-
‘Tokwa’ and ‘pata’ to-go in Staten Island
By Cristina DC Pastor For Jersey City couple Leopoldo and Ravy Sanga, no bridge is too far to Staten Island’s newest destination. Isla Pilipinas is the latest Filipino restaurant attempting to conquer New York. But instead of opening in the Manhattan familiar to many, owner Maggee Villanueva chose the lawn chair suburbia of Staten Island, […]
-
Building her brand from scratch
By Cristina DC Pastor Name it and Adora Adora-Penn will fashion it into a lovely cake. A Louis Vuitton bag, a stiletto shoe, Rayban shades, a bottle of wine. She even demonstrated on YouTube how to make a pregnant lady using two molds to scoop out the cake “boobs” and two layers of rounded cakes […]
-
How in Manhattan in 2002, Doreen Fernandez was ‘ready’
By Tony Joaquin Long before she became known for her critical writing on food which later led to several distinctive books on Philippine cuisine, writer, educator and critic Doreen Fernandez was a fellow jazz aficionado. Café Indonesia in the 1950s was our jazz oasis for after-hours dining and singing. She and I became regular habitués […]
-
• 12 women to receive honors • Want to be published? • Chicken McBites on-the-go
The Pan-American Concerned Citizens Action League, will award 12 Women Achievers in honor of International Women’s History Month in March. The awardees to be honored at a March 18 ceremony at the Ramada Plaza Hotel Newark International Airport are: Dr. Alice Almendral – Award for Aesthetic Medicine Vicky Baxa – Award for Faith-based Community Service […]
-
Sanitary inspection gets a ‘C’ from restaurant owners
By Cristina DC Pastor A toilet door not closing abruptly. Tongs for pulling hot trays hanging by the oven door. A variety of rice noodles. What do any of these have to do with a restaurant’s cleanliness? Restaurant owners are not sure, but they’ve been slapped fines for all sorts of alleged sanitation violations, prompting […]
-
Um, ‘dinuguan’ for media noche?
I wondered aloud while eyeing the rows of food trays laid out at Phil-Am Restaurant & Grocery for families to feast on while waiting for the ball to drop on Times Square. “It’s for the puto,” chortled owner Gil Aguila, sharing the Filipinos’ belief that round things bring good luck. I remember how my mother […]
-
Vanilla cupcake, cookie to go for Mario Batali
A familiar-looking man barreled into Pan de sal Patisserie and Resto Bar in Gramercy on a late and lazy October 30 morning. She wasn’t quite sure, so pastry chef Liane Ramos coyly asked the stocky customer, “You look like Mario Batali?” “I get that a lot” came the curt but friendly reply. Then he asked […]
-
Culinary novelty in NorCal’s Castro Valley
By Jun Ilagan Castro Valley, the East Bay town nestled between San Leandro and San Ramon in California, typically is not in the radar of anyone on the hunt for anything Pinoy. To begin with, there are only a little over 1,200 kababayan there, out of a total population of around 63,000. And so when […]
-
They came, they ate, they formed a press club
By Elton Lugay Members of the FilAm media gathered September 1 for Max’s Eat All You can Chicken press launch for what promised to be a marathon eating contest. Max’s in Jersey City is slated to launch its EAYCC promo from September 6 to 30 and sort of dared journalists to see how much chicken […]