Nastasha: Welcome to Exploring Filipino Kitchens. I'm your host Nastasha Alli.
Today we get to hear the stories behind Istorya, a Las Vegas based pop-up dinner series that aims to showcase the diversity of cuisines the Philippines has across the islands, interpreted by chefs who are in the diaspora.
The dishes that are served at Istorya's dinners are crafted with care and grounded in research, which is really a large part of their advocacy. To highlight the incredibly vast troves of history and heritage and culture that are associated with the foods of the Philippines, which as you all know, I am very much into. So I've been excited for this chat with Walbert, Monica and Andrew from Team Istorya for quite a while.
They've been named Best Pop-up Restaurant in Las Vegas by Las Vegas Weekly and have been featured in food media outlets across the US and the Philippines as well. And I especially love the videos that they make 'cause there are some amazing interviews they have with folks like Ms. Felice Santa Maria, Louella Alix and Ige Ramos, among many others who they've recorded with during their research trips to the Philippines. And what started as a passion project they say has really just grown into a space for everybody to connect and reconnect with Filipino food. And through their dinners and other events that they hold Istorya's team of food loving storytellers, they say, are really dedicated to honoring the culture and the history of the country.
Let's get to it.
Introductions
Andrew: Hello, my name is Andrew. My pronouns are he or they. I graduated from the University of Alberta with a bachelor of fine arts degree. I pursued a career in design and it's led to also the food field. I'd been a busboy server expo since I was able to work. So I've grown up in and around restaurants. Um, and the lady that I ended up working for in graphic design decided to open up a poke chain. So I reentered the food and hospitality industry. She also opened a flower shop. We do events, we do catering. After being able to help open up all of those businesses and help run them, COVID happened, of course, I found myself going into researching my Filipino heritage and it led me to the Filipina on the Rise podcast and through the history series , Walbert had been a guest speaker on one of the episodes, and after that episode I was enthralled with the possibility of combining the Filipino heritage aspect with, you know, this new wave of the Filipino diaspora rediscovering their past and their heritage and food. And I slid into the dms on LinkedIn and here we are. I joined the team in 2023. Yeah. Just on the tail end of the Binondo chapter, which explored the Chinese, Filipino diaspora. And I've been here since, so I'm very happy to be here and doing awesome, fun, incredible, meaningful work with the team.
Nastasha: Amazing. Thank you so much, Andrew.
Walbert / Monica: Andrew, you didn't introduce your title or role.
Andrew: I am the head of research.
Walbert / Monica: Thanks Andrew. You know, I, of course we wouldn't be able to do all of the amazing work, that our team is rooted in without Andrew's dedication and willingness to really push the envelope for research and all things accuracy.
So my name is Walbert. I am the founder and owner of Istorya, and I am originally from the Midwest, grew up in the Chicago suburbs. I went to school at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Initially studying pre-med bio, had an epiphany halfway into my undergraduate degree and I traveled to take part in volunteering efforts for Typhoon Yolanda, Haiyan, with Gawad Kalinga. And realized that my abilities to story tell goes further than meets the eye and came to the realization that that's something that I wanted to pursue.
So I left pre-med and switched into journalism. Took on 23 credit hours per semester and graduated on time. So it was really amazing, but also a packed two years to finish. I had the opportunity to intern at several places, interned at CNN, the White House, during Obama.
And then I worked at USA today as a video producer and journalist. So I was working in DC for about five years. And while I was working at USA today, I felt like, you know, maybe I should break into the Filipino community here in the capital region of the US. And so why not work at a Filipino restaurant?
So I worked at a DC restaurant called Purple Patch as a server and host and food runner of course. Transitioning off of that, I later joined Amazon as a video producer for their international marketing team. Unfortunately COVID hit, then I later moved up to become an associate creative director on the marketing team.
And so through it all, storytelling has always been super prevalent in my life. Whether it was, you know, being one of the only Fil Am journalists in the newsroom, or wanting to share our stories through the corporate realm. This journey has definitely showed me a lot and I'm really grateful. So that's kind of my journey and how I landed here, where I am today.
Nastasha: Journeys are never straightforward. That is the thing that I cling to personally. And I wanted to take a couple minutes to kind of align myself a little bit with some of your past experiences. Because I do think it's interesting the more people I talk to, I mean, it's really becoming apparent that a lot of us who are in this space and in this kind of line of work in terms of furthering the culture and just researching and like learning more about the cuisine that obviously shapes us. There's a lot of those similarities. So you're talking about Gawad Kalinga being one of the early things that had maybe prompted you to go in this direction? It was the same for me. I went to Bulacan at the GK Village Foundation.
And just staying there for a week like really made such an impact on me that it was, and it was pretty early on in one of my first trips to the Philippines, that it really kind of opened my eyes to like all these stories that needed to be told. I also have a background in journalism, which is where a lot of kind of this line of wanting to tell stories from our community out to the world is also coming from. And it's just, it's really cool to meet people from different backgrounds and paths kind of merging into that one space. So. Awesome. Thank you Walbert. And I know we've got Monica on there.
Walbert / Monica: My name is Monica. I am now starting to introduce myself as an actual co-owner, later co-founder of Istorya. Like Andrew said, and like you've said, I think the stories make so much more sense when you can look back in hindsight and retrospectively because the way that I also got here is very serendipitous.
I think when we talk about anyone on the team, it reigns very true that, I don't know, just the connecting points, the constellations of, of finally getting to where we are today and really working together at Istorya for a common north star vision and mission. It's like very potent whenever you talk to any team member and whenever they talk about it, because every time I'm asked to do an intro, I'm like, I dunno, we got here. Um, but that's all the more special. It's like we all started doing a little bit of everything to see where we fit in. And for me, I do love talking about strategy and trying to help founders and anyone with a big vision ground it into reality and how we can make it happen. So really what I try to do at Istorya is kind of keep the team aligned as best as possible, and keep us moving and grooving with the heart of why we do what we do, always at the forefront.
A lot of where I'm very community oriented comes from my family and my parents. My mom and my dad, I didn't recognize when I was growing up, but they were always sharing the Filipino spirit and the Filipino culture.
I just didn't necessarily recognize it as such when I was younger. But now I can see it even today, this weekend as like, you know, my home is filled with so many people. That's something that we carry and that also I try to instill in the team too, is really maintaining the spirit of the Filipino, with serving and gathering and then making sure it all connects. That wasn't really about me, but it was about the team.
Nastasha: That's what we're here to learn about. And I know we're only talking to three members of the Istorya team, which is growing, as I understand with every event that you do. So that's, that's actually what I wanna start off with. From these introductions that you've given about Istorya and about the projects and the dinners that you've done, do you have a, introduction to maybe the dinner series at least?
The story behind Istorya
Walbert / Monica: So essentially, growing up in the Midwest, as someone who didn't really find too many Filipinos around me, I always felt like there was this missing void of wanting to connect with my culture. Always feeling estranged and not knowing too much about the Bisaya that my parents surrounded themselves with, as they grew up.
And so that also metastasized while working at USA today being the only Filipino American journalist and feeling like there wasn't a lot of representation there. And so in the back of my mind, there was always this idea of trying to figure out how do we solve that connect, um, to figuring out our ourselves and our identity.
When my grandmother passed away, it took a big hit to our family. My cousins are spread out across the country, so my grandma would spend time watching them in Hawaii, New York, Florida, Chicago, you name it. So when my grandmother had passed away, we all made a promise that we would retrace her life journey and her story.
And so we all flew to Iligan city, where all of my cousins are in Mindanao. We picked them up and we essentially took this whole journey across Mindanao and Cebu, to retrace our family history. We met relatives, aunts and uncles, met people that we didn't even know existed. In the middle of that, we not only visited our ancestral home, but we also visited the cemetery where our great grandparents are buried.
And so, you know, this was our first time here. And while we were there, I guess we didn't really know what to expect. I think for the most part, when we were visiting with our family and our relatives, they also didn't know where they were buried initially. But as we were trekking and we went to the area where they were buried, we found our great-grandmother's tombstone. And when we were there, we were like, wow, like, this is history made. Like she was born 1894 and lived until the seventies. And I didn't even get the chance to meet her, but when we were here, we were like, oh, where is our great-grandfather? And we had no idea. We were trying to figure it out.
And we actually had a flight to catch to Cebu that would leave in the next hour or so, or two hours rather. And so we were like, we gotta go, we gotta go. So we said a prayer. And when we said the prayer, I don't know, something like took over me, I could not explain it, but I ended up finding a bamboo stick off to the side and I started digging.
And what I ended up seeing was incredible. We started seeing the top of his tombstone. Essentially uncovered a piece of our history as it was, you know, hidden underneath us this whole time. And something I like to say is that, our heritage isn't always hidden. It's been there beneath us this whole entire time. You just have to dig it out. And it made me realize like, wow, how did this happen? Like is something telling me to do this? I didn't have an explanation at all. And so, it just made me realize that like, this is what makes me proud as a Filipino. Unearthing my origin story, and it starts here in Ozamis. And for what it's worth, when I came back I was like, how do we do this? In a way where we're, you know, reconnecting the dots for everyone else back home without having to bring them to the Philippines. And so after learning my own origin story, I was like, why not, do that with the origin story of our people. And so taking my passion for storytelling and my love for Filipino food and culture, I created Istorya.
Nastasha: That gives me goosebumps. Thank you for sharing.
Walbert / Monica: Yeah, of course. And you know, from that, it's always been kind of, understanding and dissecting our overall timeline because of course, as we know Philippine history, and I'm sure Andrew can share more about this, is so complex, we have so many different influences that have stood the test of time. Pre-colonial, colonial trade settlements, and so essentially Istorya is a way for us to reconnect with our origin story, but through the lens of all of the different markers on our timeline.
Through food.
Nastasha: I think from what I know, that's a big way that the dinners were shaped is that, we're looking at these historical periods and the dinners are a way for us to explore that together with other people who are asking those same questions because I mean, it's so natural that we're all curious about our own histories and I really believe that what's missing a lot of the time is that thing that makes you want to question more or push more. And the more we get really into doing something, usually there's like an event or something that sets it in focus. Um, so the
Walbert / Monica: Like that nudge. Monica reminds this to me all the time, but the bamboo stick and, you know, digging that out, it was kind of like a nudge for me to reclaim my narrative, my origin story. And so every story, a dinner or event is us giving the person their bamboo stick and that nudge to uncover their past.
Becoming collaborators
Nastasha: For Andrew and Monica, I was hoping you could tell a little bit about how you became a collaborator with Istorya. Like, in the time that you've spent researching for the dinners and stuff, what's been the most impactful part of it for you right now? Being a part of this project and creating these dinners for people.
Andrew: I think it's tied in with Walbert's story of that unseen force that nudged us to uncover the past. It's been this curiosity that's been there my whole life. And I think Istorya kind of allowed me to act on it and have a product to share with folks, whether that's during the dinners or on social media or you know, at every team meeting we're sharing our findings. We're kind of on this ride with the team and with our diaspora global audience of discovery. And it's all satisfying this curiosity I feel that we've all had to do so.
I mean, I grew up in, I don't know what the equivalent would be, I guess they could call it the Texas of Canada. Not too many Filipino kids in my school growing up, so I didn't have really much access to my history. I was taught to actually be ashamed of it and to hide it away. My teacher told my parents to not let me speak Tagalog at home, otherwise I wouldn't learn English. But I was born here, so that was kind of wild. But finally when we were able to, you know, with the amazing invention of the internet and social media, connect with other folks that had this similar curiosity and this similar phenomenon of like a global nudging to dig, I think Istorya was that tool to enable us and to facilitate that global movement of discovering together.
And I think that's kind of like the magic of the story. It's like we don't pretend to know all the answers, but we're sharing in real time and we're sharing our findings in a visceral and delicious way. And so that's been really impactful for me.
Nastasha: That's one thing I love that a lot of people are very open about that. You know, like we can't know everything. There's no way for us to be an ultimate authority in anything.
But the most we can do is be that middle person between us and other people who are also on a similar path or journey to like understanding more about the cuisine, the culture, and from different perspectives because it is very different. The lived experiences of people who grew up in the Philippines and people in the diaspora are very different.
And so sometimes there is that disconnect between perspectives and points of view from people. But it's great that we're just all very open, that learning is a two-way street. And for me in particular, that's one thing I really admire about what Istorya does online.
Um, I haven't been to one of your dinners, unfortunately. I'd love a chance to get to go to Vegas at some point. But one thing that I've really appreciated and admired is the level and the depth of research that go into the events from how they're presented online because, you really make that effort to speak to people who are legends in their own right.
For example, Ms. Felice Santa Maria, Sir Ige Ramos, who are both very big names in the Filipino food world, not just in the Philippines, but obviously internationally. Before I get any further, I wanted to get back to Monica too. Like what's been so far the most impactful or meaningful thing for you in building Istorya?
And I'll get back to you Walbert, because I definitely wanna ask that question from you too.
Walbert / Monica: I, I really love that question. Because I also ask Walbert that all the time, you know? Because as someone that wasn't at its conception, but someone that has witnessed it, when we first connected or crossed paths, I don't think that Istorya was even an idea yet.
Nastasha: Yeah. How did you meet? Did you know
Walbert / Monica: No, it wasn't actually. Yeah, it was more in a professional community. Community, yeah, setting. Yeah. It was at a NAFA event, a conference that they had here in Vegas. I think it was like early 2022. Yeah. and we met at one of the events that they had ongoing during that conference week.
It was just a networking event. Yeah, networking event. Yeah. Which are like, not my favorite things in the world. But we met, and it hadn't started yet, but I did remember in a short conversation that I learned you were from the midwest or something. And so I feel like that was already just one connecting point between us that I felt like, okay, there's another added layer where someone can connect with me and understand more of where I come from.
Because similar to Walbert growing up in the Midwest, the access to culture, and I think understanding of it, especially within the context I was experiencing at that time, I definitely didn't really care about it. And then you hear stories about assimilation and parents and family that immigrated.
It was actually, now I recognize, I always thought that it was my parents that wanted to assimilate so hard out of survival, but it actually was me. Like I was the one that told them, don't speak the language. Stop packing my lunch. You know, I wanted to make friends. I wanted to like feel belonging.
But that kind of ties into what Andrew was saying with his relationship to his heritage and culture growing up too in Canada. Like we all found each other because of this nudge. Or maybe as a result of the nudge. But I never had a moment like Walbert. I haven't had moments like that.
Maybe I can only recognize them when I look back. But I think the search for that connection really led to my own kind of mental health struggles. And it really showed like psychosomatically that I was struggling in a way that was presenting itself physically through being sick, and then through just challenges emotionally and mentally.
Food is connected to everything
Walbert / Monica: So I had to figure it out for myself. And that ultimately led into me trying to uncover what is generational trauma and how does that show up within this community specifically? And how does that impact me? And then how does that impact the next generation and those that come after me and their relationship to culture?
Because if this is a big factor in taking care of each other and expressing our values as Filipinos, then what tools do we have? And when Istorya like came into the forefront as I was doing work with mental health advocacy, trauma-informed care, I was also a personal trainer.
So I focused on the relationship to your body, and that also means your relationship to food. We all need food to survive. So when Istorya came to the forefront, I was already talking to a lot of my Filipino clients about how Filipino food is not unhealthy. Culture is not unhealthy, but the way that you have your relationship to culture, what does that look like and how do you define that for yourself?
In a way that can actively carry the culture, push it forward and not, I mean, continue perpetuating harmful and unhelpful cycles moving forward. It's such a big question for me because it means everything, really. And to see my personal mission actualize in a way that works collectively has probably been the most profound and impactful experience so far.
Nastasha: I really appreciate all of that. Like,
Walbert / Monica: I know that was a lot
and
Nastasha: been nodding. No, no, no. I've been nodding my head along because again, a big reason I love talking to people in this space is because everything that you were talking about. Taking care of ourselves mentally, physically, through food, through community, and like being around other people.
Like, there's so much importance to that. And it is all related to food. Like it's inextricably so. Um, and the more we are vocal about it, and the more we identify it, the easier it becomes for other people to also identify with that and say, you know, that's something that I've experienced too. I say it's a lot because like, I am very affected by a lot of it
because I, I get where you're coming from for sure. Because yeah, it's those things, right? Sometimes you don't know where that string that you pull is gonna go, or like, you don't know how exactly something started or how your obsession grew from like a small thing to a larger thing. But in the end it does. And yeah, there's all these different ways that we're into it.
Walbert / Monica: It's just so funny because the more we reflect on the history, it's such a liberating experience to connect those dots. And I think Walbert has really empowered our team and the work that we do in that. Also, like, don't forget about your own story and the process of uncovering our own, and making sure that your stories that typically go unheard are heard. Because I've been looking back a lot this year and around like 2021 is when I kind of started having my awakening.
Nastasha: Hmm.
Stories told but not heard
Walbert / Monica: Journey. And I had written down, I'm not gonna quote this correctly, but there was something I wrote down. Like, our stories are not uncommon, they're just untold. But I was like, actually they're told, but they're just not heard. So I think when I met Walbert I thought about that because it's a reframe in the way that I had understood those words before.
Yeah. Actually going off of that too, and there's so much alignment here because when I first started my journey to journalism, I came to the realization of the why I was doing it. And it was more of me coming to terms with giving a voice to the voiceless. But then over time I realized it's giving a voice to those who don't have a platform. And I think through the various types of platforms that I've had the opportunity and privilege to work with, I've been able to do just that because I have a seat at the table and I've had it, where I've been able to steer the conversation and the topics that we cover to ensure that there is light shed upon this community in ways that weren't active before.
And I see that with our food. When we go to a Filipino restaurant, whether it's in Chicago or here or elsewhere, it's a mom and pop store, you know, some of the typical dishes that you find there. You see pancit, adobo, lumpia, the Holy Trinity, right?
It's like that is something that we constantly see, partly, in fact, due to, you know, that's what got us out the door, that is kind of the safe zone for a lot of non Filipinos, for them to come in and dine at these restaurants too. But at the same time, we're overlooking the diversity of the 7,641 islands and the various ingredients and the dishes that aren't typically shown.
Um, we are seeing it from a contemporary lens where much of the south also is not necessarily represented. So my impact has been giving a voice to various pockets of our history and our communities who haven't had the chance to share their food before with others. And I think Istorya is that, that platform that I had mentioned earlier, because through that platform, not only are we giving a voice to their own histories and the things that they've carried, we're also doing that through multimedia storytelling.
And that's what makes this so unique, is that when it comes to storytelling, we tackle it in various facets, through culinary, through multimedia, through written. And that in itself empowers all of us to appreciate all of the inner workings of how we bring our research forward.
For example, the Muslim Mindanao or the Sulu series. We went to Tawi Tawi , we went to Zamboanga, we went to Isabella, Basilan. And you know, I did what I'm proficient in. I worked with a crew to help direct a documentary, and then we had people on our team take notes about the flavors and the notes and the recipes.
And while all of this was going on, when we came back and we shared this with our team, not only was our chef able to follow along from what we experienced, but we got to show them. And that type of documentary storytelling not only activated our team, but we were able to activate, you know, the guests who were attending our dinner. Every course was complementary to a documentary, a two to three minute documentary episode that we would show at the dinner. Then they would get that dish served to them.
So yeah, I think the whole reason why I left pre-medicine, biology in college to pursue storytelling still continues to remain intact today. And it's changed and transformed and evolved in so many ways. And 10 and a half years later, I didn't realize that we would be out here starting a restaurant.
Nastasha: Amazing.
Origins and Binondo chapters
Nastasha: I wanna take a second now to introduce listeners to the dinner series, because it's really central to what you do. We talked a little bit about Sulu, but could you give us a rundown of what the first four series are? And then would love to talk about Galeon.
Walbert / Monica: Yeah, of course. And Andrew, I would love for you to chime in as well and connect the dots wherever I can't, of course. And just because our research has been so vast and we've gone back to various chapters, but maybe you can cover Origins and Binondo and then Andrew can do Sulu and Galeon. Yeah, yeah, that'd be nice. Okay.
So I think with understanding our origin stories, we wanted to figure out a way to make it relatable to those who might not know what pre-colonial Philippines was like. And actually, it's so funny, um, side story. I really wanted to get in touch with a culinary historian at the time, and this was before we launched, because I felt like, yes I can sift through these webpages and read books, but it doesn't feel as real until I get connected with someone who's dedicated their life's work to this.
And similar to Andrew, I reached out to Tita Felice Prudente Santa Maria on Instagram. It was a cold message. And you know, I was like, you know what? She's probably super busy with everything she has, of course. Lo and behold, I get a message on my birthday September 22nd, and she responds back to my inquiry, probably a couple of days later and she's like, hi Walbert, I really like this initiative.
I'd be more than happy to dedicate my time and share a bit of that with you and helping you with your research. And it was so awesome because I know she's very limited and selective with her time. I know that she doesn't really mentor people out of the blue. And
Nastasha: it's such a big push when somebody is there for you that way,
Walbert / Monica: Exactly. I felt that way. Like, you know, for the most part, like that really catapulted us to learn more about pre-colonial Philippines. And so with her book, how do we dig into that and expand on that further, because what we know about pre-colonial Philippines is there because of the commentary in her research of course.
So with all that being said, our first chapter focused on pre-colonial Philippines and the ingredients that were native to that time before colonization took place. And so we really focused on ingredients as well as dishes for what one would find if they were to, let's say, forage in a forest.
So for example, one of the dishes that we had was a kamayan board, and it was a pre-colonial, Filipino inspired charcuterie board that essentially if you were out foraging for some berries, nuts, honey, fish, then this is what you would find.
That was just one of the example dishes that we had there, and that was truly amazing because we got to highlight ingredients like asin tibuok and other pre-colonial ingredients that are now endangered.
Part two brought me and the team to Binondo. This was kind of the first time that I had gone back to the Philippines to do research in the oldest Chinatown in the world. And so that led me to taking the Binondo food tour with Ivan Man Dy.
Nastasha: Such an amazing tour. To this day, I will recommend that to everybody.
Walbert / Monica: Yes, I agree. And it also got me in touch with Anson Yu, who has become a really great friend of ours. We couldn't have done that without them really. They constantly ensure that we learn as much as we can about what the Chinese era looked like when it came to 10th century trading. And so it was really cool because a large part of what we do is continuing to bring ingredients. So we brought hoti for the Binondo style lumpia from Binondo. And that was the, you know, the foundational element.
And the thing is too, it's, people would oftentimes ask, are you going through the timeline in a linear fashion? And I say, no, it's very non-linear because Binondo was established by the Spanish during the colonial period. But I think when we think about the different chapters, we think about the names that bring relevancy.
Binondo in itself just allowed us to connect with the older generations who may be longing for dishes that they haven't had in a while. So at the same time, we also blend this framework of curiosity for someone that might not know what Binondo was or is. That was exciting. Because with that one specifically, we continued to work with Tita Felice, and she helped us revive a 1900s Binondo style chicken dish that was written in Spanish. And she said that like, the last time that dish had a public tasting was 1923.
Nastasha: Wow.
Walbert / Monica: And we were able to bring that back almost a hundred years later.
Nastasha: Awesome.
Walbert / Monica: I'll throw it over to Andrew for chapter three and four.
Sulu chapter
Andrew: For chapter three, that's called Sulu, and that covers the Sulu zone, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, that whole archipelago of islands, the southern most province of the Philippines as well.
So this was kind of at the time the most challenging chapter as it was the most misunderstood cuisine, the most misunderstood people of the Philippines in its totality. For as many different tribes and ethnolinguistic groups as there were. And for as little data as there was to access at least from Canada online digitally. So we leaned a lot on Walbert and the team. They had actually gone to Mindanao on a food exposure and research data trip with food historian Clang Garcia. We got a lot of data from their findings, and Chef Cat was able to synthesize all of that.
Then the challenge became to further contextualize all of the recipes, all the food ingredients and the stories of the people. How to connect folks so that all of these untold stories could be heard and platformed, in a way that folks who subscribe to the prevailing narrative of what Filipino food and what Southern Filipino food and what the Southern Filipino people and cultural landscape is like, can change their minds. Because there is a lot of problematic thinking towards them and everything that they produce, the food in their culture.
So I think it was really cool to be able to present it in a modern, through social media, contemporary way so that we can maximize onboarding and connection to the food and the people and the stories. To the point that there was the Las Vegas short film festival, there was a feature on the Yakan ethnolingustic group and ended up winning best short film.
So the Sulu chapter was very challenging in how limited the data and the access was to the stories. But I think it was very impactful and successful, and I learned a whole bunch through the unfolding of that. And every iteration, every dinner just got better and better, and we learned more and more.
And that kind of led into what Walbert had been saying. It's anachronistic, it's not necessarily period by period in a chronological way because the Muslim presence in the Philippines is actually considered pre-colonial because they did not colonize the Philippines.
They existed before Spanish contact. And we'd been trading with the Indian subcontinent for quite a while before Spanish contact. We've had some time and it extended all the way in through the colonial period because the southern part of the Philippines was not considered the Philippines for such a long time.
When we look at the ethnolinguistic group of the Sama Badjao, who faced persecution in both Sabah, Indonesia, Philippines, can we count them as Filipinos? You know, do they belong to a geopolitical entity? We explored their stories as well, and we explored the sort of issues that they face and their food and the influences of their food.
So, I mean, cassava only came into the picture, for example, after the colonial period. That came from Mexico. And so chronologically it does span pre-colonial, during colonial, into contemporary issues. That was the Sulu chapter. It's still kind of ongoing and it has some play with the Galeon chapter.
Galeon chapter
Andrew: And so the Galeon chapter, of course is exploring the Spanish colonial period. And when we spoke in our initial exploratory conversations with Tita Felice, she had mentioned, you know, yes the Spaniards came when they came with Pigafetta, but if you have to consider what resources they had and what they brought with them, influences weren't really huge or impactful until maybe the opening of the Suez Canal when they had direct access to Spain.
And just looking at the galleon cargoes, a lot of it would go to not Philippines, it would be a lot of silver. Silver, wine, olives, these kinds of things. But the riches were a lot to do with the Mexican culture that came to the Philippines and the exchanges therein.
So there was some Spanish influence, and this is kind of going back to the challenging of prevailing narratives of Filipino cuisine and culture. How folks insist that the Spaniards and the Spanish influenced and infiltrated every aspect of Filipino life, because there's a lot of Espanol terms and names in the Philippines, but really it was an administrative and circumstantial phenomenon.
They hadn't infiltrated us really to that extent. We adapted, well, sorry, we were subjected to a political system and we adapted things from their culture and made it our own. But we're not Spanish per se. So it's kind of twofold. It's, yes, we were influenced by the Spanish, but pushing back, actually, this is what is not completely Spanish. This is what we made of that.
The Galeon chapter is split into two parts. The first is exploring what is Spanish yet, what is not Spanish, or how Spanish is it really? And we could go into it, but we should also explore what is Spain and what is Spanish, truly, because they were occupied by Muslim culture for so long.
For example, the dish arroz valenciana, pre-colonially we had our version of that, influenced by biryani from the Indian subcontinent through trade, pre-colonially. But when arroz valenciana, which they don't even call that dish there, in Valencia, they call it paella, right? It traveled all the way back to the Philippines, it met the version of itself that it could have been, and it merged into the contemporary version of arroz valenciana that we know and love, which we served at our dinner. So that was a really interesting, I like to call a homecoming dish.
And then the second part, Mexico. So a lot of the work ahead of us is to explore how much Mexican influences there in Filipino cuisine and vice versa. There's a lot of things that the Filipino culture has brought into Mexico as well.
Walbert / Monica: I think the idea of Alavar sauce, I think I would love to bring that into the
Nastasha: Yeah.
Walbert / Monica: Overall narrative. Because when we think about the Chavacano population and the community, how is this 70% Spanish, 30% Filipino dialects all rolled into one, continuing to exist in modern day Philippines, in places like Zamboanga, in places like Cavite.
And when we first got off the plane with Clang and she was like, Bienvenidos Zamboanga, I was like, wait a minute. What's happening here? Linguistically? And so, one of the first restaurants that we went to while we were in Zamboanga was Alavar.
And Alavar's restaurant, you know, I'll never forget the sauce that it came with, served with the food that was being shared and oh my gosh. Like I, I was at a loss
Nastasha: Is that not the best thing you've
Walbert / Monica: Amazing. It was so amazing. So good. And when you dug a bit deeper into the history, you'll find that the owners of Alavar's restaurant, the woman who had started it, she came from a Yakan background. And so she was Muslim Filipino, but then her husband came from Spanish lineage.
This was an example of taking something that comes from the Muslim world and bringing it with the Spanish and combining it together into a sauce that just became uniquely a combination, of bringing together both of these worlds into something beautiful and tasty, of course. And initially it was super spicy, you know, all the spices that carry through Muslim Filipino cuisine, but they had to tone it down, right? And so it's balancing it out and finding a good middle point.
Captain's Log collab
Nastasha: Thank you for calling out the Alavar sauce because for listeners who might not be aware, I had the pleasure of collaborating with the Istorya team on this last dinner for the Galeon series because I myself am a crazy big galleon nerd.
When we were talking, I was recalling that when I was in like grade four or five and my tito came back from some trip to Zamboanga, and he had this styrofoam cooler full of the curacha crabs and jars of the Alavar sauce. And I'd never had it before, but all of my titas and titos were like super excited because they knew about the reputation of this dish, how good it was. None of us had been to Zamboanga. But yeah, I just remember like everybody getting so excited about it.
I guess I wanna take a second to contextualize our conversation as well. I really appreciate the different perspectives where we're coming from, right? Like Andrew and I are both coming from a Canadian background. I lived in the Philippines and grew up there. I moved here when I was 19. And you, Walbert and Monica, coming from the Midwest.
Earlier Andrew was talking about, you know, the inaccessibility of research and just information online. I mean that was really a big part of why I started the show in 2017 is because there were very few books and resources at the time. A lot has changed now. Like even Ms Doreen Fernandez's books have finally gone into reprint.
Oh my God, I've been so excited about that. Because it's just, it's really great that there's a lot of deep seated interest that we're seeing, not just from the diaspora, but also from people in the Philippines.
And this is a very big part of the conversation that I think is really valuable to have with people like you guys because we're coming at it from the diaspora perspective, right? Like, the reasons I want us to share our stories and our origin stories, is because that sets the stage for why we do what we do.
But earlier I was also talking about, you know, people in the Philippines have a different approach to this, or maybe they have different reasons for why they're now interested more and more in Mindanaoan cuisine.
The cuisine is so varied, right? And we're coming at it, relating it to our own experiences as people in the diaspora. And people in the Philippines are also realizing that there's so much in the Mindanao region that really for so long has been trampled over by the dominant narrative of Tagalogs and the Bisaya and all that.
One of the things I hope comes out from us talking about this is that if we do have communities in the Mindanao region, and in other places of the Philippines who want to connect with the diaspora more, like, you can reach out to me, I'm happy to help. You know, for groups like Istorya who know and understand that that firsthand research and that firsthand experience from people who grow up in those regions in the Philippines, like that knowledge is so valuable to people outside of the country because that's where we get the data, the research. This whole Rizal quote about you can't know where you're going if you don't look back to your past is, um, I find very real.
Mindanaoans in the diaspora
Walbert / Monica: I'm so grateful that we had the chance to collaborate on the previous Galeon chapter. And just going off of that, we continue to share stories about these various pockets of Filipino communities beyond the Muslim ethnolinguistic groups like the Chavacano populations that continue to exist today.
I didn't know any Muslim Filipinos here in Las Vegas, and I think what's important to note is that when we started publishing our content publicly, and just speaking about it in various places, like letting people know that we're having a dinner inspired by Muslim Mindanao, would you like to come in and dine with us?
We found Muslim Filipinos who were of Tausug backgrounds reach out to us and express interest in wanting to be a part of our team. And so our video editor, our intern there from Sulu and Zamboanga, they are here. And from what I've learned, they didn't really openly state that they were Muslim Filipino because of some of the things that Andrew had mentioned earlier right? That bias. And, you know, even Filipino restaurants, the ones that we have here, that we think welcome us with open arms, because they do, but they unknowingly also shun the Muslim Filipinos from going to their own restaurants because they don't serve halal cuisine.
And so having a dinner that was built intentionally with halal meats and having no pork, just the ability to shine a light on them. They were proud to speak on the mic and embrace who they are.
We talked about impact. I think that was one of the clearest impacts that I saw with our team was like, we are empowering people to come out of the shadows and want to continue to spread their culture and they're still with us today. So it's just, I'm grateful about that.
I'm a collector of quotes that really like, stay with me, and that one reminded me of one. When we talk about inclusivity or making culture accessible, to feel able to engage with it actively. It's creating, you know, an inclusive space, a welcoming space where people do feel not just safe, but brave at the same time. And when I was doing more of my trauma-informed education, there was a quote that was like, there's a difference between all are welcome and I made this with you in mind.
And so I think that chapter was a really great example of that and the power of being very intentional and humble and honest in the way that we kind of do the cultural exchange, and co-create the space.
Nastasha: That's a good word, co-creating.
Walbert / Monica: That's a very important one to me, especially when it comes to even talking about being a Filipino. Literally everything we do has always been in co-creation with the earth and with each other. And this connecting thread of harmony and the collective kind of spirit. It truly is a reminder of exchange communication. The way that we engage with each other, in an active way, has to happen and we have to coexist in order for us to really thrive and have a more embodied experience. And with that, food really is the ultimate portal of connection.
Menu development
Nastasha: I'm gonna use that as our jumping point for the menu for Galeon, part one, which I had, again, the amazing pleasure of getting a little sneak peek into things. I'm gonna read from the menu that was served at the first dinner. So we had Lamb Adobo Empanada, we have Salmon Escabeche, Crabs with Alavar sauce. Then we had the Pansit Pusit and the Kalderetang Kambing, from the Cavite sort of area. There was Longganisa Ilocano, there's the Pochero Cebuano and the Torta Cebuana.
It's a good smattering of different dishes from different parts of the Philippines. And not to mention the desserts, of course we had some Ensaymada and Pan de Leche that was served there. I wonder if you could give us a quick rundown of how the menu was developed, because I knew you were working with some guest chefs for this dinner, right?
Walbert / Monica: I'm like, actually we have a whole poster of how we're brainstorming it from the very beginning. Oh, it's so funny.
I'll leave it to Andrew to share much of this, but when we were thinking about the overall menu, one of the challenges that we had was trying to determine is it of Spanish influence or is it of Mexican influence?
And so that's why we intentionally decided to split Galeon into two parts because we wanted to give weight and love to both of those intersections.
I think a lot of it was, was really meant, or a lot of it was spent us with a, with another trip. We actually had another culinary research trip to the Philippines in December. That was almost last year actually. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And we spent time working with chefs, culinary historians, of course. But it was more about asking them the right questions to understand where's the delineation between the two.
I think in the beginning we were like, okay, let's just put everything all into one Spanish and Mexican, but then we would dilute everything that was being shared in each of those chapters.
So I think for us it was only a matter of time to figure out, okay, how do we go about it with this way or this approach. We kind of went in with example dishes, but really it was the historians and the experts guiding us on their journey. Like Ige, for example, bringing us to Cavite and seeing Pansit Pusit, and learning it from, Asiong's themselves.
And then, you know, hanging out with the Chavacano community and having a day where we learn just more about bacalao and how we can import bacalao here in Vegas and all the things. But even in Cebu where we met Louella and had a virtual interview with her, that was something that we needed to have along this journey to understand, you know, what belongs on this menu, truly.
There were so many iterations of this menu though, I have to say, because initially we wanted to go in the direction of showing where the galleon had essentially, the routes. Yeah, and so we were like, okay, what is a dish that we can find in Palawan? What is a dish that we can find in Pampanga? But then it, like, I think in a way confused things a bit as well. So Andrew helped us find alignment as well and found this path to empower our chefs. Andrew, do you wanna speak more to that as well?
Andrew: Sure thing. I do think it was truly an all hands on collaborative effort between Moni, Walbert, the research team, the chefs. There was a bit of the formal, western classical kind of consideration of, for example, you don't wanna repeat some proteins, when you look at all of the courses. So there's just a consideration of variation and unity in contrast with the menu.
But the chefs kind of went in with what they thought might be a Spanish dish or a Mexican, or at least adjacent dish. And then we would kind of go in and do a bit of digging and see, okay, is there synergy here? Is this Spanish, is this honoring the chapter and the stories that we're trying to tell? And then we'd refine.
Tracing the galleon trade route
Andrew: Walbert mentioned that we had wanted to kind of do almost like a constellation where the galleon would land at each port, kind of tracing the path of it. And then we found that the dimension of time played a factor because the galleon period started and then it ended, and then there was some time before this Suez Canal opened, and then there was a huge influx of Western ideas and patisseries and baked goods coming in.
And then there was the dimension of food ways and the American colonial presence and access to such things as flour, butter, milk and other crops. So I think it kind of evolved into just, what would tell the story the best? What is Spanish, what is not Spanish, how Spanish is it? And then compare and contrast to Mexican influence of it all.
Nastasha: As someone who is also obsessed about the routes of the galleon, I appreciate where, where you're like, it's gonna be a little difficult to do if you wanted to do a map, like a trace the map situation. I'm personally fascinated by this period of history. For me, I'll talk about it from the perspective of having gone through the school system in the Philippines.
There's like maybe a couple of chapters on the galleon trade in my history textbooks from like grade six or something. They'll refer to it like periodically in later textbooks. And I was really kind of a type A student, so I know for sure that it wasn't covered super deep.
And so to me, as an adult in Canada, it was one of those tipping points for me where when I started getting really interested in the history of those foodways you were talking about, like how ingredients crossed the Pacific in that way. And what ingredients started from the new world, like the potatoes, the tomatoes, the chilies, like none of those are native to the Philippines.
And they came to the Philippines via the galleons, over the 300 plus years that the galleons were crossing that trade route. And then there was also the exchange from the Philippines side. So you have cacao, the coconuts, this research into the connection between the production methods of doing that.
Walbert / Monica: Lambanog.
Nastasha: And the precursor to tequila.
Walbert / Monica: Tuba and mezcal.
Nastasha: There it is.
Walbert / Monica: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Just like, that process of indirectly teaching them how to ferment, you know, agave from coconut. I mean, it's just, it's crazy
Nastasha: It's mind blowing.
Walbert / Monica: Yeah, yeah.
Nastasha: And so for people who are big into the research because we understand that, again I'm speaking at this from my perspective, right? From a Western perspective in general, it is important for us to know these different sources of information because it feeds us and it informs what we do. So I understand where it might have been a little challenging to narrow stuff down menu wise. But I wanna end with what you guys are planning for the part two of this, and if you could share a little bit about kind of what's starting or what's happened in terms of that coming together.
Walbert / Monica: I think as far as part two goes, we have some existing research from when we had traveled in December. We had a glimpse of that actually come to fruition in the last dinner that we had on October 7th because we celebrated Filipino American History Month, but most importantly National Hispanic Heritage Month as well.
And so what was really cool about that was the timing was divine. We actually had the chocolate queen of the Philippines, the chocolate chamber, Raquel Choa and her family traveled to Vegas to collaborate with us for the evening. They got to share the origin stories of cacao and they got to serve sikwate, tsokolate. And so it's just like, how do we continue to uplift the work that they're doing in the way that they've been able to advocate for cacao and all things.
Favourite food memories
Nastasha: I feel like I could ask all of you like a jillion more questions.
But like, what's a formative or favorite memory or experience you have, whether it's a dish or an event or a memory, something that's very closely related to Filipino food for you and like means a lot.
Andrew: I guess an earlier one is, at the end of a long day at college, and it's like snowing and I've just written my last final exam and I come home late and there's a pot of just hot pork sinigang waiting and it's like, huh, just melt into that and like everything's gonna be okay after a hot bowl of sinigang at the end of a long day.
Nastasha: Especially when it's snowing. I wanna highlight.
Andrew: My gosh, yes. That core memory just sitting there in front of the Christmas tree, just eating sinigang by myself. That.
Nastasha: What about you, Monica?
Walbert / Monica: I am, I'm just laughing because I was all, I just thought about how wow, how beautiful that experience is since we all have experienced snow. Snow and sinigang. Like there's probably people that will never, have never experienced that before. Wow.
But this is true actually. And I had this realization after we started tackling the current chapter. I have a very severe peanut allergy, so I've always had it, which is such a shame because you already know what the first thing Filipinos say. Oh you can't have kare-kare. No, I can't. I can't and I'm, it's fine.
But my Lola had her Lola's recipe of tsokolate, and they would make it every Christmas and whenever we would be home in Pampanga. My mom is from Angeles. Every time we had a celebration most of the time, but typically Christmas, she would make her tsokolate and she would add peanuts in it, or, you know, peanut butter. I actually don't really know her special recipe, but I could never participate in that tradition of my family.
And so that memory, which sounds kind of sad is also a really powerful one because through Istorya I've kind of learned to reframe it. Like, why does it have peanuts to No, no, but why does it, like what is the story behind why this has peanuts? Like why?
Nastasha: It's a source of curiosity, right?
Walbert / Monica: Yes. Because the thing that I say with my culture is I had a lot of cultural pride, without cultural context. And so the context is more satisfying to me than, what's the word? Fulfilling. I get more busog.
Nastasha: You get more busog. I like that. You get more busog with the context. That's like a quotable quote right there.
Walbert / Monica: Like, that sense of connection that I had is like, part of finding the common language.
Okay. Hmm. I almost want to say that like, you know, my favorite Filipino food is dinuguan. And I don't know. I'm trying to think
Nastasha: Why does it mean a lot to you? Like was this something you had growing up a lot or something you didn't like growing up?
Walbert / Monica: It's interesting actually, I didn't know dinuguan had pork blood in it only until my teenage years, like I found out, like when I was 16. And I actually was kind of shocked and I kept eating it. When you start knowing things that you didn't know before, it of course changes your perspective on the dish. But if it's really good, like, symbolically there's always this hidden layer of knowing what truly is in your food. And like, once you finally figure that out and what it is, if it's good, then you know, why not continue?
Nastasha: I like to think that the work that we're doing, whether it's just your own personal passion or curiosity or interest in Filipino cuisine that kind of led you to this episode or to learning about Istorya, I hope that's one of the main takeaways from our conversation today is that there's all these different ways that we can connect to the culture and the food. Whether that's through physically attending, like a dinner, if you're in the Las Vegas area, or even just like following online because the amazing content that you've been putting out is so well researched and so grounded in connecting those existing storytellers in the Philippines to the wider communities abroad, because we know that that link is kind of, it's not missing, as you guys have said, it's just not as easily accessible for a lot of people.
And so what you're doing to translate some of this work that is already happening on the ground into a medium or into a way that's more consumable, for a lot of people is just amazing. So thank you for that.
Upcoming Istorya events
Walbert / Monica: Thank you Nastasha for having us again, and we appreciate the work that you're doing as well.
As far as upcoming events, we are going to have our next Galeon dinner on December 9th. That's going to be the third dinner. And then in the next year, we're gonna have the fourth and farewell Galeon dinner, part one before we go into part two.
Nastasha: Amazing.
Walbert / Monica: But more to come. Yeah. I think after that, we may go with another chapter that consists of us traveling, so stay on the lookout for that.
Nastasha: Awesome. I mean, it's the beginning of a, a ride. I think as you were also kind of talking about, this is a journey for not just yourselves, but like everybody on the team. So yeah, it's just really a pleasure to connect and get to hear your stories as well and hear about what drives you.
And I hope that through hearing these stories, other people who are also in that similar path or, you know, in that similar space where we're looking to connect ourselves to the culture and the cuisine through food. Like just find some kind of inspiration or, comfort I guess, in the fact that there are other people like us who are doing this. And the more we find each other and connect, the better we can all like uplift our stories and the stories of the people in the communities who we have the privilege of interacting with in the Philippines too, to kind of connect that with the diasporic community regardless of where you are in the world. Because Filipinos are everywhere.
Walbert / Monica: Yes. Well said. I really look forward to even more of what we will co-create with you and, and with everyone else together. With the same, same heart and
Nastasha: same heart. Uh, I love it. We'll get busog with the context that way.
Walbert / Monica: Yes. Exactly.
Follow along
Nastasha: My warmest thanks to Walbert Castillo, Monica Blanco and Andrew Dizon for making the time to chat with us for this episode. Head to the links in the show notes to learn more about Istorya, find them online at istoryalv.com. That's I-S-T-O-R-Y-A-L-V.com and stay connected on socials, same handle at istoryalv for news about their future dinners.
The show's theme music is by Crowander with our segment music by Eric and MaGill, Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and tell a friend or leave a review on the platform you're listening on. It really, really helps.
Until next time, maraming salamat, thank you for listening.