 Long wait in Papua. Woo! Wow! Woo! Hahaha! Do you want to give a shout out? What part of the Philippines you're from? Parapalaba. Most of the time, when you talk about Filipino food in New York City, people will point you to Queens, New York. And that's definitely true for the traditional stuff. But these new Filipino spots in the city are doing something you've never seen before. What's going on everybody? Welcome to a very special Filipino episode of Fun Bros. Food! Woo! We are exploring the future of Filipino cuisine in America through New York, and with us we got Ryan Benson, the half Filipino. What's up guys? Long time no see. We are in the Lower East Side, which is not historically known for Filipino food, but there is something that has been very special happening over the past couple years. Basically every type of cuisine you can think of, they have it right here. The Lower East Side really is almost like a micro-United Nations when it comes to food. For years now we have been covering Filipino food on our channel, all different types from the fast food to the traditional food. But now we've got to cover this next generation. These are the types of spots that do appeal to Filipino Americans, you know, especially the hip ones, but also appeal to the traditional Filipinos as well. 2021, the future of Filipino food, what's our first spot Benson? Alright guys, so we're going to our friend Ars's new spot here in LES, Chismis. It's actually a Filipino word for gossip, which, you know, a lot of titas and wood gossip over food. That's kind of like the culture you're trying to gossip. Did you see who Ryan brought back to the Penley dinner last week? No, that is exactly what happens. It's like, you know, everyone meets over food. It was a new girl. Everyone meets over food, man. The future of Filipino food. Alright guys, so we're here with the chef provider Ars. What are the challenges of introducing elevated Filipino food to an audience that some of them people have never even had the food? The hardest part is, I think, introducing them to dishes from different regions because Philippines is just not like one cuisine itself, you know, there are so many regions. So Sinigang can be in the three, four different types of food. And they can taste pretty different from each other. Chismis, let's go to Chismis and then talk about some Chismis. Let's head in, man. I'm excited. Come in. Alright everybody, big shout out to our sponsor today, Bright Cellars. They are a fine wine service that is pairing you with wines from across the world based off of a really quick online survey and they're delivering them straight to your doorstep. It's like having a personal expert wine matchmaker. This is great for people who know nothing about wine and want to learn and also wine drinkers who know what they like. 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And they're all very bright and light and cut the fat well. And since we're eating Filipino food such as Kari Kari, which tend to be a little bit on the heavier side, a light-bodied white wine would work perfect for the food at Chismis and Mama Finas, for example. But again, don't take my word for it. You should just give it a shot and try it yourself by clicking on the link down below. It's leading off here at Cheese Meese. Okay, guys. We have Isau, deep-fried, like, pig intestine. And then it's usually given with a dip called Suka, which is a vinegar-based dip. Very commonly eaten with beer. Isau. Isau. It's a good drinking food because it's salty, it's fried, and makes you want to drink beer. All right, you guys. We are looking at Bone Marrow Cinnagong, short rib Kari Kari, and that is the testings again. Snout and ears. All right. So, let's start off with these, man, because these, this is like Cinnagong like I've never seen. Yeah. I've never seen Cinnagong like this. Can't wait to try this, because... Let's prep it. Let's prep it. Should we get some of the Bone Marrow guys first? Yo, you just scooped it with a knife? No. I'm already in here with a fool. Take a lot. Try the Cinnagong with this. Oh, wow. There we go. Look at this. Look at this. Bone Marrow going onto the rice. That is some juicy gossip. Bone Marrow Cinnagong. Oh, wow. Wow, bro. The tamarind really comes out in this broth, but it's super balanced. Dipping sauce. That sauce. I'm going to try a little bit. This short rib from the Cinnagong with this, with a little bit of Bone Marrow melted in to give it that creaminess, five out of five hands down. I'm not saying that, just to say it's a five out of five. Wow. Dang them. Yo, that was so good. Yeah? That was... Rice said it was better than his mom's. It was better than... Yeah? Did I beat your mom? You did. I beat your mom. Sorry, mom. Sorry, mom. My mom's Cinnagong is amazing, but this, it just takes it to the next level. Yeah. Woo. Moving on. Ryan, to reference, you had a funny moment in another video with the bago one in the sense of you like a lot in the kitchen. I like a lot in it. It's like how my aunt used to make it for me. It was her favorite dish growing up. And guys, it's been portioned out already, so this is how you're supposed to eat it. Yeah, yeah. You guys got to get messy. Come on, man. It's still Filipino food, right? That's right. We can still get messy right now, right? The short rib karikare. The best karikare. I haven't ever had. I love it. It has that peanut flavor, but it doesn't taste like peanut butter. Yeah. And it's just working so well on that short rib. Now, Otters, would you say this is kind of like your take on a sisi? Pretty much a sisi style, but we call it dinak dagong. Dinak dagong. Woo. Hey, this is Ilocano food, guys. My God. Wow, I love that. For me, I'm going with the bone marrow Cinnagong for me. See, the karikare is the best karikare I've had, but this dinak dagong is out of this world. I got to roll with the naktakong and then the karikare tied for my favorite man. Aris, I got to say, man, I think Chismis is setting a new standard for new Filipino restaurants, man. Thank you. Oh, my goodness. Thank you for having us here. Thank you. And you guys, we are continuing on our new Filipino food crawl 2021, hosted by Ryan Benson. All right, you guys. Next up on our modern Filipino food crawl through the LES East Village is Mamafina's Ryan. Where are we at? Mamafina's is known as the house of Sisi. They've been serving up different varieties of Sisi since they opened in New Jersey in 2004. Like, the demographic here is a lot of students, locals, family, like, my mom knows Mamafina's back in Jersey. We're going to try different types of Sisi. Okay. So, you're here, what do you think about all the different varieties of Sisi that they have here? Is that traditional? Is that something you might find in the Philippines? You'll probably find something, but because this one is most catered to the New Yorker taste. So, but this is the closer than you can get, and then look like Sisi and all of that. So, especially like the Bombay Sisi or the pork, those are like, yeah. What is your favorite Sisi? Let me add go with the Bombay Sisi. Oh, well, do you want to give a shout out? What part of the Philippines you're from? Palabang. All right, you guys. We are here at Mamafina's. So, we have the Sisi Pusit, which is the squid Sisi. Sisi what? Sisi. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm 15. You're going to make that joke, huh? As you guys know, Sisi is usually used from like leftover parts. It kind of originated from a Navy base in the Philippines because they were able to get pig heads for basically free. Here we have Laing, which is shredded taro leaves with, it usually has a coconut influence in it. And we have the crispy fried galanga, which is like baby crabs. Is it interesting to see these things represented in Manhattan? Yeah. I think it's really cool. And it kind of speaks to how diverse like the cuisine, the Filipino cuisine can be. And you know, to that note, like every, everywhere that we've been going here today, like there's been a different crowd of Filipinos. Right. There have been. Sago Gulaman, which is Gulaman, which is like the Filipino version of like Boba. Sisi. Wow. It's got this really cool crunch to it. I'm my personally like that better than the pork one. So if you guys look really closely, you can see the little pieces of squid right there. That's the tentacle that's usually like kind of purple or dark colored and it's really fried to a crisp. So this is the crispiest squid I've ever had. Laing. This is like the Filipino collard greens. That's good Laing. Mama Fina's would be more of your traditional fare and I think that's why you see a little bit more people from back home here in Mama Fina's and obviously they put a little bit of a twist on it by making it like squid, but everything else is pretty, pretty, pretty much traditional. Crispy galanga. It got a fried crab. But it's really good. It goes super well with that vinegar based sauce. I mean, you can't go wrong. The food here has been. The food at Mama Fina's is good. It's really good. I mean, they've really upheld the standards that I remember back in Jersey. This drink is very sweet. It almost tastes like a sugar cane drink. Super well with all this fried food. It's going to help cut through that fried, like baddiness a little bit. All right, we're wrapping it up here at Mama Fina's for our future of Filipino food episode. We got to go to a couple more spots. All right, you guys, we are in the world famous McDougal Street right now. There's a ton of ethnic street foods, comedy clubs, the comedy sellers here and of course, what are we in front of? So we're right here in front of Mighty Bulls where they put a modern fusion twist on Filipino rice bowls. Right. They kind of do Pan-Asian flavors as well. Right? Yeah. I think it's really cool what they're doing here. They're making it in bowl form. That's great for lunchtime. It delivers great. And I always say this, based on the current and immediate demographic of the street, I would not expect a Filipino owned bowl spot to be on McDougal. Shout out to them opening during the pandemic for delivery. We did order from them several times. It's called the Manila because why is that? Because I know this is called Lechon, right? Yeah, Lechon. Lechon Kuali. All right, you guys, we are doing what this bowl spot allows you to do. We're on one of the liveliest streets in New York City right now, McDougal, having a Lechon Kuali in a bowl. Yeah, man. So we're eating this real New York style. We're walking. We're talking. We're working right now. So we got the Lechon Kuali, the Manila Bowl right here with poached egg, some crispy garlic, and also some bok choy. Oh, man, that Lechon Kuali is so good, so crispy and fatty. Yo, I feel like this is a marathon right here. Quick, take a hit of this coconut water and get the bowl. What do you think it means that, you know, the creators of Mighty Bowls were still from the Philippines, though, like it was still very authentic, even though obviously they have to twist the recipes to make money and be successful in the business environment? Yeah, it's really cool that, you know, the owners can come from the Philippines and make this concept so that it's a lot more palatable to the New York crowd, right? Because everybody likes, everybody eats like rice bowls out here. But nobody really sees the Filipino rice bowl in that game. It's almost like Panda Express icing Filipino food, which, despite how long Filipinos have been in America, has yet to happen, right? Yeah, man. But it's kind of put a little bit of an elevated twist on it. Obviously, you're not getting the food quality of a Panda Express. You're still getting real, like, well-cooked pork belly, like chonkou-wale. No, no. Panda still could be, it could be good. Honestly, that is one of the best quick Asian bowls I've ever had before. It was from Mighty Bowls, Filipino-owned McDougal Street, one of the craziest streets really in New York, you know, in an ecology way. You know, by doing this video that people will come and support Mighty Bowls a little bit more and try out this new way to do Filipino on the go. Filipino bowls, on to the next spot. OK, now we're here at our last spot, Cabocera on Allen Street. This spot is really like a Filipino hub of culture, food, desserts. They have hot food as well. Oh, man, this place is like known for serving merienda-type snacks. Really elevated desserts and slushies and drinks here. And you know what they do that is similar to our last video in LA's historic Filipino town is sometimes, not today, they have almost that dollar hit style of Filipino barbecue skewers. So on Saturdays and Sundays, they have a pop up here that comes in, then they do the barbecue right outside. Guys, come check it out. The food is unreal. The dessert trend has been on the rise and this place does dessert right. Let's check it out, Cabocera. All right, Joey, you are from Patan. Yes. Two hours from Manila. What are we looking at right here? This is what we are looking here is the Filipino desserts, the halo halo, the famous halo halo and the calamansi juice slushie calamansi. And we have the matcha ube. The way that they do it here, they kind of really elevated it. The presentation is kind of next level. Look at that. Look at that shaved ice, though. It is like an ube flavored shaved ice. If I'm not mistaken, right? Cabocera, halo, halo. It's honestly the best halo halo that I've had on any of the food series that we've done. Thank you. Hey, man, kudos to you guys, man. All right, man, like we said, they're bringing all types of stuff to the lower east side. Halo halo. We got the calamansi juice right here, and then we got a little bit of a fusion item right here. This is an ube matcha. Super, super fragrant. Tastes really good. Has a nice tart citrus to it, but it's still sweet. Bringing you guys the cassava cake and the biko. Cassava is a traditional Filipino dessert, and it's made of grated cassava, coconut milk, and... Which one's the cassava one? This one. Oh, okay. Cassava is what they make bobas out of. Yes. Yeah, all right. It has that QQ, and then they finish it on top with some custard. And this is a biko, which is a sweet rice flavored with purple yam and coconut flakes on top. You gotta try some of this. It's super well balanced. It's not too sweet. It's like super glutinous from the rice. Oh, man. For me, I'm going to go with the biko. Yeah. The biko, this is so good. Something that people are familiar with, like the mango sticky rice at a Thai spot, but almost with more focus on the rice, obviously, because we're missing the mango. Was it always a goal of yours when you came to America to showcase sort of Filipino culture and show what you guys bring to the millow or potluck in America? A lot of Asian foods are already on the mainstream. Japanese food, Thai. Now it's time, you know, we bring in the Filipino food and the Filipino desserts to the mainstream. What do you think of all the other Asian cafes serving ube even though they're not Filipino? It's okay? Oh, it's okay. But this one is we've made from scratch. Okay, all right. It's okay, but he just wants to let you all know the ube. They made it from scratch, scratch. All right, Joey, what are we looking at here? Now, what we're looking at here are bibinka and the leche flan that we have. Both of these are made here at Cabecera and bibinka is famous, you know, on the Filipino desserts circle with coffee. It goes very well. It's a sweet rice bread with coconut flakes and sometimes they put egg on top of it. And then the leche flan is just, it's sort of like you guys take on a... It's like a custard. Like a spain from Spain? Yeah, yep. All right. Joey told me that the Dominicans, the Puerto Ricans, the Mexicans, they really liked this version of flan. It's distinct in its own way, right? I think, you know, leche de flan, it comes based from like a Spanish recipe, but the way that they do it in the Philippines adds a little bit of extra Filipino love that you can taste in the food. Dude, I like it a lot, man, because you know what it is? I think sometimes, you know, and I respect everybody's thing. Like, some people use like cinnamon in it, but then you guys are using more coconut and more like the cassava syrup and stuff like that. It's a little bit more tropical. More tropical asian, right? Yeah. Yo, Andrew, you gotta try the flan de leche. Joey has been breaking down everything. Flan de leche will flan de let me taste it. You know, we gotta give a highlight on... I'm sorry, but if I'm gonna mess it, I'm gonna murder the city name again. All right, man, I just had to go for a little ride, so I'm a little thirsty, and let me try this machube. Machube. I kind of like it. It's a little bit of bitterness with the creamy sweetness of the ube, so that's a cool mixture. A lot of the fingers that I've had can be a little bit too dense. This is nice and fluffy, and the texture is really, really on point, and it's not too sweet with it. Yo, let us buy a trinket, man. We gotta come what does. We're gonna buy a trinket here. What's the one? Cabecera for the culture. All right, so Joey, I got like a budget of $10. I'm trying to spend. What should I buy that's going to be really like Filipino? Oh, well, we have here the Filipino king chains. It's like, you know, influenced by, you know, Filipino traditional desserts and street foods. Filipino barbecue key chain. Like it's between the chicharron or the Filipino bacon. I think you gotta go with the chicharron. All right. That reminds me of like my Lolo, right? Yo, they did a good job of recreating it. I'm getting the chicharron key chain. All right, so that brings us to the end of our future of Filipino food video. Man, what did you guys notice? I noticed that actually all the owners of Sismas, Mama Fina's, Cabecera are actually very traditional Filipinos that are maybe like 40 years old, 50 years old, 60 years old, but have been educated in the West and they're sort of translating it. But they're not necessarily like Phil Ames. They're not Filipino Americans. I think it's really cool that these Filipino chef owners are able to come from the Philippines and kind of bring this more modern twist to traditional food that can be more directed towards Filipino Americans rather than just traditional Filipino like Bobs coming from back in the Philippines. Well, it kind of like gets all the crowds. Yeah. Because I think the traditionalist obviously gets the people from that country. It gets white people who are interested in like culture and anthropology. And then you also get the Phil Ames who have a space to connect with the roots. And I think because of this, it's really starting to drive that food trend. You know, you're seeing Filipino dessert places opening up everywhere. And I think it's really great to see that like people can take our culture and twist it, still have that little bit of traditional kind of like culture coming through, but with that modern twist. And what do you think it means for like Asian American food? Because you know, there's a few Asian American spots that were very successful, namely in spots like OC, the West Coast, but it seems like on the East Coast, they're still more with the UN, United Nations traditional style. Yeah, I think New York, when it comes to ethnic food, it's still at that point where they still really want the more authentic version. And that's why the 50-50 fusion stuff in New York doesn't work as well. It's not that it doesn't work, it's just a little bit harder of a sell, and it takes a little bit more context for people to understand. The West Coast, Hawaii, you think like that, right? Yeah, and you, because people still want to know that it's coming from that traditional place, that's why it's a little bit harder for Chinese Americans or Filipino Americans to serve their food here. I think that having someone who's from there that's just a little bit more westernized, that's like maybe studied in the West, studied in America, that has that flair and can do kind of that 80% traditional, 20% American style. I think that's gonna work better even than the 50-50, at least in New York City. So statistically speaking, most Asians living in America are actually still immigrants. So you would think that a lot of those immigrants still want some sense that their food is very traditional and authentic. So that's why the market for the 50-50 American and Asian fusion is a little bit smaller than people would like to think. I think the 50- That's very OC. You see that all the time in the OC. Yeah, all the time. I think the 50-50 is cool, but I understand for the mass market, and for most Asians who are in America still, it's tough. All right, you guys, please let us know in the comments section below what was your favorite traditional item that we covered today and what was a slight twist that you liked or what's a slight twist to a traditional item that you'd like to see on the menu of one of these spots. And until next time, huge shout out to Brian Benson, Hopper representative, we out. Peace.