Flavours of the Philippines

Cuisine from the Southeast Asian nation is steadily gaining in popularity across Aotearoa. Alexia Santamaria meets two couples who are sharing the flavours of their childhoods in new and creative ways.

Jessabel Granada and Andrew Soriano know what it’s like to carve a new path. When the couple opened their tiny eatery Nanam in Royal Oak in 2015, Filipino food was relatively unknown in Auckland. ‘‘Andrew and I were working for a chef who owned a Vietnamese restaurant and for personal reasons wanted to finish up doing that,’’ says Granada. ‘‘He kept telling us we should take the place over and open a Filipino restaurant, but we told them he was out of his mind as no one even knew what our cuisine was at that time.’’

Despite their flat ‘‘no’’ the couple did trial selling some of their taco pao (homemade beetroot buns with humba sticky pork, peanuts and assorted pickles) at night markets, and were encouraged by the positive response.

‘‘We had qualified as chefs in the Philippines then came to New

Zealand and spent six years in

Central Otago. We loved the idea of combining the beautiful produce we found here with our culinary skills and the flavours from home,’’ says Granada.

‘‘Even though it felt like a crazy idea, we decided to take the plunge with Royal Oak – looking back it was insane, as we only had $600 in our bank account.’’

What followed were some very tough months. Locals took time to get brave enough to check them out, and some Filipinos were critical of their adapted modern style.

‘‘There were tears for sure,’’ says Granada, ‘‘but we wanted to introduce our culture and food to New Zealand, so we kept on pushing.’’

Once customers started to come, word spread quickly, and the restaurant won accolades from acclaimed chefs such as Michael Meredith, Sid Sahrawat and Ed Verner. They’ve since relocated to larger premises in Takapuna, on Auckland’s North Shore.

During level 3 lockdown the Nanam crew made sourdough and pastries to sell as takeout, which encouraged people to try their food in a low-risk way.

‘‘Once they realised they loved our baking, they booked in for dinner,’’ says Granada. ‘‘They came back and brought friends, so things are busy now.’’

She’s very glad they persevered. ‘‘Our biggest reward is having a place for our own community to gather, and join us in showcasing our food and culture to Kiwis – even if they were hard on us when we started out.’’

Hapunan is a story of food – and love – that began over the shelves of Auckland gourmet food store Farro Fresh. English-born Laura Caddick was working as a deli assistant, and Aldrin Tabora, recently migrated from the Philippines, was working in the butchery.

Tabora was a qualified engineer, but would have needed another three years of study to have his degree recognised in New Zealand, so he took a job stacking chilled goods. As he progressed from stacker to butcher he abandoned his engineering plans, and instead enrolled in a culinary arts degree at AUT.

‘‘I’d learned so much about how to cut meat, it just made me want to learn to cook it properly,’’ he says.

While at AUT, Tabora met tutor and well-known restaurateur and chef, Geoff Scott.

‘‘I asked him if I could work for him at his restaurant, Vinnies, and he said yes,’’ recalls Tabora. ‘‘It was an amazing experience.’’

Further roles followed, first with Josh Emett at Madam Woo then as head chef at popular Malaysian restaurant, Mulan.

Meanwhile, Caddick worked her way up through various hospitality roles, including managing a cafe at Auckland’s Victoria Park.

In March 2017, Tabora and Caddick were ready to strike out on their own. They launched their gorgeous food truck Hapunan – branded and designed by Caddick – at a private catering event.

‘‘To say it was baptism by fire would be an understatement,’’ says Caddick. ‘‘As our first gig we decided to roll out seven courses of Filipino street food to 90 people. It was beyond stressful, but the lessons learned meant we knew what systems we needed in place immediately and what we would – and wouldn’t – put on the menu.’’

It’s been all go ever since – accelerated by early media attention, including Lonely Planet’s ‘‘Around the world in 80 Food Trucks’’. Dishes such as adobo del diablo and beef kare kare were an instant hit with customers.

Well, most customers – like Granada and Soriano, Tabora and Caddick found the Filipino crowd harder to please.

‘‘Even though we developed the dishes with my Mum, who is the best Filipino cook ever, many of our people didn’t like the diversion from the traditional ways,’’ says Tabora.

For example, Hapunan’s pata tim dish is pork hock with meat taken off the bone and served in a bao bun with chilli, coriander and pickled cucumber. ‘‘The base flavour is still the same as the traditional way of cooking, but looks totally different to how Filipinos would know it,’’ says Tabora.

Caddick recalls: ‘‘It took a lot of persistence to get them to even sample our Pinoy dishes but once they did, they liked it – and now regularly come back for more!’’

Recently, the couple opened a small takeout joint on the main road of Huapai.

‘‘It’s all a bit of an accident really,’’ says Caddick. ‘‘We just wanted a commercial kitchen to use for the food truck to keep up with the demand for catering and street food events. We now have a one-year-old daughter and that makes cooking in our graded kitchen at home a lot harder.

‘‘We came across a little shop that ticked all the boxes, but the landlord said we had to have a shopfront and open to the local community if we wanted to lease the space.’’

Now, there are often queues down the block outside the shop.

‘‘We didn’t plan it this way, but all great things in life come to us in unexpected ways, and it’s actually worked out really well,’’ says Tabora.

‘‘Considering the financial stress we faced in Covid times, we’ve managed to ride the tidal wave and come out the other end stronger.’’

Nanam Eatery and Hapunan are both open Tuesday to Saturday. Nanam Eatery is in Takapuna, on Auckland’s North Shore, and you can find Hapunan on State Highway 16 at Kumeu¯ .