Kwento Kwentuhan

Online Edition

Liza A Pierce of “A Maui Blog”

Filipino food includes some of the tastiest, most delicious food in the world! That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it. It is not only tasty, comforting and delightful, it always brings a warm nostalgic feeling.

While Filipinos would naturally agree with my opinion about Filipino food being the best, I understand some non-Filipinos may not be familiar with it and might challenge my opinion. I guess this is one of the many reasons why Filipino Food Week was born.

This year marks the second Filipino Food Week Hawai‘i. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the week-long event was held online. The Philippine Consulate General in Honolulu spearheaded this online event between June 14 and 20, 2020.

Did you miss the online event? No worries! This is why I decided to talk story about it here at Kwento-kwentuhan. One of the many advantages of having an online event is the photos and videos stays online even after the event.

Joey Macadangdang, an award winning chef, is shown here in his element.
Photo courtesy Liza Pierce

Allow me to share with you some of the highlights of Filipino Food Week Hawai‘i 2020—and let’s help continue the promotion of Filipino culture and food through these resources:

1. There are a variety of videos that were published on Filipino Food Week YouTube Channel including Cooking Tutorials! These videos help to share Filipino history, values, destinations, geography, words, products ingredients, pop culture and yes, food. I truly enjoyed the cooking tutorials! Here are some of them:

How To Cook Pancit – Videographer Philip Lemoine and his mom Arlene shared their pancit recipe. The video is fun to watch, there are a lot of laughter during their cooking.

How to Cook Adobo with Gata – Lanai Tabura shared how to cook pork adobo sa gata (coconut cream) in an Insta Pot. I know … it’s not a traditional way of cooking adobo but it’s good to get some ideas on how we can adapt Filipino cooking with some of the modern cooking tools we have nowadays.

How to Cook Palitaw and Malunggay Pan de Sal – It was fun to watch young chefs in this video. BJ and Ella at an early age were taught by their mom Mae how to cook Filipino food. They did a good job teaching us how to make Palitaw and Malunggay Pan de Sal. If these young kids can do it, we can too!

How To Cook Pakbet (Pinakbet with Bagnet) – In this episode of Filipino Food Week, Chef Joey Macadangdang of Joey’s Kitchen teaches us how to do a traditional Ilocano dish called Pinakbet (Pakbet for short).

Pinakbet with Bagnet from Joey’s Kitchen.
Photo: Saltshine Creative

2. Daily postings of Filipino food photos as well as some contest announcements were done during the week-long event on Instagram and Facebook. I actually joined one of the contests and I won a gift certificate from Joey’s Kitchen! Yay! I am so excited to go there! If you are not following their Instagram and Facebook Page yet, I encourage you to do so. Any help we can give to support their promotion of our culture and Filipino food industry would be very helpful.

We love Filipino food, no doubt. This Filipino Food Week Hawai‘i is certainly helpful in promoting our culinary heritage. I am looking forward to next year’s event. Hopefully it won’t be just online but if it is, then that is okay too. Either way, I will be actively participating and I hope you will too.

Liza Pierce of A Maui Blog is an Interactive Media Strategist in Hawai‘i. She started blogging in 2006 and she loves talking story online and spreading aloha around the world. She’s lived on Maui since 1994 and considers Maui her home. A wife, a mother, a friend…and so much more. She loves Jesus; Maui Sunsets Catcher; Crazy About Rainbow; End Alzheimer’s Advocate. Her life is full and exciting here on the island of Maui.
Liza is currently the Interactive Media Strategist with Wailea Realty Corp.