LOS ANGELES – To give a taste of what to expect this weekend, about 100 people kicked off the 19th Annual Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC), in grand appetizing style.
FilAm Arts, the host of FPAC, held its first ever "Taste of FPAC" event on Thursday at The Oinkster restaurant in Eagle Rock with guests appetizing on contemporary Filipino American cuisine cooked by Oinkster owner Fil-Am Andre Guerrero and from The Manila Machine, Southern California’s first Filipino gourmet truck.
Guerrero, The Manila Machine and the other two Pinoy inspired trucks that all made its debut this summer – White Rabbit and Tapa Boy – along with Park’s Finest BBQ will be serving their own brand of Filipino food at FPAC in San Pedro this weekend.
"Right now with so many writers and people blogging about it, there’s a certain momentum with Filipino food," said Nerissa Silao, a member of the Board of Directors of Fil-Am Arts. "We just felt like we wanted to go along with that momentum and highlight culinary arts," at this year’s FPAC.
During the event, FPAC organizers announced Guerrero, a multi-award winning and critically acclaimed chef, will be receiving the organization’s artist award. A more formal announcement will be held on Sunday, the last day of FPAC.
"I feel very honored to receive this award," said Guerrero. "My family moved here about 50 years ago and I never thought about my Filipino-ness I just wanted to be the best chef I could be. The best part about the Filipino community is the tremendous amount of support I’ve received."
Filipino gourmet trucks
Guerrero said he’d be helping the operators of The Manila Machine – Marvin Gapultos and Nastassia Johnson – during the FPAC weekend.
The 56-year-old Guerrero commended Gapultos and Johnson for taking the leap of faith and creating The Manila Machine.
"These guys are very brave to take this on," he said.
About serving Filipino food through a truck, Guerrero said it’s a good start. He mentioned that Filipino food will take a while to get used to by the mainstream and that the Manila Machine is "doing the right thing’ by introducing Filipino flavors that would appeal to all types of people not just Filipinos.
"I think Filipino food will continue to spread and it’ll happen naturally. People will embrace the cuisine as they have with Thai, Chinese, and Korean," said Guerrero."
FPAC
According to Winston Emano, FPAC organizers are expecting about 20,000 people over the weekend at this year’s FPAC at Point Fermin Park in San Pedro.
Emano, a member of FilAm Art’s Board of Directors, said this is a great way for Filipinos and everyone to gather, celebrate and be reminded of the beauty of our culture amidst the negative attention the Philippines had taken during the Manila bus hostage situation.
"The homeland has taken a hit since that tragedy," said Emano. "But FPAC has always been about bringing people together."
GMA Pinoy Television is partnering with FilAm Arts and will have several variety shows during the weekend. Emano also said Filipino spiritual leaders better known as babaylans will lecture and demonstrate what they do. (Joseph Pimentel/AJPress)
( Published September 11, 2010 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A1 )
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