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The Filipino food movement in America’s East Coast is picking up steam. To further promote our cuisine in New York and New Jersey, Filipino-American restaurateurs and the Philippine Consulate in New York are coming together to launch the first-ever Filipino Restaurant Week.
“This is a coming out event for the Filipino community to mainstream US society,” Philippine Consul General Mario De Leon said. “This will give the Filipino community here pride in our cuisine.”
Inspired by the popular New York Restaurant Week, more than a dozen Filipino restaurants will be serving three-course pre-fixe lunch and dinner at a fraction of their usual prices.
For a fixed US$25 lunch or US$35 dinner, foodies can sample a variety of pre-fixe dishes — from the traditional comfort food to modern takes on the Filipino cuisine.
Staten Island’s Fil-Am Kusina owner Manny Imperial said, “I’m really happy that we are actually having a Filipino Restaurant Week. So the curiosity a lot of people have, always wanting to try something new, is what I hope most people would discover.”
It was only about three years ago when Bizarre Food host Andrew Zimmern predicted that Filipino food would the next big thing. Earlier this month The Washington Post published an article titled, “At long last, Filipino food arrives. What took it so long?”
READ: Filipino food featured in Washington Post
The newspaper credited Purple Yam and restaurant group Maharlika and Jeepney for introducing a more upscale and modern take on Filipino cuisine to non-Filipino markets in the Big Apple.
Yanina Erman, PR Rep for Jeepney and Maharlika, said, “It kind of borrowed the idea of Food Week from New York and how wildly successful that is.”
She just hopes that this helps even further push the Filipino food movement to a wider market.
“I hope makikita ng mga tao na iba-ibang flavors, iba-ibang taste, iba-ibang putahe ang makikita nila sa different restaurants,” said Romy Dorotan, chef and owner of Purple Yam in Brooklyn.
The 2015 Filipino Restaurant Week begins on May 11 to May 23. Details and a complete list of participating Filipino restaurants can be found on www.newyorkpcg.org.
Text: Don Tagala, ABS-CBN North America Bureau / Balitang America
Photo: Icqgirl (WikiCommons)
This article has been re-published with permission from ABS-CBNnews.com.
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