Andrew Zimmern, host of “Bizarre Foods” on the Travel Channel, told Today.com that a new food fad is making its way to the top rankings in the U.S., and it’s not fried mayonnaise or butter for a change. Clawing its way to the top and joining the ranks of the hottest food trends today – Peruvian and Korean cuisines – Filipino cooking is making its debut to food fad-dom in a very big way. Zimmern predicts that Filipino food will become the next big thing within the next two years.
Andrew Zimmern, host of "Bizarre Foods."
“I want to go on record — this is not something that’s hot now somewhere and will get hot everywhere else,” Zimmern told Today.com. “It’s just starting. I think it’s going to take another year and a half to get up to critical mass, but everybody loves Chinese food, Thai food, Japanese food, and it’s all been exploited. The Filipinos combined the best of all of that with Spanish technique. The Spanish were a colonial power there for 500 years, and they left behind adobo and cooking in vinegar — techniques that, applied to those tropical Asian ingredients, are miraculous.”
Hapa SF (@HapaSF)
We’ve seen this trend picking up momentum, ourselves, and wouldn’t be surprised if Zimmern is actually incorrect. Perhaps this Filipino heatwave will gain its full momentum within this year. Hapa SF, a San Francisco-based organic Filipino food truck recently tied in first place with long-time Bay Area favorite, ShackMobile, serving up fresh Maine lobster rolls, for the Best Food Truck award at the Monterey County Fairground. When Filipino food ties with decadent lobster, it’s clear that the masses have spoken. This is nothing new for Hapa SF – their food is sought after from the South Bay, all the way up to Nevada County, and it doesn’t seem to be letting up.
It’s speculated that the draw of Filipino cuisine is in its diverse foreign influence. Filipino food packs a powerful flavor punch with its Chinese, Spanish, Indonesian and Malaysian influence, offering an exciting flavor explosion in almost any dish.
Zimmern also told Today.com that San Diego is witnessing its birth of the Filipino food fad, and he predicts it will soon reach Los Angeles, where he expects the fad to emerge throughout the U.S. He told Today.com that “San Diego is now a big enough ethnic population of Filipinos that chefs are going there and seeing stuff. I think it’ll creep up into Los Angeles and from there go around the rest of the country.”
Read the entire story, and an interview with Cristina Quackenbush, chef / owner at Milkfish, a popular Filipino pop-up restaurant found inside Marie’s Bar, a Marigny neighborhood favorite in New Orleans, and her recipe for Spam Fried Rice
