Celebrate Filipino American History Month with Ube Delights This October
Many mark October as a month for pumpkin spice and candy corn. For me, it is also a month for sinagang, kinilaw, and all the ube desserts I can find. That’s because October is Filipino American History Month* – and one of the easiest ways to dive into Filipino culture is to taste it. While I’ve always casually sought out cues of my Filipino heritage in my community, I’ve been even more diligent in my search since my daughter was born three years ago. Fortunately, Seattle’s Filipino culinary scene seems to have exploded in recent years providing plenty of great opportunities to prime her tastebuds to her heritage.
Dance-worthy goodies from Hood Famous Bakeshop Kristin Gillespie
Hood Famous Bakeshop
My daughter affectionately calls this “The Ube Shop.” If you’re not yet familiar with ube, it is a subtly sweet, naturally purple yam used as a staple ingredient in Philippine desserts. Hood Famous’ Instagram-worthy, ube cheesecakes may have been what put them on the map, but everything they serve is simply delightful. My daughter does a happy dance for their ube cookies (and new ube cookie ice cream!) and I can’t turn down their handcrafted pandan lattes with Philippine Kalsada Coffee. (Fun Fact: Hood Famous Bakeshop is the first business in the U.S. to feature a single origin coffee from the Philippines.)
Musang
Set in a home-converted-to-restaurant on Beacon Hill, Musang claims that it is “a community-driven restaurant focusing on the education of Filipinx cuisine.” Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the much anticipated restaurant, opened in January 2020, just in time to shut down again for the pandemic. Sensing the urgency of the situation, Chef Melissa Miranda used the opportunity to establish a community kitchen, banding with other local chefs to feed the hospitality industry that was deeply affected by the COVID-19 crisis. She continued to innovate with take out meals and eventually patio dining, virtual appearances (my daughter and I watched her read a children’s book and give a cooking demo with Filipino Story Time), even launching Little Wildcats, a cooking class for kids. True to the claim on their site, Musang is truly of and for the community it serves.
Balikbayan CSA Box from Archipelago Kristin Gillespie
Archipelago
In normal times, Archipelago is small restaurant seating just 8 at a time at a communal chef’s counter. Their cuisine is Philippine-inspired but their ingredients are exclusively sourced from the Pacific Northwest, creating some really innovative flavors. Due to their limited seating, I have been trying and failing to make a reservation for dinner since they opened in December 2018. But while I can’t speak from first-hand experience about the restaurant itself, I can speak to the husband and wife chef team’s attention to detail, incredible flavors, and obvious passion of sharing Filipino stories and culture. During the pandemic, they started offering Balikbayan CSA Boxes filled with locally sourced meats, seafood, and produce, pre-made dishes, recipes, memories, stories, and a few special surprises “because no one ever really knows what they’re getting in a Balikbayan Box.” I have never been so excited to open a CSA box. The pre-made sauces and pastes were incredible – I remember opening one and sticking it under my husband’s nose saying, “this is what the Philippines smells like!”
I Am Filipino ongoing exhibit at The Wing Luke Museum Kristin Gillespie
Wing Luke Museum
Of course, Philippine culture can’t be told through food alone (although, even as I type this I am still fighting the urge to deny it – it’s such a big part of it!). The Wing Luke Museum has a wonderful ongoing exhibit called I Am Filipino which shares the complex layers of Filipino American history, experience, and identity. The idea stemmed from encounters with Filipino American students from a local high school who identified as Filipino, but didn’t have a real understanding of their heritage. As an American-born, mixed-race Filipino who can’t speak Tagalog, I was drawn to this exhibit the moment I laid eyes on it. That was me. I’d been seen. My place in this story had been validated.
Okay – back to food… if you’re looking for more Filipinx deliciousness to satisfy your tastebuds, check out ILAW Coalition’s Hella Sarap Map. Kain na!
*On May 7, 2019, SB 5865 officially declared every month of October Filipino American History Month in Washington State, respecting the long standing impact and influence of the Filipino community on the history of the state of Washington and the United States of America. Much of the effort was led by the Filipino American National History Society, which was founded in 1982 in Seattle, WA.
