A Sunny Side Up Kind of Journey
/Book Review: Amboy: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream by Alvin Cailan
Filipino food champion and celebrated LA chef Alvin (“Amboy”slangy contraction of American Boy) Cailan is not the US-born (Sunset Kaiser in Hollywood, specifically) child who became a nurse or an accountant “that his parents can be proud of at novena.” His journey to success is more of a tale of self-discovery.
He grew up in East LA and, of course, there were gangs along the way. He did get a classical French education from the Oregon Culinary Institute. But street culture stuck with him. He doesn’t even call his cooking “fusion” despite non-traditional Pinoy ingredients highlighted in some of his dishes.
Get this. Recipes listed in his book include Bulalo Ramen, Ratatouille Adobo, Kare-kare with Japanese curry, Bicol Express Mazemen (soup-less ramen) and Fish sarsiado Shakshuka (poached eggs in tomato sauce with olive oil, cumin, and paprika also added) style.
But Cailan says, “Fusion is not really something that I do. I really just cook with the influence of my culture. I try to make Filipino food based on food in my surrounding and influences I’ve picked up from my culinary journey – learning from my lola, working in high school or at a Catholic nunnery (Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra, California) and in the kitchen at French and Italian restaurants. But I always implement Filipino flavors along the way.”
Chef Alvin Cailan (Photo by Wyatt Conlon)
Some of the titles in his book reveal his early influences: Dad Antonio, Grandma Emma, Lola Pacing, nanny, and Auntie Cita, and pal from Sacred Heart, Danilo.
For a while, it was all traditional and home-cooked comfort food. But when he was 17, he had his first grilled steak. “We Filipinos don’t cook our steak medium rare. We cook them well done, whether it’s bistek or what. So, growing up I never had the luxury of eating something decadent and unctuous. When I fell in love with medium rare steak, it really changed the game because I started cooking Filipino meat at home with more of a Western setting.”
He was 27 after culinary school and, moving back to LA, did not have too many options except maybe Starbucks, MacDonald’s, or diners serving pancakes and waffles.
“But I thought there was a void in the market and I could fill it by making egg sandwiches. I have something super familiar – making Spam and egg sandwiches in pan de sal growing up. In my teen-age years out of New York, bacon and egg cheese sandwiches were prevalent for breakfast. Everyone was in a hurry. They didn’t have time to sit down at a diner. They had little bodegas or liquor stores where they make bacon and egg cheese sandwiches. I wanted to mimic that in LA at a time when big single roasting coffee joints were popular. I tuned in with the coffee shops with my food truck serving egg sandwiches.”
Gourmet magazine editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl came to Cailan’s truck for the Eggslut. Eggslut was irresistible at Grand Central Market. Marisa Tomei, Famke Janssen, Colin Hanks, a ZZ Top band member also came and help make the sandwich Cailan’s number one best-seller. In Aspen, Drew Barrymore had her pinot grigio with Eggslut. “It became a brunch phenom early 2010 to 2012. Then we opened our first brick and mortar place in 2018.”
The kid who defied his Pinoy family’s idea of the traditional American success was suddenly living the dream in Lala land. But was he vindicated?
He was a business owner at 30 but broke up with his longtime girl. He was taking trips to New York and Vegas riding on the slut’s fame. Then the offers came, but he turned down $150 mil easy. The cook who lived on $30K became a corporation. When the party died, he longed to create another slut. He hatched a scheme about ramen when ramen houses were getting to be the trend. But he got into a legal mess. He won’t talk about it. But he’s found another passion. He has become a champion for Filipino food, supporting restaurateurs in promoting LA’s Filipino food movement. Notably in 2016, he helped the Valencia brothers with their project LASA (“taste” in Tagalog) at his Chinatown incubator Unit 120. In 2018, Food & Wine declared LASA Restaurant of the Year.
The Nita (Photo by Wyatt Conlon)
“I don’t think that Filipino food will ever be a trend. We’re not a concept. We’re a culture. I totally believe that Filipino food will be competitive in the sense that people put us in conversation about delicious Asian cuisine. In the last six years, we’ve been trying to put Filipino food in the eyes of America outside the Filipino community. We’ve succeeded and shown Filipino cuisine and chefs have made their mark in this country.”
Cailan credits celebrity chefs Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern, who said Filipino food was the next big thing. ”In 2017, Bon Appetit listed Washington DC Filipino restaurant Bad Saint as the number two Best Restaurant. Last year, Bad Saint’s Tom Cunanan won the James Beard award for Best chef. I definitely think we are a staple now in Asian American cuisine all over the US.”
He quickly rises to defend “too salty, greasy fatty” Filipino food. “I actually don’t run into critiques like that from notable food critics. The regionality of Filipino food varies with the professional scene. There certainly is no negative connotation. Criticism like this is the reason why a lot of trained chefs have given up becoming chefs in the last quarter of the century. We’re all working to reverse the stereotype because we do cook with local ingredients. We have a lot of farmers’ market ingredients and this proves the versatility of Filipino cuisine.” He has Bone Marrow Fried Rice in Amboy.
He does have reservations. “Sisig, I feel is one of those bad dishes that’s salty and greasy. It’s actually not an original Filipino dish. It came about post-World War II when the navy boats in Pampanga brought pig heads. Not to waste free meat from the US government, a local chef created sisig. I didn’t want to put it in my book because there’s a million ways to cook sisig. It’s not something I grew up with. I’m more into nilaga and I eat dilis with champorado.”
Cailan adds, “I think my book says, ‘Hey, don’t be afraid of your own destiny. It’s your life to live and you should live it and do what you want.’”
He intimates that he has more to say. “Over 20 years, I have collected 30 to 40 notebooks full of recipes.”
For a sample of Cailan’s recipes, check out his Dad’s Tortang Giniling
Harvey Barkin
Harvey Barkin is editor-in-chief at FilAm Star in San Francisco, correspondent for the San Jose Mercury News and content writer for an industry-specific newsletter. He is also a reporting fellow for campaigns and grant-funded projects. Previously, he was a correspondent for news portal BenitoLink, a tech writer for Silicon Valley start-ups and a book reviewer for Small Press in Rhode Island. His work has appeared in various media from advertising copy and collateral to B2B content and in various outlets from Valley Catholic to Inside Kungfu.
More articles from Harvey I. Barkin
