Favorite Filipino Eats in the Bay Area 🇵🇭
Our Bay Area is lucky to have such a vibrant Filipino community. To celebrate National Filipino Heritage Month, we asked our Filipino Izzi staff to share their favorite cultural foods and where we can maybe find them in the Bay Area.
Image source: tastingtable.com
Anne Carzon, Human Resources Director
Growing up my favorite dessert has been eating banana fritters and you can find this anywhere in the Philippines if you see a street vendor starting at 10:00 am to 3:00 pm everyday. Filipinos cook or prepare banana fritters multiple ways: “banana-cue” (with a barbecue stick), fried bananas over coconut milk, boiled dipped with sugar and milk, or simply just deep fried over brown sugar, boiled plantain bananas. Unfortunately, there is no Filipino restaurant in the Bay Area that sells this. I did my research already, so I had to learn how to prepare this from scratch at home when I have my cravings for maruya! You can eat maruya with ice cream as well.
BUT my favorite of them all bananas is called maruya. Sharing a picture that I took from my recent trip home to Cebu last May earlier this year after taking a huge bite when I took this picture, yum, yum, yummy!
Lyn Valencia, Interim Site Supervisor for Izzi at SSF
My Favorite Filipino food would have to be the variety of barbeques, from the savory inasal (chargrilled meats) to the sweet “banana-cue.” There are different forms of barbecue: bananas, sweet potato, chicken, beef and pork. Some places you can get inasal: Seafood City, Fil-Am but nothing beats homemade.
Jocelyn Ongsioco, Izzi at South San Francisco Teacher
I am a lover of Filipino dishes i.e. kare-kare, beef ccaldereta, adobo (Isla Restaurant in San Bruno), Max Chicken in Daly City, kadios Ilonggo food (Ilonggo Grill) ginataang langka, apan- apan, laswa steamed vegetables, and Ilonggo dishes too. I am an Ilonggo. My parents were from Iloilo, Philippines. (Image source: Postmates / Isla Restaurant)
Joy Dueñas, Facilities Manager
These are an adaptation to bibingka Bibingka is a type of baked rice cake in Filipino cuisine that is cooked in a terracotta oven lined with banana leaves and is usually eaten for breakfast or as merienda, especially during the Christmas season. It is also known as bingka in the Visayas and Mindanao islands. Traditional Bibingka can be found at Filipino bakeries like Valerios or Goldilocks, but I discovered Binka Bites at the Burlingame farmers market and now they have a storefront in South San Francisco and Millbrae. Flavors from top clockwise - Ube Flan, Nutella, Oreo, Ube Langka (Jackfruit), Ube Macapuno (sweet coconut). So good!
Angel Barrios, Executive/Program Director
When I moved from a small town in New Jersey to the San Francisco Bay Area, I was excited to see the bountiful number of Filipino restaurants and bakeries. From the delicious Filipino style spaghetti at Jollibee, to the pork asado siopao (steamed bun with filling) from Chowking, to lechon from Tastebuds, to crispy pata at Avenida and the fan favorite, lumpias, from Kadoks, you will never be left feeling hungry. Don't even get me started with Filipino desserts and bakeries. If there is anything with Ube (like halo halo), then I am first in line. If any of you are interested in trying Filipino food, give me a ring and I will be happy to join you!
