Audio Script

 

Lead VO: In contrast to communities like Los Angeles and New York, Boston does not have a sizable Filipino population. With the recent closing of Filipino restaurant Tanam in Somerville, the closest Filipino restaurant is Bright Light in Quincy, Massachusetts, a half hour from Downtown Boston by car.

 

Jeff Almendras: There are all of these Filipinos here in Boston, but finding them is a lot harder than I imagine[d].

 

VO: Jeff Almendras is the founder and owner of Johnny Boy, a business dedicated to serving Filipino-inspired breakfast sandwiches.

 

Jeff: Doing something Filipino-business-related inside the Somerville-Boston area is–I almost feel like there's a lot of pressure because I'm the only one there, but I don't have much to look back on. The only thing to look is if I look at people from LA who've been doing this for decades at this point–New York as well. They've been there, done that–Boston's a little bit different.

 

VO: Jeff noticed that Filipino businesses, at least in Boston, are aware of each other, and would like to help each other. He just has not seen that happen yet.

 

Jeff: The theory is that perhaps Filipino businesses want to make it on their own first, and then work together. But how I think about it is completely opposite–I'm thinking the more we work together, the better for everyone else. You have the community, you help me and I help you, it just makes more sense that way as opposed to 'Let me test this out first, let me get to where I want to, and then maybe perhaps we can work together.'

 

VO: This desire for collaboration is synonymous to a word in Tagalog: bayanihan, a sentiment of building community through working together and uplifting each other. Jeff noted that his interactions and conversations with customers amplify that sentiment in a way, and businesses such as Islander’s Creamery exhibit something similar through their pop-up events. Islander’s Creamery is an ice-cream business that frequently does pop-ups at farmer’s markets, general stores, and festivals across Massachusetts, and it was started by childhood friends Irene Deane and Rowena Sy-Santos.

 

Irene Deane: We don't see a lot of Asian-inspired ice cream in the markets–ice cream that we grew up with. We really thought that was something missing in the consumer market, and we also wanted flavors that combined Asian ingredients with New England seasonal flavors, so that's sort of our overall theme when we decided to start Islander's Creamery.

 

VO: In addition to the lack of Filipino food businesses in Greater Boston, there is also an issue of accessibility to Filipino ingredients in the city. These dishes don’t just happen overnight–and even more so with trial and error to get the flavors as close as possible to the Filipino tongue.

 

Rowena Sy-Santos: We would do the tasting as we make it, and it's like cooking--add a little bit of this, add a little bit of that, until you get the actual taste. We've had instances where we added too much of a certain thing, so we had to make corrections and it's a little hard to do. 

 

VO: Ultimately, businesses like Islander’s Creamery and Johnny Boy have a common goal despite their obstacles: to bring Filipino food to the Boston food scene, and to make the presence of the Filipino community known to the city.

 

Jeff: Food–it marries with culture. I think Filipinos, we are proud to talk about our culture, and the best way to talk about our culture and the best way to show it is through food.

 

VO: Reporting in Boston, this was Marieska Luzada.