Seattle’s Fabulous Filipino Food | No Passport Required with Marcus Samuelsson | Full Episode

Marcus Samuelsson goes to Seattle, where he spends time with immigrant and second-generation Filipinos who are taking charge of the city’s food scene. [Originally aired 2019]

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No Passport Required with Marcus Samuelsson
Hosted by renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson, No Passport Required is a PBS/Eater series that takes viewers on an inspiring journey across the U.S. to explore and celebrate the wide-ranging diversity of immigrant traditions and cuisine woven into American food and culture. Each week Marcus — an immigrant himself — visits a new city to discover the dynamic and creative ways a particular community has made its mark. A vibrant portrait of America today, No Passport Required features musicians, poets, chefs, business owners, artists, community leaders and home cooks who have enhanced the nation’s culture and cuisine.

[ Ship horn blowing ] ♪♪ -I’m coming to Seattle, don’t know anything about Filipino food. What are some of the musts? -This is bulalo. -Kare kare. -Arroz caldo. -Mmm. -Is this lechón? -That’s the crown jewel right there. -Mmm, it’s like candy. [ Bell dings ]

Oh! What do we got here? Talk to me. Oh, we gonna spread it in? -Oh, we’re going right on top. -What?! I’m looking for the menu. Where’s the menu? -I don’t have a menu ’cause I cook what I want. ♪♪ -Seattle’s small. Even if you’re not Filipino,

Chances are you got a Filipino friend. -Why do you think Seattle became such a hub? -Because of the fishing. [ Laughter ] -Now it’s like the next big scene. This is so good, man. But when you taste Filipino food, you taste the history. -500 years of Spanish rule,

The Chinese influences even before that. -And America gave you Spam. Yeah. Yeah. [ Laughter ] Great. That’s really great. -We can show lineage through our food, but do it with Seattle ingredients. -Doing your own personal spin on it. Nothing can be more hip-hop than that. -[ Laughs ]

-We’re going in for the funk. -There’s such a depth in the community here. Layers of different type of food, different generation. I love that. -That’s so Filipino. [ Laughs ] -It has to be the stories. It has to be sharing who you are. -Cheers! -Cheers! -If there’s not a table packed with food…

-What? -…then something is not right, for sure. Yeah. [ Smoke alarm beeping ] We knew it. [ Laughter ] Knew it. [ Laughter continues ] I’m Chef Marcus Samuelsson, and as an immigrant born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, food, to me, has always told a deeper, more personal story.

[ Upbeat hip-hop plays ] It’s a path to culture, identity, and history. [ Cheering ] Join me on a new journey across the country to learn more about America’s immigrant communities and culinary traditions, to see how food connects us all. -Seattle is such a special city. It’s so beautiful. The mountains.

You see tons of water. It reminded me a lot, actually, of Sweden, where I grew up. -How are you doing today, Chef? -I’m good. I see you got some romanesco. That’s nice. I’ve been to Seattle so many times, but I did not know there was a big, thriving, vibrant Filipino-American community.

Filipino-Americans is the second-largest Asian immigrant group in this country. And it also makes up about 3% of the population in Seattle. But most Americans have no clue what is a Filipino dish. -Hi! How are you? -How are you? What are we serving today? What do we got today? -Oh, my gosh. Everything.

This is our famous salmon collar soup — sinigang. -It looks good. -Well, why don’t you come over here and help me, then? -Okay. Aunt Leila is running this one-lady cooking counter with delicious Filipino food. Everyone knows Aunt Leila. How long have you been at the market? -47 years.

-And the market is 47 years, maybe? [ Laughs ] ♪♪ -And the jalapeños. -Yep. With seeds or without seeds? -Oh, no, we don’t chop that. Put the whole thing in there. -The whole thing here? -Yes. Chop the onion, and then I’m gonna have you do tomatoes.

Hey, you’re pretty good at that. -You know what? I cook in a kitchen every now and then, but not in a kitchen like this. These signs. -What’s wrong with my kitchen? -No, I love this kitchen. I love it. You have signs for everything. ♪♪ How did you end up in the market?

Like, how did this happen? -Well, my mom started this in 1971. This was all groceries and baskets. Back then, Filipino food was not known, and she said, “Do you want to open a little eatery back there where you can demonstrate some of our ingredients?” But my mom doesn’t cook,

So everybody thinks my mom taught me how to cook. -[ Laughs ] -It was self-taught. I taught myself. -Self-taught, wow. -Since you’re standing on that side… -Yeah? -…can you mix my — -Sausage? -Yes. -Sure. -I have to call the fish market. ♪♪ [ Line rings ]

Hey, Ian, can you send my fish, please? Right now. Bye-bye. -Oh, he heard that. He’s like, “Send me the damn fish, please.” -Yes, they don’t sell that to anybody else but me. -Oh. ♪♪ Is the market open every day? -I work every day except December. Oh, wow, okay. -Hey, how are you?

-[ Speaks Tagalog ] -[ Speaks Tagalog ] I love that. Thank you. You cook from the market, like, truly, utilize the market. -I do. I’m everybody’s auntie. -Yeah. -Everybody comes over here, you know, and say, “Hey, what special stuff do you have back there?” Sometimes I have the special in the back.

-Aunt Leila, she’s such a good cook because her setup is real simple but her flavors are not. Imagine a ramen soup but it’s much lighter and brighter, and that lightness comes from tamarind. And it’s a very specific sour. It’s not lemon sour. It has this tangy flavor like rhubarb.

This sourness, that’s — for me, so, when you think about Filipino food, that’s what makes it stand out. This could only be Filipino, you know? -It could only be Filipino. -How do I say it in Tagalog, the whole thing? -Salmon sinigang. -Sinigang. -Sinigang, exactly. -Salmon sinigang. ♪♪ Salmon collar are fatty and rich.

This broth has umami flavor and then, on top of that, bitter, beautiful mustard greens that are still chewy in texture. That’s a really good dish. Okay, I can do that. I can help you. -Oh, you can? [ Speaks Tagalog ] Okay. -How many — How many should I give out?

-Oh. Sorry, I talked in Tagalog. -That’s okay. -That means “Okay.” [ Speaking Tagalog ] Okay, give her another one. -Yeah, okay, four, four. -Okay. Don’t be stingy, though. He’s gonna give you another one. -Got — Got it. -Okay, and then one of those.

You got to plate it, so you got to turn it this way. -Oh. -And then put the fish on that side. Ooh, you need a little practice on that. -Yes, yes, absolutely. -Okay, that’s good. That’s good. We can just put it on the side. -On the side. -There you go. -Nice. -I’m sorry.

He’s new. -Auntie Leila. -I’m real excited to meet Melissa Miranda. She is a young Filipino-American chef that runs the pop-up called Musong to make sure that Filipino-American food becomes more on the map, more recognizable, so more people knows about it. Chef, Melissa’s here. Can I have a break?

-Oh, yes, of course. Of course. -Okay, good. -You earned it. You earned it. -I’ll see you later. All right. -Thanks, Tita. -She cooked all over the world. She cooked in New York. She cooked in Italy. But Melissa is so respectful for the queen of Filipino cuisine. -Tita Leila. -Yes.

-Do you think we could get a plate of chicken adobo? -Sure. -This is, like, kind of the national plate. -This is your barbecue, right, moreover? -Exactly. -I never mastered a good adobo. I’m never happy with mine. Like, what am I doing wrong? -When you talk about everyone’s personal version of it,

It comes down to the balance of sour, salty, and a little bit of heat from the black peppercorns. -Yeah, but it’s subtle, right? Yeah, it’s coming from the back. -It is subtle. It is subtle. I am more on the balance where it’s like I have a 1-to-1 ratio of soy and vinegar. -Yeah.

-And then I add a little bit of water, so it’s more not heavily acidic, but not heavily salty. -Yeah. ♪♪ Most cuisines just use their vinegar for pickle and preserve. The Filipino, it’s almost the opposite. It starts with cooking the protein long and heavy in their vinegars.

The sourness is just not a light note that goes away. It’s deep tissue in the dishes. -There are certain regions in the Philippines where they add coconut milk. Some people add potatoes. Some people add boiled eggs. It’s always an amazing talking point in terms of, like, “Let me try your adobo.”

-Yeah. -You know what I mean? I was in the Philippines two months ago. -Mm-hmm. -And there’s a lot of folks focusing on the original recipes prior to Colonialism. The original adobo in looking at it — -So good. -I know. There’s no soy sauce. It’s actually just vinegar, black peppercorns, and bay leaves. ♪♪

-I would say there are three major forces that impacted Filipino cuisine. First, they were a major trade partner with China. Then they were colonized by Spain for hundreds and hundreds of years. And here’s where it gets complicated. They became a U.S. territory, but during that time,

They were occupied by Japan during World War II. So it’s messy, but it also sets up major points of great cuisine. I love this place. This is so cool. -I know. This is what it looks like in the Philippines. -Yeah. -And this is the place

We bring everyone. -Oh, I thought I was special. -[ Laughs ] -What are you talking about? -You are — You are — You are special. -What happened? -That’s why she’s putting you to work. -You bring all the guys over here, sure. -[ Laughs ] -Yeah, you’re welcome in this kitchen any time,

And I don’t say that often. -Thank you so much. This was delicious. -Thank you so, so much. -I ate all of it. I don’t know, like, what she’s trying to do, but I ate all of it. -I’m still hungry. Just kidding. [ Laughs ] -Still hungry? [ Mid-tempo music plays ]

-I’m really excited to spend the day with Chef Melissa. ♪♪ Now she’s gonna take me to one of her long-time favorite restaurants right here in Seattle. Right in the middle of these big-box office buildings, there’s this sweet little diner called Ludi’s that’s been there forever. Wow. -I know, right? Uncle Greg! -Hi!

-[ Speaks Tagalog ] -[ Speaks Tagalog ] -How are you? -Hello, Marcus. -Greg came from Manila to Seattle in the ’70s, and he worked really, really hard. And the owners liked Greg so much, eventually, they gave him the restaurant. What is Filipino breakfast? What is that?

-Well, really what it is, it’s, like, a lot of rice, eggs, longanisa, or pork chop. -Oh, pork chop for breakfast? -Yeah. -You’re living large if you’re doing pork chops for breakfast. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Yeah, no, no. ♪♪ But this diner has been here since the ’30s. -I only made it Filipino

A little bit when I got ownership. -When did you start here? -In 1978 as a dishwasher. The boss lady, she treated me just like a regular dishwasher. Sometimes I like to mingle with the customers. They stopped me, said, “No, Greg. You got to be in the kitchen.” [ Laughter ]

[ Laughter ] -Bless her. Bless her. She gave you the business. Who cares? -He remembers every person’s name. -Yeah. -Like, he’s super, super on point. -We see your Grandma is Helga. -Yes. -And then you have a sister, Anna and Linda. -Yes, that’s right. -[ Laughs ]

-And then your wife is Maya. -[ Laughs ] -Stop, stop. -And then you have a son named Zion Mandela. -That’s unbelievable. -Well, I have no more questions after that. You shut it down. -Now you just shut it down. He’s like, “Nope, no more.” -That’s so good. -[ Laughs ] -Oh, my God.

[ Up-tempo music plays ] ♪♪ Nice. -Oh, my God. -Oh, these sausages look great, nice. ♪♪ -What I love about the food, it’s very flavorful. Beautiful sausage. It’s fatty. It’s rich. The vinegar with a little bit of heat. This is comfort food to the fullest, you know? -Yes. ♪♪

-Uncle Greg, thank you so much. -Okay, thank you, Marcus. -And I wish you continued success. -Thank you. -You’re a true American success story. -Rita bought a book for you to sign. -Okay, thank you. No, I really congratulate you. -But she bought a $40 one. Th– There’s one for $15. [ Laughter ]

-Don’t tell my business. [ Laughter continues ] Make the black man blush. I like it. Only Greg can do that. Yeah. Not even you can do that. [ Laughter ] I love it. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] [ Birds squawking ] -Seattle’s the closest port from Asia.

If you think about the ships coming over, it’s quicker to come to Seattle than go to L.A., San Francisco. It’s a — It’s a shorter trip. My name’s Dorothy Cordova. You’re here in the offices of the Filipino-American National Historical Society. I’m the executive director. ♪♪

Filipinos started to come here hundreds of years ago. And the interesting thing is, a lot of people didn’t even know we were a part of the United States from 1898 until 1946. [ Gunshots ] In 1898, the Philippines started to fight for freedom from Spain in the Spanish-American War.

The Spaniards refused to admit defeat, and they agreed to sell the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. ♪♪ By virtue of that, all Filipinos are now free to come to the United States if their passage is paid. ♪♪ Seattle was a major port of entry.

We had the lumber industry and the fishing industry, and there were little farms. ♪♪ By the ’70s, because of the changes in immigration laws, the largest group of immigrants coming to the United States were people from the Philippines. And yet people knew nothing about us. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪

-I was actually born here in Beacon Hill, historically a Filipino neighborhood. There’s still a lot of Filipino families that live here. Sadly, not as many as before. My mom worked a lot. She was a nurse, so I have a lot of memories of being with my dad.

My dad came here in the ’70s when he was in the Merchant Marines. With a mustache and just, like, the biggest hair. We spent a lot of time in Chinatown. We’d be walking in the streets, and people would be calling out, “Hey, Musang!” “Musang” translated means “wild cat.”

My dad was such a huge inspiration for how I have memories of Filipino food. So we started doing monthly brunch pop-ups called Musang. And the idea and intent was to just get people to familiarize themselves with Filipino food. People failed to realize that the Philippines is comprised of islands,

And there’s so many versions of dishes that people haven’t been able to experience or taste. I just wanted it to be something that was an honoring of myself to my family, which I hope we’re doing justice. [ Doorbell rings ] -Hey. -Hi. Welcome. -Thank you. Thanks for having me.

-Come on in. Come on in. My parents are actually here, too. -What’s up, boss? How are you? -Rey. -Good. -Good, good. -We’ve got golden pompano. -Golden pampano, nice. That’s nice. -That’s the good fish. -So we got some great West Coast oysters. -Yes. We’ll be using this for the kinilaw, actually…

-Oh. -…which is our version of a ceviche. So the basic version of this is always some ginger, red onion, and vinegar. I’m adding some kumquats, a little bit of chilies, and then we’re using a coconut vinegar as a souring agent. -Mmm. -Yeah. -It’s beautiful. -Right? -It’s almost like the oyster water itself.

-Yeah. -That’s a good addition. -In our family, I would always kind of be cooking in the kitchen with them. -She always bugs me. -Yeah, I would always be like, “Dad, let me help.” -Yeah, yeah. -“I want to help.” So he’d give me, like, the — the mean jobs.

I would have to clean squid. -Ooh. -At, like, a really young age and — -That is hard. -I know. ♪♪ So Dad does kind of by eye. There’s no recipe. -Yeah. -And so he’s adding in the red onions right now. He’ll add the ginger, and then we’ll add the vinegar. ♪♪

-Love what’s happening here. Got bitter, sour, some sweet. Mmm! This is awesome. -How is it? -Spicy, hot. -Spicy? -I only put one pepper. -Yeah, but it’s a hot one. ♪♪ -Sarciado is the fried fish, and it’s topped with tomato, garlic, onion, sauce that’s coming to a boil.

And then we’ll thicken with an egg. -Mel, I need cover. -Oh, you do? Okay. -I like it. He cooks like a real chef. He just calls it out. ♪♪ -So, he’s the master of this sauce. Whenever my mom and I would try and cook it, we’d always curdle the eggs. -Mmm! -All right.

I think we’re done. -I love this idea of thickening with egg. It’s really nice. -Lord, bless this food and give the nourishment to our body. In Jesus’ name. -Amen. -Okay. [ Chuckles ] [ Mid-tempo music plays ] -We just did a huge kamayan pop-up dinner called “no cookbooks allowed.” ♪♪

So the concept is to pay homage to an elder that’s cooked for us. -Mm-hmm. -No cookbooks, meaning two pinches of salt or one cup of vinegar, you know. -Yeah. Yeah. -So everything by memory. -It’s always a question of what is passed on to one generation and what you hold on to, especially…

-That’s exactly what — -…when you come to the new country. -Growing up, I tried to reject — not reject being Filipino, but, like, it’s hard when you kind of get bullied or, like, your clothes smell weird or whatever. But, like, our language is also not getting passed down.

What is the first thing that we can do to pass down? It’s the food. -Like, I’ve never had this dish, and I love the finish of this. -Yes. -You might — -Did you like it? -I love it. I think it’s fantastic. -You do it with love always.

You don’t do it with love — -Yeah. Where’s the pop-up in three years from now, do you think? -Hopefully sooner we’ll be a brick-and-mortar. -Yeah? -There is a definite ask from the community for, “Where can we find dishes like this?” -Oh, cool.

-Yeah, I’ve been asking you, but you don’t want to hire me. -[ Laughs ] Wait till the brick-and-mortar, Dad. -Yeah. -You’ll get there. -I need some money. -[ Laughs ] [ Mid-tempo music plays ] -I’m in Beacon Hill in south Seattle, and I’m gonna meet my boy Geo.

So, Geo’s got many, many talents. He’s a cook. He’s a business owner. Most important, a rapper. Geo’s taking me to this hub of the Filipino community. It’s been in the neighborhood for over 25 years, and it’s called Fou Lee. So this is all things Filipino over here? -If not strictly Filipino,

Things Filipinos would need in their kitchen. My parents, they live an hour away, but they’ll come out here just to shop here. All this is good stuff, too. Watermelon seed. -Yeah. -Purple yam, ube. -Yeah, nice. -Boil this, cut it up. It turns purple. -Long beans, of course. -Yep. -Beautiful. So it’s local produce.

-Yeah, yeah, this is Filipino farmers supplying the Filipino grocery stores. -That’s beautiful. This is not hipster beet juice. This is pork blood. This is the real deal. Filipino food has a lot of sour, a lot of fermentation. -Yeah. -This is nothing but beautiful fermented fish sauce, right? -And this is just one side.

The whole other side is fermented shrimp. -Now you’re speaking my language. -[ Laughs ] Yeah. -This is what I grew up on. Smoked herring, dried fish here. -Uh-huh. -For flavoring broths and soups, right? -Or just a beer and this, boom. -Straight. Yes. ♪♪ As a teenager coming up,

There were no Filipino rapper role models. How was that, when you sat your mom and dad down and said, “Guess what. I’m gonna be a rapper”? -It went like, um, “That’s — That’s a — That’s a cool hobby,” you know. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -“We support that as long

As you’re going back to school,” right? -Yeah. -When we opened up for Kanye in front of 20,000 people… -Yeah. -…I think at that point, they were like, “All right, let’s — we’re not gonna ask you if you’re gonna go finish your degree.” I haven’t actively toured a minute.

Just kind of got sucked into the food industry. -Sure. We all do, right? At some point, we come back to it, right? -Look at these off cuts. -Yeah. -Like, what was hip-hop? It was like using the scraps that other people didn’t want… -Exactly. -…putting it together and making something fresh out of it.

-I love that. -Innards are hip-hop. ♪♪ If you’ve never been here before, you definitely got to get the crispy pork belly. -Is this lechón? The crispiness. Amazing. Mmm, it’s like candy. -That right there, dinuguan. That’s the crown jewel right there. The story about that is I didn’t know

That was pork blood growing up. I was told it was chocolate meat. -Thank you very much. Nice to meet you. -Very nice to meet you. -All right. -Thank you. -See you. Enjoy the food! ♪♪ -We’re really doing this out here? -Yeah. I’m really impressed with this. -Dinuguan. -Dinuguan.

So it looks like Mexican mole, right? -Mm-hmm. -But then the sourness that comes through makes it actually light. It’s not as heavy and dense as I thought. Mmm. But when you taste Filipino food, you taste the history. You taste Spain. You taste Mexico. You taste America. You taste China.

Such a range of humble ingredients, but it tastes so good. -Yeah. -It’s so delicious. -I do think the essence of what was there before all the waves of contact with other cuisine is still present, though. If you ask me, the star is always gonna be the vinegar, which is indigenous Filipino right there.

-The acid you get in Filipino food is very different, and it’s always the vinegar that stands out. -Mm-hmm. There’s beauty in what’s blended with other cultures to become Filipino cuisine, but there’s just some things that I think is the soul and the essence of what it’s been the longest.

We took it upon ourselves to educate folks about the food and then to educate them about what’s going on in the Philippines. -Mm-hmm. -The reasons we even migrate and end up in places like Seattle. -I really love how Geo thinks about food and culture and dialogue all as one.

For people like me that don’t know that much about Filipino culture, there’s a window in for us here. We can learn so much more. So, I’m gonna meet back up with Geo and his wife, Chera, in the Chinatown-International District. ♪♪ And they’re in the middle of opening their new store called Hood Famous.

-Welcome to Hood Famous Café and Bar. -This is Hood Famous? -Yeah. -Yes. -I love the name, Hood Famous. That’s pretty good. That is pretty good. ♪♪ I love this location. It’s, like, in the middle of part of Chinatown. -Yeah, it was Chinese-Americans who anchored the community,

And then subsequent waves of Asian migrants came. -Yes. -So you got Japantown proper and then another wave of Filipinos who came here. They call it the manong generation, mostly men, migrant workers who were scattered throughout Chinatown, Japantown. ♪♪ -This is a historical building. There was a long history of manongs

Who were farm workers down in California. When that season was done, they’d come up here and stay in, like, hotels like this before they went up to the Alaskan canneries. ♪♪ So, we’re almost open. -Almost ready? -Work in progress, yes. -Almost ready. Right here, we’ll have coffee,

And then transitioning from day to night, we’ll have cocktails. And then throughout, we’ll have a lot of our desserts. -I want a taste of cheesecake. -All right. So, a lot of people always ask us, what is ube? -Yeah. -What is calamansi? And so we have the actual purple yam and the citrus.

-Mmm, I love calamansi. -Yeah. -Mmm. Sour, sweet. -It’s got that tanginess. Here is the ube cheesecake. We actually started off savory, doing a Filipino pop-up dinner. -Yeah. -But this ube cheesecake took a life of its own. -Oh, cool. -And so from pop-up, we did a bakery called Hood Famous. ♪♪

Coming from the pop-up world, we said, “Okay, let’s get something really small. Let’s see if we can do this.” And it’s mainly production and put a little retail to go. -Nice. -And then we’ve been doing that for about two years. It’s what allowed us to get to a place

Where we were able to innovate and expand the line. -Cool. -All right, let’s cut it up. -I love that purple. Like, it just stands out. -Mm-hmm. ♪♪ -Mmm. I like the ube. I like the ube a lot. You know, hip-hop, the art form of starting with something

Familiar but then adding another personal layer to it — You’re representing ube that’s been around forever but then doing your own personal spin on it. -Yeah. -Nothing can be more hip-hop than that. -Yeah, yeah. -[ Laughs ] -Do you have two sons? -Mm-hmm. -Which ones do the kids like?

-They like this. -They actually love the pie. So this is called our buko pie, and it’s a specialty in a part of the Philippines called Laguna. Buko is a young coconut, and then inside, there’s shreds of young coconut. ♪♪ -Mmm, the texture is amazing, and the coconut comes in the end,

And it’s not super sweet. -A lot of people who had this in the Philippines don’t really see this here, so we’re bringing back some memories and make people feel like they’re back in the Philippines again. -Cheers. -Mmm! -[ Laughs ] -I’m busy eating. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

I’m, like, over here eating. This is really good. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] -Knee High Stocking Co. is a Filipino-owned speakeasy based in Seattle, but we’re totally hidden in plain sight. ♪♪ We offer all of the standard Prohibition-era cocktails. But we also make our own in-house shrubs. [ Ice shaking ]

The shrub is a vinegar-and-sugar-based drink. And our food is Filipino- inspired American comfort foods. We also have Jeepney Cap Hill, which is our takeout window, so people could try the Filipino food but not necessarily have to have the whole sit-down dinner. We felt that there were so many really great mom-and-pop restaurants

In the city doing really, really original Filipino cuisine that it was okay for us to kind of dial it back for the things that we grew up with and that we were comfortable with eating. I grew up in the Midwest, and my mother worked third shift, which would be in the evening. ♪♪

And she would have all of our food made before she left for work, but we were really picky eaters, and so she actually would tweak a meal three different ways for her kids. We had no appreciation for that at all. ♪♪ We still cook together, so she sort of teaches us

To think a little bit deeper about what this is supposed to taste like. And she’s really humble, so, like, I can decide, “I don’t want to do it that way.” And she’ll just be like, “No problem. We’ll try it your way. And then all of a sudden, the reality is,

Is that her way really does work better. Mmm. Nice, Mama. -Pretty good, huh? -Nice, very nice. Thank you. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] -I’m going to this really cool speakeasy. I’m super excited. Got to ring the doorbell. [ Doorbell rings ] ♪♪ [ Ice shaking ]

So, I’m gonna have a drink with Sara, who’s a playwright, actress, and really active in the creative community here in Seattle. Hey, how are you? -I’m good. How are you? -How’s it going? -Very well. -Good, good. So, Sara, acting, theater, has that always been your world? -Pretty much.

I was the first grandchild, so first in my generation. -Mm-hmm. -My grandma, she was always, “We always knew you were going to be famous.” -Wow. -“And you can pay for my retirement.” -[ Laughs ] You just wrote your own play, your own show. How was that?

-So, three plays, one for each generation of my family. And the whole thing is called “The Dragon Cycle.” -I like it. -I’m writing a new play, and it’s a play with music inspired by Seattle history paired with four courses of fine dining. It starts in 1940s. It focuses specifically on three little girls,

And they all love jazz. And they sneak in the alleyway of 7th and Jackson… -Yeah. -…7th and King and listen to the basement window of, like, this speakeasy… -That’s really cool. -…to all of these jazz musicians down there. -Yes. 7th and Jackson, so that’s Chinatown- International District, right? -Mm-hmm.

A lot of people don’t know that the different ethnic enclaves moving in and out of that neighborhood are, like, so varied. Prohibition started in 1916. In that time period, there was a huge wave of Filipino immigration. And so where would these ethnic enclaves really gather? Dance halls, clubs, speakeasies.

Everybody want to have a good time. -Yeah. -Throw in some music, throw in some alcohol. You got some cultural mixing. ♪♪ Then, Washington legislature was like, “Wait a minute. We can’t have this. We don’t want you colored people marrying these white people.” -“What’s going on? What’s going on, yeah.” -Miscegenation laws. -Yeah.

-“You can’t marry these people.” And the Filipinos are like, “You can’t tell us what to do.” -Yeah. -And the black people were like, “Racism.” -Yeah. -So, there was a banding of black community groups… -Oh, wow. -…and Filipino community groups, probably the first example in Seattle’s history of cultural mixing resulting in coalition activism.

-Yeah. It gets interesting when — the deeper you dive into something, right? So here you are, talking about something that happened in the ’30s. That’s amazing. -Yeah. And I’m also like, “Why didn’t I learn about this in history?” -Yeah. -Growing up, I heard mostly about Japanese history and Chinese history.

-Yeah. -And for a long time, I was like, “Where are the Filipinos at?” [ Up-tempo music plays ] ♪♪ -So we got some food? What do we got here? -We do. We have arroz caldo. -Nice. -It’s your dish to share. -Mmm. -Arroz caldo is kind of like the Filipino version of kanji.

It’s usually with a chicken broth, lots of ginger in there, topped with fresh garlic, and then you have a soft-boiled egg. Ay, my God, massarap. So good. ♪♪ -Delicious. -Right? -I love that, that you’re doing something with jazz and mixing of cultures. And so it’s like a love letter to the city, too.

-Truly. -You know, a stage is a stage. It can be in a restaurant. It can be off Broadway, whatever. What type of venues did you then find that was open to that? -You know, it was less of venues, actually, and more of people. -Mm-hmm. -You know, we —

We talk about gatekeepers in any business. -Yeah, sure. -And those gatekeepers are the people who get to say yes or no, meaning you get to go on through and be one of us, or you have to stay out. -Mm-hmm. It’s very similar in the hospitality industry, right?

What food is good, what’s accepted to whom. -Mm-hmm. -I think when you’re of color, there’s very often not a lot of people that went before you, so you just constantly have to think about, “Okay, I got to do it.” And when you come out the other side, it’s pretty powerful.

The power of storytelling. -Amen. [ Laughs ] ♪♪ [ Down-tempo music plays ] ♪♪ -One of the things that we do here at Archipelago here in Hillman City in the south end of Seattle is source 100% from the Pacific Northwest. ♪♪ We took the last 2 1/2 years of doing R&D to see,

“Can I find the taste of what I grew up with, maybe ingredients that are not used in Filipino cuisine?” ♪♪ We grew up here as second-generation Filipino-Americans. We chose to identify as Pacific Northwest progressive Filipino-American cuisine. For our guests, it’s important for us to define that, and we’re very specific about that.

Don’t get us wrong. We — We love ingredients from the Philippines, fantastic artisanal things. We asked ourselves, how can we get to those kind of flavors and those building blocks but still tell a very authentic story to who we are? -It’s not really restrictions or limitations,

But just finding the beauty in what we have right here. ♪♪ -Hey! How are you? -Hello. Welcome. -Hi. -How are you? Marcus. -Nice to meet you. -Chef, how you doing? -What’s up, Chef? How are you? -Aaron. Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you. -Pleasure to meet you.

-How are you, Mom? -Oh, I’m good. -Good. Good. I’m all yours. I’m ready to cook for you, Chef. -Yeah, come on, come — come around. -I’m ready. -We’re gonna do some bread. We’re gonna do pandesal. So we have a couple different flours. And all the flours here are from the Pacific Northwest.

This idea of different flours is actually not very modern. If you go to the Philippines, there’s not one pandesal. -Every island doesn’t speak to each other, right? Like, it’s spread out. -Yeah, yeah. -So of course the tradition’s gonna be — -7,000. -It’s gonna be a little bit different. Yeah, yeah. -Imagine, 7,000 islands.

This dough, we’re gonna get to 200 grams. -So basically, it’s one part of this… -Yeah. -…half a part, half a part, basically — that’s what we’re doing. -There it is. There’s no mistakes here, Chef. -[ Laughs ] -People think baking, like, precision. There are millions of ways to make your bread work.

This is all hand-mixed. I just love it ’cause it’s the feel, and you just — -And bread is so much in the feel. -Yeah, exactly, and you just let time take over. -So, Archipelago is a tasting menu. Does every course have a Filipino accent? -Sometimes it starts with a story, right?

Sometimes it’ll start with us kind of uncovering something that we found in the archive. The Filipino-American National Historical Society is here in Seattle, and we have a couple of those dishes that we’ll start there. What do you think? -Feels great. It’s a little wet inside, right? -Yeah. Yeah.

So it feels wet, but look how it holds its shape. -Yeah. -Right? -When you and Amber started this project, did you feel like people loved Filipino food but yet there was not a lot of fine-dining Filipino restaurants out there? -There’s a lot more in the Philippines. I find actually that the Philippines

Is far more progressive than the U.S., which is kind of an irony. -Yeah. That’s how the world works. -Yeah. -You know, when you go to Africa or you go to a place like Lagos, there’s tons of fine-dining restaurants. -Is that right? -And people would be like, “Oh, Africa,” you know.

Everyone has access to America, but we might not know what’s going on in other cultures, right? -Exactly. -So we got to make sure that we stay up and don’t fall behind. So when you’re cooking a fine-dining dish, the dish can land over here, right? How do you know that you’re staying on point?

-The cook is always, “Is this delicious?” first, period. -Yeah, delicious first. -You could be having this incredible, beautiful story, the most amazing ingredients. -Yeah. -If it’s not delicious, who cares, man? -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. -You know what I mean? But that being said, you can’t just say, “Oh, anything I do,

I knew if I’m Filipino, it’s gonna taste Filipino.” No. Because we have a long history of tradition, and these flavors you still need to hit. They’re anchors for us. -Cooking with Aaron was amazing because he’s super bright and technical. ♪♪ And nothing excites me more than going to a new restaurant

Because it’s really been the labor of love for the chef for a long, long, long time. -Welcome. Welcome. Come on in. Have a seat. -Thank you very much. -[ Speaks foreign language ] -So for your first course, we have pandesal, which translates to “salt bread,” even though it’s not very salty.

And then on your Oregon petrified wood, we have shallot butter with sustainable caviar from Idaho. -Wow, the bread is so good. -Yeah. ♪♪ -What I think is incredible with Aaron and Amber is they really thought about the guest experience. How do I plate it?

Am I using a plate? It might be a stone. It might be fresh herbs. It’s really carefully curated. [ Flame whooshes ] -This next dish is kinilaw. The bottom of this entire dish is a tin for sardines and canning. ♪♪ This can is to honor the cannery workers

That have worked in the Pacific Northwest for over 100 years. This is a theatrical performance with smells, flavor, taste, aesthetic, design, and you are forced to sort of kind of, like, shut the outside down, drop your phone, and just be in the moment. This is so delicious. Nice. ♪♪ -This is our dinuguan.

Dinuguan is a blood-based dish. Usually it’s done with pork. This is a 29-day aged rib eye. We do it with beef mostly because if you like your steak pink or red, the idea of a blood sauce is a little bit of a nice bridge for you.

You have a mangoto underneath these greens that are braised in a little reduced green apple juice, and then the Orosa sauce. And María Orosa, she’s the inventor of banana ketchup. We don’t have bananas in the Northwest, but we do have pumpkins, squashes, starchy sweet things like this.

We caramelize those down with red onions, some hot sweet chilies from down in Oregon. We call this Orosa sauce to respect that feminine energy that is super, super important in our culture and our cuisine. ♪♪ Dig in, dig in, dig in. ♪♪ Last fun fact about María Orosa —

She actually went to the University of Washington, and so she’s absolutely a Filipina national hero, but she’s also a Pacific Northwest Filipina-American one, too. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] ♪♪ -So, thank you so much for an absolutely amazing meal. If it takes once a year to be here to be a regular,

I can become a regular, too. All right. Congratulations. This is absolutely amazing. Congrats. -Thank you. ♪♪ [ Ship horn blows ] ♪♪ -I’m going 30 minutes north of Seattle to Edmonds. It’s a stunning place. You’re right on the water. The mountains are right in front of you.

It’s kind of magical in a way. Yes, Seattle’s a big city, but you kind of always are around nature. [ Camera shutter clicks ] I’m gonna meet my friend Brian. Brian comes kind of from a fine-dining culture. He used to work for Mr. Restaurant in Seattle, Tom Douglas.

But now he’s doing his own thing and got his own restaurant right here in Edmonds. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] So, Brian grew up fishing, so he’s gonna teach me how to do squid jigging. I grew up in a fishing village. I have no clue what squid jigging is,

But I’m always ready to learn. ♪♪ Hey. -Hey, Marcus. Thanks for coming out here. -Thank you so much. -I’ve been fishing ever since I was little. During the summertime and — -Cool. -…the salmon runs through here. -What about squid? Is that all year, or — -Squid is open all year-round,

So you can do it, but it only gets really busy during the colder months, so we’re waiting for it to get colder, then maybe the season will pick up. -What? Colder than this? I got three layers on, man. -[ Laughs ] -How do you prepare them?

Do you put them on the grill? Do you poach them? Like, what’s the process afterwards? -After they’re all cleaned up, take really, really salty water and just lightly blanch them. -And then they go straight to the restaurant? -[ Laughs ] -Right? Or home? -Yeah. Right. Well, maybe we can catch some tonight

And you can try it tonight. -Right. Don’t jinx it. -[ Laughs ] -Don’t jinx it. -I’m not trying to jinx it. ♪♪ -Let’s see if we can get one. -[ Laughs ] -Has anybody been catching anything? -Going squid jigging with Brian, you realize quickly, there’s gonna be more people to this party.

-The other pole? I left it right there. -I’m surrounded with Brian’s uncles and cousins. -I’m the only professional fisherman here. -Okay. [ Laughter ] -Brian, I taught you everything I know. [ Laughter ] By the way. -Hold your string, flip the rod there,

And then we’re just gonna sling it out and then release. These squid, they come in giant schools, so you could be out here having nothing just like we are now. And when that school comes in, in 15 minutes, you can catch your limit. -Hey, what do we got coming in?

-Oh, look, they’re coming in. -Oh. -They’re coming in. -They’re coming in, yeah. -Lookit. That’s not squid. -Uh, I think those are herring. -Those are herring, yeah. -Yeah. -Herring. That’s a squid food, though. -Yeah. -So when the herring comes, squid comes. -They’re coming. -Squid’s next. -If you want to explain Filipino culture

To someone that don’t know anything about it, how would you guys define — -We’re very family-oriented. Everybody’s our uncle, cousin. When new people come in, we adopt them. It’s a family right away. -I think what people don’t see sometimes is the toughness in Filipinos. We are very kind, very family-oriented,

But there’s this grit that people don’t always see. -Why do you think Seattle became such a hub? -Because of the fishing. [ Laughter ] -Clearly not. We’re not representing well. [ Laughter ] -These are giant shrimp chips. -Perfect, nice. -We make this at my restaurant, and, you know, it’s on every single table.

This is apple cider vinegar, but it’s got chili, garlic, and ginger. There you go. Try that out. [ Crunching ] -Mmm. That’s beautiful. Good. -The master schooner strikes again. This is why they call it calamari, because they’re very calm when you catch it. -Yeah. -Oh, man.

-Did you put that on and throw it back in? [ Laughter ] I don’t trust you. Anyone else I would have trust. I don’t trust you. -That’s why they call it calamari ’cause they’re calm when they catch ’em. They don’t jig around. [ Laughter ] -Should we bring out the dynamite?

-Yeah, let’s bring out the dynamite. [ Laughter ] -Dynamite and the nets. ♪♪ So I’m back in the city, going to meet Domingo, the chef from this restaurant called East Trading Company. ♪♪ East Trading is kind of Pan-Asian restaurant. Encompasses all, but Domingo has free creative control of the menu.

I know that it’s gonna be delicious. What’s up, Chef? -Hey, how you doing? -What’s going on? -Not much. -Excited to be here. -Yeah. So today we’re gonna do a kare kare. -What goes into a good kare kare? -We got the Filipino eggplant, baby bok choy, and then a really good ingredient

Traditionally used is banana flower. It kind of has like a hearts of palm or that kind of artichoke heart kind of texture and flavor, too. -Nice. The beautiful thing with long beans like these, they’re, like, a little rougher than normal sort of green beans. -Mm-hmm. -But they have a texture

To them that is so thick and good and fulfilling. -Yeah, yeah. They go really well with stews, so… Do you want to go ahead and sauté some of the garlic and onions? -Sure. You want to caramelize the peanuts, as well, or — -Absolutely. Let’s go ahead and throw those in there. ♪♪

-This dish could be from Ghana. -Oh, yeah. -‘Cause you thicken sauces in Ghana with peanuts. It’s like I’ve never seen a dish from Southeast Asia that reminds me so much about West Africa. It’s amazing. -You can go ahead and drop some of that chicken stock in there,

And then we’re gonna add some of this peanut butter here. -Wow, this smells so good. -And so the idea with these, you don’t want to really have the stems in there ’cause that’s gonna give the sauce a little bit of bitterness. -So this is the piece we’re getting rid of?

-Yep, you’re getting rid of the stem, and then you’re keeping the actual flower. -So you’re half Filipino, half Native American. -Yes. -How much Native and how much Filipino did you grow up with in terms of food? -Food-wise, it was mostly Filipino. -Yeah? -Obviously, like, the Filipino side of my family was huge,

And so on my mom’s side, home cooking was a lot of stews mostly. Stew. -Stews, yeah, nice. -And, you know, goulash. -Oh. -Which I hated. [ Laughter ] I hated it. -Sorry, Mom. -Yeah. ♪♪ -And what meat goes into kare kare? -Uh, oxtails.

-They just have such a perfect balance between fat and bone, so the longer you braise them, the better they taste. Right? -Yeah. -This dish takes some time, right? This is a slow braise. -It does take some time — about three hours. -Oh, wow. Nice. -Yeah. So, these oxtails are lookin’ real good.

-Oh, they’re lookin’ nice. -Yeah. -They’re lookin’ great. -Yeah. So we’re gonna take the vegetables and we’re gonna sauté those all up. -Cool. [ Sizzling ] -So, we want to keep that texture on them and just give ’em a little bit of sauté. And then we’re gonna throw ’em off to the side. ♪♪

-I’m impressed. Like, I come from New York. A New York kitchen is small. -Yeah. -This kitchen is real small. -Yeah. Want to take some of these oxtails here. It’s just falling off the bone. -Beautiful. Nice. -Yeah. Take some of these veggies. -Yeah.

-And you’re just gonna take that and spoon it right over the top. Oh, yeah. -This sauce is so interesting ’cause there’s so many different textures from the peanuts. And is this shrimp paste, or what is that? -Shrimp paste. So, that’s bagoong. -And the umami’s in here and the funk. -Yeah. -That fermentation. Mmm.

-So it’s basically a fish paste. -Nice. Oh, we gonna spread it in? -Oh, we’re going right on top. -Oh. On top! What?! Straight on top. -Straight on top. And then we’re gonna do more crushed peanuts. -I love it. -Yeah. There it is.

-I love the fact that you put the shrimp right on top. I thought, “Is he gonna mix it in the sauce?” No, straight on top. -Right on top. -Wow. What are you gonna have? -What am I gonna have? [ Laughs ] -This is so good, man. ♪♪

What was really fun about hanging out at East Trading… Hey. What’s up, guys? …a couple of chef friends stopped by to eat some kare kare. I love this smell with the shrimp paste on top. -Got to waft it in. -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My boy Edouardo is an amazing chef.

He just won not one, but two Beard Awards. He got two restaurants and a bar in Seattle. He’s blowing up. Edouardo brought Kelvyn and Elmer, two of his key people, with him. Edouardo, being in Seattle, are you exposed to Filipino food, as well, or, like — -I’m very much exposed.

Like, my — -Oh, nice. -My main crew is, like, mainly Filipinos. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -They’re just good people. They’re like family, you know? -Has any of the influences ended up at Junebaby yet? [ Laughter ] -Not just yet. Maybe at Salare a little bit. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay.

Kelvyn, did you come up front of the house, back of the house? -Just cooking. -Cooking? -Just in the kitchen, yeah. -Nice. Nice. -There’s so many of us in the industry, but it’s so rare to find someone that has a voice to actually, like, break out and present the menu, present these things.

I grew up on Guam, and it’s smaller, but, like, my mom owned a Filipino restaurant. So it’s, like, magical to see we’re doing it out in a big city, like, it’s — -Yeah. -This is the United States of America. Like, it’s — -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-You know, this is food that I grew up eating every day. Like, likewise with Edouardo’s food. It’s on this ‘nother level right now where everybody’s watching us, so it’s — -We’re having conversations now. Like, you know, my — my family, we didn’t have conversations about our food.

We ate the food that Grandma cooked. -You had to eat whatever was there. -And now, like, we’re able to share our stories. We’re able to talk about the history and learn more about it and appreciate it now. And people are noticing that. -When do you think that change happened,

And why do you think that change is happening? -When more of us started getting voices in our industry. You know, there was a few chefs of similar race and culture that was running this city for a long time. And, you know, now we have so many young guns comin’ up

And we makin’ some noise, you know? -Of course. Absolutely. -Yeah. -I’m going in here. I don’t know about y’all. -All you got to do is look at it. -Pick that thing up, yes. -Use your hands, get off the bone. -Fork not needed. -Mm-hmm. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] ♪♪

-So, tonight is potluck at Chera and Geo’s house. ♪♪ It looks out over Lake Washington. It’s stunning. [ Laughter ] Hey. -Hello! -Hey! -What’s up, man? How are you? -What’s up, Chef? How you doing? -This view is so crazy! What’s up? How are you? -How you doing? ♪♪ -So everybody’s cooking something.

Everybody’s working in every corner in this kitchen, right? -Sinanglaw is a beef dish. It’s a sour soup. All the aromatics — ginger, jalapeño, some chilies, some tripe. -Yeah. -Some short rib. Then we have goat, a little oxtail. -Oh, I like it. -Yeah. -Goat and oxtail. -Yeah, little bit of ox–

-So you’re really mixing the protein. -Mm-hmm. -That’s great. -We’ve got crab cooking up on the stove right now. I’m doing ginataang, which is a coconut-based Filipino curry. -Crab is so interesting. Do you guys use the buttering side, as well, or — -Ooh, hoo, hoo. -Yeah. -Okay. Good. ‘Cause some cultures don’t,

And I’m like, “That’s the best part.” Yeah. -That’s the best part. -That’s the best part. -I’m super excited about this potluck. It’s not only an opportunity to try a lot of different dishes. It’s also a chance for me to taste foods and dishes that might not be on restaurant menus —

Really home-cooked Filipino food. ♪♪ And you’re focusing mostly on dessert, right? -I am. This is the dessert you want to have when it’s cold, like wintertime, ’cause it’s a warm coconut soup dessert. And then we’ve got jackfruit, saba bananas. My favorite, ube. -Yeah? I know about ube. -Yeah. -Yeah.

-You just mix it all together. Halo-halo. ♪♪ -Oh, nice. -That’s a good one. -Yeah. How long do you cook it? -Um, 10 minutes. -All right, cool. ♪♪ [ Sizzling ] We got coconut milk. -Coconut milk. Got sautéed shrimp paste. -Mm-hmm. -Fish sauce, too. -We goin’ double umami.

Why not? -We’re going in for the funk. -Yeah. [ Smoke alarm beeping ] -Yeah! We knew it. [ Laughter ] Knew it. [ Cheering ] -Get the towel, man! Get the towel! -Get the fire alarm off. ♪♪ -What’s exciting about this potluck is that almost everyone

Is in the hospitality industry of some sort. And everybody is bringing their favorite dish. [ Excited chatter ] -Hey! -What?! -Whatever that means, right? -[ Laughs ] -Kind of like my take on a lechón, so I roasted the head traditionally on a spit.

And then I deboned the body, rolled it all up with pork loin, and then stuffed it with Filipino sausage. -Oh, nice! Nice! -What? Longanisa here. -Some longanisa in the house. -Yes! Yes! ♪♪ -Hi! How are you? -So good. -Nice to see you again. -Nice. -And everybody’s empty. -Yeah, no. Everybody, of course. ♪♪

-Right here, I have Uncle Ernie. He’s kind of the person that has been an inspiration for all of us. -Cheers! -Cheers! -Cheers, cheers. -Cheers. -To the O.G. -We’re not here without you. -Yeah, seriously. -All right. CC comin’ through. -Yeah. [ Mid-tempo music plays ] -So, you guys ready to eat or what?

-God bless the food and the hands that made this and for everyone coming together. I just want to say blessings ’cause our culture, our people have been eating this for a long time, so thank you. -All right, let’s eat! Yay! [ Cheering ] Thank you, everyone, for cooking! -Whoo! Ooh! -All right, fam.

Shells and bones, okay? ♪♪ [ Indistinct conversation ] -So, how long have you been cooking? -For a long time, sir. -Yeah, because that takes real technique to do that. -I grew up in my grandma’s kitchen, man. That’s why I’m so big. -Oh, nice. -Literally every 15 minutes, like, I’d finish eating.

My grandma’d be like, “Hey, sit back down. I got something else.” -Oh. You were doing tasting menus before tasting menus. -Yeah. -That’s where Aaron got the concept from — your grandma, exactly, like — -That’s where it’s at, though. -Now we know. -That’s where it’s at. -One of the coolest things that you notice

With the Filipino community in Seattle, this is a party crew. They eat big. They drink big, and they love big. It’s such a tight-knit community, really proud of where they came from, how hard they worked to get it to stick together and create this delicious culture. What? What? What? What? -[ Laughs ]

♪♪ I just want to say thank you to all of you guys for making this so special. You guys have an amazing history, amazing food. You already know that. You don’t need me to tell you that. It’s several different generations, and you guys are gonna go on many different journeys.

But you have your food and you have each other, so thank you. Celebrate. All right. -Cheers! -Yes, cheers, cheers. -Yes, yes. Nice. ♪♪