Can Filipino Food Become Popular in America?

what are some ways that Filipino food can be more popular in the United States and isn't gaining popularity right now we're here with Filipino comedian and foodie Marcus Cardona to find out hey what's up yo can you please prove your validity to speak on this topic ah and you are a former nurse You're a comedian right now but you also what we're in the food game a little bit yeah I'm I'm I feel like I'm always floating in the food game I'm at restaurants I'm I'm shmooing with people I'm walk through kitchens it's fine I think that Filipino food is going through a Renaissance in the past 5 Years cuz I just looked it up and there are so many new hipster elevated Filipino spots of different varieties opening up in Andrew Seattle La the Bay Area New York all across America but David why does it have to be elevated why can't it be traditional I I approve of that accent it's fine it was I mean it was decent right yeah anyways um no but let's talk about it cuz we we all love food we're all food lovers here um very interested in Filipino food eaten it a lot growing up but like I want to know like cuz there's not a lot of Filipino restaurants for the amount of Filipinos in America this is statistically speaking so statistically speaking Filipino food is not that popular but let's talk about maybe why that is but also what are some suggestions because you got some ideas Marcus you mark you could be the Marcus Garvey of Filipino food Marcus Garvey of Filipino food what's up so make sure you like subscribe and turn on your notifications but on any type of food Andrew you can put SMA on it try smalla guys it goes great on Filipino food as well but yeah check it out small sauce all right what do you think of all the elevated spots that have opened up across America in the past 5 years I'm sure you've been to what at least 10 20 of them yep um with the elevated Filipino food I think that the hardest thing is just the fact of trying to stick to the core but also like who the audience is because again we're trying to break Filipino food out and we're trying to get like a big name like Bourdain or someone else to like endorse it because we have like we have hip-hop stars we have like sweee like being like I love Filipino food we have like pilo going on Food Tours and whatnot and we have celebrity Filipino chefs but it's about getting like audience and like you know clients to like who go to the restaurant to be like yo Filipino food's the next thing right to make Filipino food consumption a more regular part of their consumption pattern right y um and you that being said are you Pro elevated spot $20 long anas or $20 uh you know dollar hit skewers or you're against it or you're 50-50 uh I'd say I'm 5050 for sure like no matter what I want I do enjoy like more money that goes to Philipino food goes back to Filipinos so I'm just like yeah what's up especially if the chefs are Filipino um but at the same time I do want to see like I want to hear like white girls on the subway just being like yo so I tried this kinel recipe the other day and like that's like it like that's like the Breakthrough where it needs to cross over into the main stream is William is Williamsburg picking it up or not yet not yet man I'm just like out there I'm like I'm just going to start like like littering like recipes maybe it could be maybe maybe it's going to start more as a Bushwick thing I don't know you're more going for volume of penetration versus like being like Oh my God I had a $38 adobo the other day it was delicious yeah yeah yeah people yeah people you can you can pack out restaurants but I want to see like someone's apartment and they just have loompia like and I'm like who made this somebody's like not the Filipino I'm like yo you need you want to see Trader Joe's do lomia yeah that could be possible I feel like you know girls have been eating the longaa before they been eating the longaa if you know what I'm saying like they've been on Filipino food you know guys dudes before food y'all been all they been on Filipino dudes before food but anyways uh let's let's talk about certain things that that Filipinos are killing it at right now and uh obviously Ube everywhere U is like the ing every dessert spot has a u every I mean ethnic sorry like Asian Asian even if it's a East Asian dessert spot they have U like it's it's killing it the Ube color is dope but the flavor could be stronger for sure dude I I I believe that U is like a state of mine especially U state of mine is especially especially when you're at like the Boba spots and you're like is this Ube or Tyro I'm like I can't tell anymore no it's true that the two Roots don't taste that different purple y I mean kind of like a purple yam it's pretty similar anyways um does Banana Ketchup have a shot or or is it because it's kind of like a sweet ketchup thing talking about Je FR yeah je FR banana ketchup does it have a shot at going mainstream mainstream or or what do you think I think it yeah I think it definitely has a spot going mainstream we just need to tap into like the vegan market and we need to push like bananas harder we need to be like hey if you eat you could eat regular ketchup or you can eat this banana ketchup and get more pot potassium or something like that we got to mark it through it's like a potassium enriched ketchup already so other things I really like from the Filipinos uh that I think should be more popular as the kanji but the here's the thing about kanji right kanji in itself is just not a popular dish like that's not a cool dish that you want to eat at the restaurant when you're with your friends yeah right but but Filipino kanji is lit yeah AR escalo Lugal both of those are great like one's sloppier one's that but we were talking about it earlier where uh it's just it just seems like slop because like when it gets plated it still comes out like a GI like no you know you know how you combat that as a modern Chef in 2024 just a little plant just to put the put put micro all the micro Grain on the plant and then you have to use the tweezers to lay it down and then uh it must be tweezed on that's but but kanji always does remind me of uh what um Little Red Riding Hood or who's eating the poridge the that's how it feels just like I'll say this I got a hot take Filipino kanji is my favorite version of kanji that's fair that's fair not wrong I think I think Lumia arguably the best egg roll I think it's I think Viet egg roll gives it a run for its money so I might take the Viet egg roll but it's close limpia is close so limpia egg roll everybody loves egg rolls so that's that's going more mainstream I see people there was like a Lucia's egg roll out in Seattle they I mean sorry Lucia's Lumia out of Seattle they're like just a Lumia spot Filipino Hawaiian breakfast spots that's that's a genre you've seen also proliferate in the past what 5 10 years yeah the the combination yeah you can get some what's the what's the Loco Moco you can get the Loco Moco alongside like a tosilog or anything like that any of the breakfast is uh cuz garlic rice can be the base for anything yeah yeah garlic rice is really good can Filipino food be a breakfast food like a legit breakfast food in 2024 what do you think in 202 4 um yeah if you're trying to involve more Meats uh and like fish cuz I think that fish for breakfast and meats especially like sausages I'm like we should have like just instead of Indians like taking over England we should have been there but it's fine um we we got sausages uh but I'd say that it's just how much meat do you want to have in your breakfast cuz we got the egg we got the crispy egg the same tii crispy egg that you like with the with the edges we got that we got the garlic rice but it's like just depending on what meat you want to go with sausage beef or fish cig spots I've been seeing a lot of cig elevated you know more hipster looking 2024 looking cig spots pop up yep yeah um some SE seig I'm happy that it's still going because we're all coasting off the ghost of Anthony Bourdain with C he gave he gave he gave cig the gas and we're just running with it as long as possible you know what the strength of cig though is and I'm not going to lie it's not my favorite Filipino dish I don't love it but the presentation is cool too cuz not not that many other Filipino dishes in my experience come on the grill plate oh yeah and sizzling where people love sizzling things yeah fajitas yo forget about it seig when it came out on the gas iron seig fajitas oh okay y that going to be the push these $4 spots trust Bay oxen tiger in San Francisco we're talking about like potentially the bill per person's like 175 if you have drinks what are you buying it are you buying the the are you going with the price point for 75 drinks I'm like y who who's there what celebrities like that's kind of it it's it's it's like a social flex but like honestly I mean this is like more expensive than a lot of restaurants in the Philippines it's hard to spend 200 on a meal in a phili right yeah I'd say that's like the big thing that's hard also with elevated dining because like I've had good food on like a nice plate but also at the same time some of the best like Filipino spots I've gone to they're like uh tita's name it's like Gloria and it's like served in like a metal sheet tray like a lunch style and it's hard when you've eaten good at that price point and then you have to like justify like well this is a smaller portion and it's like a little bit of the taste are you spending $20 on this on this fig slice with the Fig slice oh bro ah dude it's like dude I I feel like the meme I'm like y we got figs at home um all right so I do want to get into I I think that uh I want to get into like brainstorming some suggestions on on ideas because you got some interesting ideas for Filipino food let's talk about those what is your number one idea that you think could pop that more people has been done yet has has not been done yet because even uh shout out to flip they're doing what longaa burritos and things like that uh American Western TexMex but with Filipino right but you have got an idea that nobody got right now yeah so I think that right now everyone knows like you know sandwiches all over and I think Asian like dining has also crossed over like the bunme that's been super popular for years but recently like the Thai scallion uh sandwiches that have been crossing over in the breakfast sandwich like with eggs and sausages have been crossing over you talking about with the Thai sausage in it the yeah yeah that's been in there um I think yeah Filipinos we got to figure out a sandwich that is like marketable like overall because I think that we have so many good flavors is it a u bun or you're like n no no we can't do the U bun no dude they they have a they have a there's a there's a place called pogy Boys in DC they got a u burger and it made the cover it was purple purple sandwich and everything like that okay so describe to me the sandwich is it using slices of bread is it using a baguette like a bunme I feel like the baguette is not a bad move cuz you could always do like a Filipino bunme yeah you you haven't seen this yeah yo I didn't know it was like that this like super purple yach um yo okay so is this is this the way to go or you think you know obviously you're average American they probably can't get down with the I I yeah I think we need to I think we need to figure out like the the sandwich Choice cuz I'm like we we were doing we're making progress with burritos but at the same time everyone's like oh that's Latino like everyone's just like oh it's just a burrito fil but I'm like we need to make our own like unique sandwich I think that that's going to be the big game changer especially with like all the pick like again the Bon Me has like pickled like ingredients like some kind of like brazed meat with like a pickled like vegetable in there I have been still a proponent and this is my perspective on it of a chain from the Philippines like mang in AOL which is owned by jalab be group or I don't know if they bought it out or they created it serving lpia mang in AOL which is the the chicken thigh with the lemongrass right and um just those two things what do you think of that and that that could break open the market cuz everybody can be like yo I grew up eating mang in AOL which but it needs to be rebranded as like chicken thigh Filipino chicken thigh and then lomia at and I'm talking about like at a ton of spots around America yeah no I I definitely think that that's like a specific Market that could have hit like a couple years ago like way back in the day but now like I feel like everything is like you can adjust everything on a menu like there's like a certain catering for like the food market that you're tapping into now where just like every like little part needs to be like customizable what what what are the parts that should be customizable to localize Filipino food to different markets so for lpia I think that you just need to have all the options cuz like we've talked about a little bit about how people are like oh everyone makes limpia differently and like different like you know provinces have certain things but I think is having options of one just base flavor but also like ingredients which is like what's the protein cuz is it meat is there vegetable is there tofu is it okay to do a cheeseburger lomia with a cheese dip is that a violation or does it have to be lpia or or what is that is that a red flag no I've had I've had lpia with cheese in it and I'm going to be honest it did disappoint but I could like if you execute it right I'd be fine with it I feel like that's fine all right so Marcus got the idea the sandwich idea I got my idea which is uh just you know rock rock with some chains from Asia but just like change the marketing around Andrew I think Filipinos I feel like the long Ana as a sausage has a shot to be even more popular it's sweet so I I think you could put it in a a breakfast sandwich or something like that definitely I think that that Filipino breakfast sandwich could be trending more one thing I would say is maybe oh longera GES cream cheese long anaes long GES lezies um I would say maybe like a like a noodle soup I'm like adding noodles to a s uh sagong maybe you know because sagong is a is a good soup and it's kind of picking up a little bit more in popularity but I don't know is it wrong to put noodles in it egg noodles I don't know I think that would be cool because Filipinos they don't really have a a popular noodle soup I don't know people like noodle soups like F I don't know okay yeah just an idea that's a hot take hot you know all right all right other hot take add some spice Filipino food is not spicy at its core let's be honest I don't see a lot of red chilies and it's the the the chilies are not usually infused in so that's what I think should happen cuz I'm like looking at Tha food thai food is amazing and I do think you got to take some cues from Thai people because their food is killing it y Thai people taking over shout out shout out to your F Oh yeah talk about how much you like Thai food though cuz just just to like pick it back off the the Filipino dud okay do I love do I love Thai food I like Thai food because it make like white people are hype about it so that's why I like Tha food but Tha food I think you want to be the Thai food of Asian is that what you're saying you would like to kind of you white people love Thai food that's at some point now it's going to cross over and like Thai food's just a white person thing um but no Thai food I think that they've introduced like a lot of like more like they've definitely pushed like a combination of flavors they've definitely crossed over with like seafood and like other meats mixing because I think that's like the big barrier um but also yeah I'm I'm telling you guys now Jiao is going to take over everything for sauces that sauce is going to be everywhere oh J aew yeah it's a strong sauce man what what do you think about the challenge foods that Filipinos have kind of like the balute and the Dinan where do you think that kind of promoting those sometimes puts people off of Filipino food cuz when they think of Filipino food now they're thinking oh what you guys only eat the the fertilized duck egg and you're like no no no that's just part of it but should you guys still promote it yeah I think I think that that should be like one of the like secret menu items we shouldn't like have it printed on the menu like you have to ask for it um it is weird because like literally it's that's that's the challenge food it was a challenge on Joe Rogue or on Fear Factor um and it it does kind of like set people back because they're like oh if they're willing to eat this texture then like what what other things are off limits I think I definitely think it like hurts um when having it on a menu but at the same time yo challenge challenge the real ones like have that as like a late night you had to be there at like a certain amount of hours and then you can order only order at this time and be like oh no that guy's a real one should every Filipino parent before a non-asian marries into the family they should have them eat the ballute I feel like like oh you want to marry my daughter you have to eat three Ballo I definitely think it's I definitely think it's a weird like challenge it's like it's like you just want to see if they're down for the culture and that's the most down you can be besides uh marrying someone real quick Filipino bakeries we got Kora hoods famous in Seattle every city got Ube cookies U Donuts camany this kalaman that yep dude Filipino bakeries have all like Loki always been on the top that they're the reason why U is so popular they're the reason why pandesal like it gets brought up as like its own bread category like and like Nick no matter what like Asian bakeries are there but like there is something comforting because it's always teas who are working there about other other Asian bakeries such as like a Paris Baguette using Ube are you it's cool um i' i' I'd be cool again you got to just like know like the recipe but if you made a if you made a baguette with u yeah send me like five giant like purple like logs like send that to me cuz I'm like yeah if you use U I need it to look like you killed Barney and just send me part you know what I had was fire was the Red Ribbon I think it was red ribbon Empanada yeah the Filipino Empanada the one with the raisins in it yeah the raisins in the Empanada cuz this now this is we're talking about the Spanish side but this is something I think well it's hard to say because everybody a lot of different countries have their empanadas right so uh but yeah the Filipino Empanada is underrated for sure yeah shout out your favorite modern Filipino spot and then maybe just one old school spot the Tita spot and then you know the young cool hipster everybody's wearing Al Whatever Whatever spot um okay so uh for the Hipster ones that are currently in place is going to be uh probably it's going to be probably be kabisera kabisera is great like they definitely have like their crossovers they're definitely trying out some uh Filipino ramens I know that and I like definitely was like oh you should try this but I think that they've definitely been there in terms of like making sure that even the coffee has like Ube in it like the U latte is popping off right now and I'm like they're always like in like the realm of like old school and new school um I don't think this place is open anymore but it was uh Thea Gloria in Queens that used to be a spot uh and that was again that was the steam tray like I was like I got flirted with every time I was there I tipped way more than I should have uh but it was fine and again like that place like customer service fine but food ripped so I didn't care about customer service and then uh I'd say for upcoming uh spots like the one of the like leading ones right now and it was mentioned in the bearer on FX kasama and Chicago kasama is like I think that they yeah yeah they're they're definitely like it to get us in the in the foodie World more um and I think that they are definitely like figuring out what we should be doing um I'll go there one time and then uh for me I'm going to go with gooo room in New York for my elevated pick I recently had a rose Calo there crazy was the best kanji I ever had in my life and then for my old school spot I would pick um Awan Awan Y in in uh Woodside or just in general I had in La Maxes oh yeah uhuh you know I don't want to pick a a chain but no Yo Ma yo Filipinos no no Fried Chicken if you guys don't if you guys are on jollybee learn about maxos yeah yeah those that's my Andrew do you have a an elevated and then a home style pick um I think I do like ciser I think actually there uh anytime somebody asks me about like oh I need to do catering for my office or this work event I'm like yo you you should should get lmpas from cabis those lmpas are really good I think they're my favorite in New York area at least Manhattan um and then uh and we went to que spoon and pork oh spoon and pork's pretty oh spoon and pork in La yeah yeah they're good that's elevated so shout out to them that's really good um I'm I I'll pick those two yeah for sure for sure well anyway guys let us know what you think about our Filipino food F uh talk in the comments section below I think the biggest question for me is like are you guys going to the spots where it's like 7080 $90 a person for Filipino food yeah and also do your $780 spots have uh B I'm I'm going to say this Filipinos known to be very hospitable people and I think like that means you I mean you could sell people on the service too because you know the hospital like yeah I don't know what if you had a restaurant with like a a nurse theme I'm just I'm playing I we need to call you bossing when you come in MA sir maam sir sir if Trader Joe's releases the the the cold meal of the mang inol with the side of garlic rice or Lumia Shanghai in a bag it's going bananas don't doubt them don't doubt that they don't already have it I know they have a u ice cream yeah they got U everything anyways guys uh let us know what you think about this video in the comments down below we were just having a fun conversation about Filipino food how can it be more popular it is gaining traction it is gaining more popularity are you going to the expensive elevated spots let us know shout out to Marcus uh check out his stuff down below he's a comedian but also a foodie so uh thank you so much for watching and until next time we out peace peace