Dining

Following the success of its first British Columbia (BC) opening in February, the iconic burger brand Jollibee is slated to open two more locations in BC by end of 2022.

You could not blame Vancouverites for breaking into the song “What’s the buzz, tell me what’s happening….” on Friday, February 25, 2022, when they woke up to a long and noisy crowd forming on Granville Street, one of the main arteries of the city.

Toronto alternative weekly NOW Magazine expects Filipino food to get “even more popular” as one of four major food trends happening this year.

On March 1 this year, Canadian Filipino Net reported about a young Toronto chef who is getting a lot of attention for his pop-up dining event.

Since October 2020, Keanu Francisco has been running a once-a-month pop-up restaurant at Sara, a dining establishment in Toronto, where the Canadian Filipino works as a chef.

This Toronto restaurant doesn’t have the logo that is easily recognizable to many Filipinos.

It’s the image of a banga (clay pot) cooking over flames shaped like the letters B and F. B and F stand for Barrio Fiesta, a dining institution in the Philippines.

I stand at the sidewalk of a tree-lined street in Victoria, British Columbia, looking up at an old wood frame house, wondering how to find the person I had come to see as I had left my cell phone at home and so could not call. A young girl, Caucasian, comes down the front steps with a bound, and I ask: “Excuse me, is there a Filipino family living in this house?” She tells me to go up a path to the left of the house and knock on the first door. 

 In a February 2020 post, Big 7 Travel, a popular international travel website, listed what it considers to be the best Filipino restaurants in Canada.

A total of 25 establishments made it to the site’s enumeration.

Colin Asuncion’s foray into amateur (and eventually competitive) baking is inspired by his mom Elizabeth’s mastery in the kitchen. 

In the Town of Minto, Ontario (population under 9,000) lies an unassuming restaurant that offers pandesal specials: pandesal bruschetta, pulled pork slider, pandesal garlic toast and pandesal BLT. Among its breakfast and lunch staples is also a particularly Filipino dish – crispy adobo rice bowl. 

Pancit canton, or wheat noodles stir fried with a medley of meats, seafood, and vegetables, is a popular dish in the Philippines.

It is such an integral part of Filipino cuisine that many restaurateurs outside the country have incorporated the fare in their menus.

In the heart of downtown Vancouver is a quaint café serving food with a big Filipino heart. Called Herbs and Spices Café, the restaurant describes itself as “the daily real-life adventures of women who support each other through thick and thin.”