Although chef Amanda Perez and her partner chef Jon Sarmenta come from different cultural backgrounds, Día de los Muertos, the traditional Day of the Dead holiday, is special to both them.
Perez is Mexican American while Sarmenta was born in the Philippines, before moving to Los Angeles at the age of 12.
Día de los Muertos is dedicated to honoring beloved family members who have passed away and has been celebrated in Mexico and other Latin countries for centuries. Traditions associated with the multi-day holiday include baking pan de muerto, decorating sugar skulls and building altars or “ofrenda” with photos of friends and family who have passed along with marigolds, candles and sometimes their favorite food.
“Día de los Muertos is a really important holiday for both of our cultures,” Perez said.
The duo met working at Mayfield, the popular California-style Levantine restaurant in San Juan Capistrano, and earlier this year began hosting pop-up dinners in private homes that bring their separate heritages together.
“We have worked in restaurants for a long time, but we have always wanted to do our own thing and make food that we can be excited and passionate about,” Perez said.
Amanda Perez and Jon Fuentebella blend Filipino flavors and Mexican soul at their pop-up dinner series, Mestiza.
(Courtesy of Mestiza)
They call their pop-up dinner series Mestiza, a word used in both Latin America and the Philippines to describe individuals of mixed ancestry.
“Growing up, when I learned about the word it kind of carried a negative connotation,” said Perez. “In Filipino culture and Mexican culture the background of the word is the same; for Jon it’s Filipino and Spanish mixed, for me it’s Mexican and Spanish mixed.”
Perez and Sarmenta are interested in reclaiming the word, by using it to describe the food they make that blends Filipino flavors with Mexican soul.
Mexico and the Philippines have cultural ties that stem from the two countries living under centuries of Spanish colonial rule, evident in their Catholic religion and other traditions.
“We have mixed heritage and that is what we bring to our food, Mexican and Filipino flavors, but now its even more than that,” said Perez. “We both have our perspective backgrounds but we both spent a lot of time growing up in Southern California and being round the food culture here.”
At a recent Mestiza pop-up in Orange Park Acres, a dinuguan taco exemplified how the chefs meld their two heritages into one dish. Dinuguan is a Filipino stew in which pork blood is used to create a rich, dark gravy. It is sometimes referred to as “chocolate meat” because of its dark brown color that can resemble a chocolate sauce.
At Mestiza, dinuguan is reimagined as a blood sausage and served on a handmade blue corn tortilla, topped with salsa and purslane. It’s presented in the way a chorizo street taco might be served, with a wedge of citrus is included on the plate, but it isn’t the traditional Mexican lime. It’s calamansi, a Filipino citrus fruit about the size of a kumquat that’s green on the inside with an orange outer peel and a unique minerality to its flavor.
A dinuguan taco at Mestiza, topped with purslane and served with a slice of calamansi.
(Sarah Mosqueda)
On Oct. 30, Mestiza will pop-up in Mission Viejo with a special one-night-only Día de los Muertos dining experience. The seven course meal will be rooted in their Filipino and Mexican influences and their personal connections to the holiday.
“Back home, Día de los Muertos was a holiday we always looked forward to. No matter if we had work or school, we always celebrated,” Sarmenta said. “We would visit our ancestors’ graves, clean them up and put flowers. Everyone was there, cousins, uncles, aunties and it was a good feeling.”
For their special dinner, Mestiza will present a multi-course menu, with dishes similar to the dinuguan taco.
“The holiday is really centered around food and family. With this dinner we want to make people feel immersed in what Day of the Dead means,” Perez said.
The menu will begin with ube pandesal for the table, Kumiai oysters with sinigang consommé, followed by beef skewers with salsa matcha and cabbage skewers with chile morita and tamarind dust.
The dinner also includes bigeye tuna served as kinilaw, a Filipino dish similar to ceviche, and a tostada raspada served with mole verde, a squash tamal with a kare-kare mole and lamb shank served in mole negro with ube corn tortillas.
“There are a bunch of different moles on this menu, and I am always excited about mole because it is one of my favorite things to make,” said Perez. “We are excited about the pan de muerto too, which is very traditional. I don’t think it would be Día de los Muertos without it.”
The meal will also take inspiration from the couple’s own travels to Mexico.
“We’ve been to Mexico for Day of the Dead and its is something we miss, so we we want to recreate that experience for people,” Sarmenta said.
The team behind Mestiza, a pop-up dinner series looks forward to hosting a special Día de los Muertos dinner this month.
(Courtesy of Mestiza)
Ultimately, the couple hopes to find a permanent home for Mestiza, but for now they are happy to host pop-up dinners that give them a chance to share their food and traditions.
“The pop-ups have really given us a chance to develop our concept, learn a lot along the way and have Mestiza and culture behind it progress naturally,” Perez said. “We are trying to present something different from what Orange County already has to offer.”
“Mestiza Presents: Día de Muertos” is on Oct. 30 at 5 p.m. in Mission Viejo. To make a reservation, go to eventbrite.com/e/mestiza.
Dining and Cooking