Filipino Proudly

For a time, Amboy and Eggslut's AlvinCailan had a tough time finding his place in a world stained by typecasts. Until he found a home inside the kitchen. Angelo Comsti sits down and chats with one of the most celebrated chef ambassadors of the USA's Filipino food movement By Angelo Comsti Photography

-  By Angelo Comsti

His cookbook was very telling. Tortang giniling (ground beef omelets) stacked up like flapjacks, lumpia with the makings of a cheeseburger and bibingka (rice cake) lodged with a slice of cream cheese before its baked. These dishes are not quite traditional Filipino and not American, either, like the author himself.

“[Amboy] describes my cuisine, my lifestyle,” writes Cailan. “It’s how I cook. It’s how I talk…It’s about a Filipino-American kid trying to make it work in a world where everyone says no. About making it happen and being true to who I am. About just owning it.”

Strapped for cash, his parents moved from a Filipino town in California to a predominantly Mexican-American area in East LA, devoid of a community he could identify with and relate to. This brought a lot of personal struggles for Cailan. “I couldn’t relate to anything. I was like an alien,” he says.

Consequently, trips to the Philippines offered relief. Busy with their jobs as a bookkeeper (mother) and a locksmith (father) who were hellbent on saving to buy a house, young Cailan was flown to the Asian archipelago every summer so that someone could look after him.

“I was spoiled here, so I loved it,” he says. “In America, it was a struggle. Every day, I was on my own. I would come home at three o’clock, and my parents were still working. I was by myself. I made my food. And that’s how I learnt how to cook,” he says.

“But it’s different when I go to the Philippines because I was with my Lola [grandma], who had helpers and drivers. And so, I loved coming back because I could be as lazy as I wanted. I embraced coming home because I belonged here,” he remembers.