron bulaklak right here. Here we go. Yo, that's good, man. It's like a fatty pork wood ear or something. In the Philippines, when something is fire, when you're eating it, you say, Putangin na. Why? What does that mean? It's actually a curse. It's actually like, holy ****. Alright, guys. I'm trying the embudito. This is the egg and pork meatloaf. Alright, you guys. I'm trying the chicken chicharron here. Oh, I might have to try that too. Let me get some of the sauce. Chicharron is the heaven right here. Oh, my God. This is one of the most popular dishes right here. Desserts, rather, in the Philippines. It's called halo-halo. It's literally like ube ice cream, ice shavings, a bunch of different fruits. And it's kind of like, it reminds me of Queens, you know, because Queens is like a jumble of everything, of all different nationalities. So, like, it's a good way to look at Queens. Halo-halo. Queens is halo-halo. Yo, I'm a huge fan of noodle soup. And this one looks thick. Just how I like it. Oh, okay. Goddamn. This right here is my life. Growing up, this is all I ate. I will say this. Lechon kawali really put me on the Filipino food. The first time at, like, a backyard barbecue, they busted it out with the pineapple sauce right here. That lechon kawali right here. But I will say, the question I have is, do you like your lechon kawali with this sauce right here or the soy sauce-vinegar combo? Because that, to me, that's the question. Let us know in the comments down below. Ooh! If you guys are into the shrimpy, in Cantonese, we would say, like, hawaii flavor. This bago-un rice, this is where it's at. It's where it's at? Let me try that. Bago-un rice. Shrimp paste rice. Bago-un rice. This is something kind of new. Yeah. It's kind of got that kind of sour-y, fermented flavor, but it's nice. I think Filipinos do the best rice. Like, they do the best regular rice because they got the garlic rice, they got the java rice, they have this bago-un rice. Filipinos just know how to flavor the rice. I mean, the garlic rice, growing up, that's all we ate. Every breakfast, every morning, garlic rice. Mix it with a little Spam. See, that's the other thing. We don't got no Spam on the table, but you Filipinos know. All right, wrapping up round one at Max's, what was your favorite dish? Nelson? I'ma go with the noodles, man. Love me a noodle soup. Nice and warm. All right, my favorite was this chicharron. Not the chicken chicharron, but this pork one. Oh, the chicharron bulaklak. Bulaklak. I don't know what part of pork the pig this is, but it's delicious. It's amazing. Mine was going with the sisig right here. I haven't had this in a while, so, oh my God, this had to hit right here. For me, my favorite out of round one here at Max's was the bago-un rice. This shrimp paste rice was something that I think my dad would like, my grandpa would've liked it, everybody would've liked it. This was good. All right, we need a palate cleanser before round two. Here I have a creamy mango with coconut jelly. You got the ube with the flan and the cheese on top. I always thought cheese on top of the halo-halo was very interesting. And this is actually vanilla syrup with the little bobas in it. The clear bobas. Yo, we actually have another dessert over here too. Like we said, palate cleanser for round two. Oh my God. Is that with pandan jelly? All right. These desserts are hittin'. They're hittin'. I don't know what else to say. Perfect mixture of Asian flavors. Jelly, you got a little bit like the candiness in there and then it's just creamy. All right, everybody, we got round two at Max's. Of course, starting off, we got the classic Max's no-batter fried chicken. But real quick to talk about your album that's out right now, Flowers on the Table. You know, I feel like there's a lot of Asian rappers. We used to rap back in the day as well, but there's not as many Asian R&B artists that are making sexy songs. You know what I mean? To put it plainly, you're making kind of like, I guess, maybe making music. And there's not a lot of Asians that want to take on that role. I guess what propels you to want to even sing that style? When I was younger, I started rapping. I started rapping high school in the hallways with the homies. As the years went by, I... Oh, yeah, don't go. Keep going. Pause, pause, pause. No, no, no. As the years went by when I was younger, I kept rapping, kept rapping. But I started to want to sing. I wanted to be more for the ladies. I always wanted to be more for the ladies. So a few years went by of experimenting, rapping. And then one day I just told my homie, I was like, I want to sing. Nobody was like, hey, all right, you ain't going to sing. I started singing one day, just really, really started tapping in, trying to make that type of music. And next thing you know, I'm an R&B artist now. That's what's up, man. I mean, I guess what kind of got you into music? I know a lot of Filipinos grow up doing karaoke. They are musical, right? Because there's a Western influence from Spain and also just the local culture in the Philippines is very performance-centric, maybe more so than other Asian countries. What got you into it? Was it the karaoke sessions at family parties? Or was it more the environment of Queens in New York City? Well, music, growing up, like you said, magic mics and karaoke, it wasn't really my ticket into music. When I was younger, like I said, I was rapping. And at an early stage, I actually got a great opportunity. Believe it or not, when I was younger, I was on a mixtape with Waka Flocka Flame and Nicki Minaj, which is crazy. Shout out to Young Joey. That was the family, my brother. He put me on. He gave me a chance. Yeah, as a rapper, yeah. My brother, Reem, Young Joey's his cousin. And Reem was one of the first people to hear me rap. So, you know, long story short, I came from that and saw that I had an opportunity in music early, and then I kept going. And, you know, now I'm here. All right, everybody, yo, check out his album right down below. Oh, man, I will tell you that. I'm curious. That is stuck in my mind, for real. Anyways, guys, we're going to get back into the chicken. Look how tender this is. Look, look, a little. That's how tender it is. It just fell off. Max's fried chicken. Oh, my God. Thank God that didn't drop. I'll still eat that. Listen, guys, if you look at the wall, it says, set up to the bone. I'm telling you, literally, and I'm not sponsored at all. No cap. This is tasty AF to the bone and set up means tasty in Tagalog. Sometimes in the videos, you can't tell, like, what it tastes like, but you can just look at this and you can see. Do you see that? No batter is crazy. To do no batter, guys, like, listen, I love Jollibee's and we're going to go there soon, but there's a beauty in the naked batter. The naked batter. That's a good way to put it. You might have to drop a sexy song about that. Shawty in that naked batter. I love her in that naked batter. Oh my God. Hey, moving on, guys. Round two. What are we looking at, Ren? That's bangus? This is the bangus, the dying bangus. This is my favorite fish dish growing up. We're just going to rip into it, bro. Why do you like this milkfish dish so much? This right here, it's like fried chicken and fish. Growing up, this was all like, anytime we go to a Filipino restaurant, I had to get the bangus. Here I got the pancit canton. It's kind of like low-mean. You know, it got a lot of Chinese influence. But, you know, done in a Filipino way. They do it differently here, but it tastes just as good. Because it's like pancit. It's like the regular pancit, except mostly with different noodles. Oh! This is crispy batata. Oh my goodness. Look at that. Look at the inside. Oh my gosh. But the part we got to try is this right here. Oh, snap. The skin right in here. You got to dip it in this sauce. The soy sauce vinegar right here. That's a big word for Elmo. Oh my God. Kare-kare. I know every island culture likes a good oxtail. You know, like the Caribbean eats a lot of oxtail, and the Philippines does too. Oh, kare-kare oxtail right here. I mean, I've eaten a lot of Filipino food, and Max's is actually always, every time I come, one of the most enjoyable experiences, man. Ren, I've got to hear a lot of your music as Boy Angel. I've got to say, you've got the hooks on lock. They're so catchy. A lot of the choruses, they really stay in your mind. What are your favorite tracks that are coming out? Because I know you're dropping a bunch of EPs like every month, right? This month's EP that's out right now is Flowers on the Table. My favorite song on this one is called Flowers. It's the main song on the EP. It's definitely very personal. All my music is personal. All my music is about real life, but definitely Flowers. The flowers that I gave you, why they dying on the table? The card that I wrote for you, you ripped it up, it was a joke to you. That's me right there. We are wrapping up round two here at Max's. This is the very first location within the limits of New York City. Prior to this, the only other Max's was in Jersey. Of course, there's a bunch on the West Coast, and of course, a bunch in the Philippines. What was your favorite thing? Man, between all the crispy pata, lechon kawali, pangos, I'm going to have to just pick everything pork. That's a good one, yeah. No, the pork, honestly, you just got to come to Max's. Everything was excellent, excellent, but like you said, for this round, I might have to go with Max's famous fried chicken. My favorite got to be the fried fish, man. You know, you got the crispy skin, and then you got the meat inside. Super good. We met playing basketball, and then I found out you were doing music, and then we checked out one of the studio sessions, and we heard actually the entire album, which you're just releasing the EP like three songs at a time. So you're kind of teasing them, you're kind of joking, hey, this is just the beginning, come back. There's a song called 42 that's going to come out later that I really like, but Curious is a hit. That's a hit, man. It's a hit like this crispy pata's a hit. All right, everybody, we're on our way to Dollar Hits where we're going to get a lot of Filipino skewers, you know, you know, but we got to stop by Red Ribbon because Red Ribbon, it's a staple. I mean, we got to all pick one item. You know what I like about the Red Ribbon is they always have new items. Sort of like Max's. You know, the chains. The chains, they always got like invented stuff. We love chains. Filipinos love chains. Let's check it out. All right, you guys, we just came out of Red Ribbon, and I had no idea, Ren, that you guys ate empanadas in the Philippines. Yeah, that's the thing, but it's not like a Spanish empanada. I think if you bite into that, you might find a raisin in there. Okay. Oh, there is. I see. There is a raisin. Guys, this beef empanada is kind of shaped more like a Jamaican beef patty, I want to say. I don't know if it's the Queen's influence. Ooh. Yes, there are raisins. There's raisins in there. That looks so good. That's like a beef stew with carrots and raisins. Raisins. Get with it. Wow. Shout out to the raisins in the empanadas. I like it. I'm pro raisin. I'm pro raisin in empanadas. We got this ube flan cake. Ube everything. How do you feel about ube blowing up? I mean, I might just have to change my name to Boy Ube. Oh. The flowers that I gave you. Why they dying on the table? Oh. What's popping? So a mamon is like a short, shallow sponge cake. Wow. Look at the color. You're about to try the butter mamon. The butter mamon. This looks like the track. This is so soft. Oh, this is good. This is not good. Red Ribbon is like the 85C. It's like everything is soft. Everything's delicious. They do everything at a high quality. I love it. All right, you guys. We just arrived at our traditional food spot location. We're at Dollar Hits. All the way from historic Filipino town in Los Angeles. They made it over. They opened up one in New York City, in Woodside. Where we at? What's up? How's it going, guys? Welcome to Dollar Hits. So here, we have our canteen. We call it turuturo. So basically, you point where you want, and we give it to you. Like a cafeteria style. Is this something that is new to the New York environment? In terms of like... No. Most of the Filipino restaurants, this is the set up that you can see. Right, in the Philippines. Ren, have you eaten this turuturo style before? Yes. I have eaten this style, but I haven't been to Dollar Hits yet. So this is going to be my first time. Okay. All right, Ren. You're going to pick out some skewers, some... How do we call it? Inao, Inao? Iao, Iao. I highly recommend getting the intestines. Okay, you got to get some funky stuff. We got to get some intestines. Let's do it up. Yo, I did not know chicken feet is called adidas. Adidas. Did you know that? Chicken... Adidas. Yeah, I got to get one. Adidas. All right, guys. I have pretty much what is pork belly adobo. I'm going to try this. We got plantains. I like it. Let's go. What do you mean? The pork skewer. Uh-huh. The pork skewer. I love my pork. Man, you know I got to go with the chicken feet, a.k.a. the adidas. But, you know, check so many stripes all day. Go in. Dollar hits, guys. From L.A. Coming out to New York. Woodside, Queens. It's popping out here. Fire. Mmm. Wow. Fire right here. First time having this Filipino dish is the innards. It's got some meat and some intestines. Oh, man. I went tocino. You know, this is the classic breakfast right here. Tocino. Cheers. I got the coconut sisig. Also, if we're eating breakfast, you know you got to go with the longanisa sausage. All right, yo. John here told me that I had to try the pig's blood. If you guys know me, I'm not the biggest fan of pig's blood, but I'll do it. Picked up another skewer. I think this is the chicken intestine. I'm going with the quail egg. Oh, all right. Cheers, guys. Cheers. I've never had crispy pig blood before. Not bad, though. It's different. All right, we're ending off with dessert here at Dollar Hits. But, Ren, how would you compare the food at Dollar Hits to, like, Max's as far as, like, culturally? I would say that Max's is, like, you know, the home-cooked, table-full, at-home meal. So, it's something I grew up eating a lot. Dollar Hits, I would say it's more like the street food, you know, getting something quick to get. And oftentimes, skewers in most cultures is, like, drinking food, too. So, I could see us having some beers or some tandoori. Some Adidas. Yeah. All right, guys. I got this fruit salad. The first time I actually had this Filipino fruit salad is at my friend Vance's house. He's Filipino. I fell in love with it. I recreated it at my home, too. It's very simple. You got some sweet creams, a little bit of sour cream, and some other creams in there. So, fruit salad. Let's do it. Mmm. Yo, I remember what was in this. It's cottage cheese and whipped cream. That's why I like it because I love cottage cheese. It just has cream, cream, cream, and just some other creams. All right. Our last spot on our Filipino Woodside Crawl. We got a spot behind us called Cabellan, and it's really nice inside. You only find spots like this in Filipino enclaves because if you just have a few Filipino restaurants, maybe there won't be a market big enough for this, but this is like a lounge-type spot. You know, this is looking real upscale. They got the white leather in there. You know, it's real plush. Yeah, man. I don't know. You might have to see if you can shoot a music video here or something. Boy, Ube gonna have to pull up here. Hey, the alter ego. Let's go. Let's check it out. I love being in spots like Cabellan because it's just like it shows you the whole diversity. You know, we're at Max's, which is a chain from the Philippines. Then we had Dollar Hits, which is from Pampangas. It's almost imitating like a street-style, stalled-type food. And then now we're here at Cabellan, which is almost like an upscale Filipino-American thing for like, I want to say like rich aunties. All right. We got one of your favorite desserts right here. The Taron. This is the fried banana. Kind of looking like an egg roll, but it's a dessert egg roll. Let's crack this open. We got the banana in there. Ah! Yeah, yeah. How do you describe Taron to people who are like, oh, it's just a fried banana and an egg roll? It's like, it's like a, yeah, pretty much a fried banana and an egg roll. Where can people check out your stuff? So everything is going to be on Spotify, Apple Music. We also have a website, 7summers.com. Everything will be there. How would you describe your style if you had to compare? I know like sometimes when you ask artists and you're like, oh, who do you sound like? People want to be like, no, I sound like myself. But if we had to like, I get a lot of my inspiration from 90s R&B. So like, I mean, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say I sound like Usher, but like there's so many aspects of like the way I tell my stories that I get from Usher. You know, inspirations come from everywhere. You know, I always ask this question to other people. So what do y'all think? All right. Well, hey guys, let us know in the comment section below what you think about Boy Angel's music. Who would you compare him to? Give him your review. Give him your breakdown. We got the link included down below, but we are about to head back to Manhattan and try even more Filipino fusion food. So huge shout out to Rem. Man, thank you for showing us the wood side, man. Of course. By the time you watch this video, the EP will be out. But there's also more songs coming. It's not just three songs. I seen the whole track listing. You got a bunch of bangers in there. Just be on the lookout. Filipino from Queens right here, Boy Angel, a.k.a. Boy Ube. All right, everybody. We just got back from Queens, from chilling with Rem, and we're back in the Lower East Side on Broom Street in a very hip area. And guys, we're outside of Kalye. They are doing a bunch of stuff. Man, I heard they got Filipino sumis and ube everything. Let's go. All right, everybody here at Kalye, which Kalye actually means street in Tagalog. They have a lot of different street food and snack, but done fusion style. Check out this ube slider, longanisa sausage on an air fried ube bun. If you like the longanisa sausage with a little bit of spice and cream into it, definitely try this one. Here we have the ube pao with ube jam in the middle, topped off with a little bit of coconut shreds. Soft, sweet, warm, ube. For dessert, we have a ube flan right here and then a sans-rival. I've never actually had this one, so I'm going to go for this first. Oh, I like it. Cookies and cream in between. Oh, that's tucking in. Of course, you got to have the ube flan two-tone. I think it's so cool to go from Queens, which is more traditional food and kind of the traditional Filipino chains, and then going out to the fusion zone, you know, in the LES, where they're doing things really differently. Now, here we have the pork and the shrimp shumai, but, you know, different than the Cantonese shumai. They give you lemon and the fillings are a little bit different. Man, I'm going in, man. Going on the shrimp one. Oh, do you want a little lemon, though? Because, you know, Filipinos, they like the lemon. I didn't know, like, you know, Filipino has so much, you know, Chinese influence, you know, in their foods. All right, let's try the pork one. And you got a little chili oil. Man, that actually looks good, man. I can't wait to try that. What's really different about the Filipino shumais compared to, like, the Chinese shumais is that they put different ingredients and spices in theirs. It's just, it's good, too. It's good, too. It's just different. Man, we eating kawe on the kawe. All right, everybody, we're here at Cabasera. Now, this is a really cool Filipino cafe that also serves a lot of hot and sweet cold foods over in the Lower East Side. Here we have their rendition of merienda, which is kind of like the Spanish tea time tradition. That's why it kind of looks like the British one, where it's stacked up. But, man, they have a lot of cool, like, ube and multi-layered pandan-flavored cakes right here. And then we also have the lumpia musubi. I have never seen anything like that in my life. I mean, you know, you're very familiar with the musubi out on the West Coast, but... An egg roll on top. That lumpia one? Yeah. I know it doesn't sound that crazy, but it is just something you haven't seen before. All right, guys, I'm trying the cassava right here. And then Nelson's gonna try the soffit soffit. All these are very warm here at Cabasera. I like how it's hot. The texture's really good. Really consistent. Very ooey-gooey. Dude, it's like going to one of those, like, I guess, bakeries, and you just see all those cakes, except all those cakes are actually, like, Filipino desserts. Nelson, you're digging into some ube. Here I have their actual, like, pandan and corn dessert. Let's check it out. Very delicate. Very delicate. Oh, wow. This one is my favorite right here. Finally, I have this long-awaited lumpia musubi. I'm about to dive into this. And then you have the ube taho. Ube taho. Oh, with the bobas. Oh, yeah, there we go. Mmm. Pudding is so nice and warm. Ube, not too sweet, which is really good. They have a great lumpia. I could eat it by itself. This A1. Closing off with the ginger latte, guys. I'm mixing up. I saw the ginger at the bottom. I'm very excited about this one. Well, basically, what I like about Cabasera, it's, like, a coffee shop vibe. Everything's super fresh. Everything's made super high quality. The ownership team is great, too. And, honestly, they just do things a little bit differently. Our next spot is a staple in the Filipino community, Mama Fina's. Originally started in Jersey City, in a Filipino enclave. Now it's out here in the East Village, and they serve all different types of sisig. Yo, I've tried sisig before, but I've never had this sisig. Let's go. The food here at Mama Fina's has arrived, and here are some dishes that I have not had before. First of all, we got fried chicken wings with gravy on a sizzling plate. Now, you might think that's an ode to Jollibee's, but actually this is an ode to the owner's wife's restaurant in the Philippines, in Bico. This is how they do it on the sizzling plate. Here you have sisig gambas. This is a shrimp sisig, guys. I know you can make sisig with all different types of things, but I've never had it with shrimp. Look at the colors. Delicious. Oh, yeah, here you have the lanka. This is actually jackfruit. I know that you thought it was meat, but it's jackfruit cooked with coconut. And then here you have this red java rice, which is actually quite different than other rices. It's not garlic rice, but it's a little bit red due to the tomatoes they cook it with, and kind of reminds me of Spanish rice, so I think this is like the fusion right here. All right, garlic wing with gravy. Let's go. Mmm. That savory, salty gravy just tops off the wing so nicely. Mmm. We have not ran into any lanka in this video yet, but this is nicely cooked jackfruit. It does, and jackfruit actually does make a really good meat substitute because it kind of has like this feeling almost like it's pork or fish. I would have never thought, man. Try it, bro. Serve it up, man. Mmm. You're telling me this is not meat? I'm telling you, man, a lot of vegan restaurants using jackfruit, but you know who was using it first? The Filipinos. All right. Sisig gambas. Shrimp sisig. Oh, that was jam-packed with a whole bunch of different flavors. I'm eating it with the java rice. I like the name, too, java rice. That's a cool name. Mmm. This is so cool because, you know, we went to a lot of very traditional Filipino spots, like kind of cafes, and then we also went to some fusion spots, but here I love it because they're bringing dishes that they eat in the Philippines that are maybe a little bit less common to find, but they're not exactly modern fusion. They're maybe a little bit more localized, so I think that's really cool, and shout-out to Mama Fina's. The food is so good, and that skillet is hot. I got an album full of memories. Come on, give me some credit, oh. Dancing on the stairs like it's a strip, oh.