Published work
Much of my recent work is published at Filipino Kitchen, a food media and events group that connects Filipinos across the diaspora with our culinary heritage, culture and history. I led Filipino Kitchen with my collaborator, Natalia Roxas, from 2014 to 2018. The idea for that business started right here on this blog.
In 2011, I started writing about travel in Places to Explore. When I wasn’t writing about travel, I kept up my writing practice with the food that I loved as subject. My writings on Filipino American food and culture are collected under Pinoy is in the Heart. These posts on lugaw and Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda spawned the idea for Filipino Kitchen.
In the 2018 Family Style Zine: An AAPI Food Anthology, edited by Cynthia Cheng and Farrah Su, I contributed a piece on the history of halo-halo, the Philippines’ shaved ice dessert, alongside an illustration by Ann Ryan.
I wrote about the history of Filipino food in Chicago for the book, The Chicago Food Encyclopedia (University of Illinois, 2017), available on Amazon. Our food history follows the history of our people.
In late 2016, I interviewed three elders in the Asian American community for the AARP blog (American Association of Retired Persons), in a collaboration with NextDay Better. “Stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Disrupt Aging” (December 8, 2016) featured farmer and James Beard award nominee Mas Matsumoto and author Tess Gerritsen. “Stories of Caregiving From the AAPI Community” (November 1, 2016) presented the story of poet and author Frances Kakugawa.
An industry publication, Plate Magazine, Filipino Forward issue, March/April 2016. I contributed a piece called “On The Side” about banana ketchup.
A photograph I first posted on this blog has been memorialized in the memoir, Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart (2016).
Thanks to my twenties, I wrote about drinking in Chicago for the book, 101 Places to Get F*cked Up Before You Die (St. Martin’s Press, 2014). Yes, that’s the real title, and it’s available on Amazon. Read the story about my favorite Chicago bar which unfortunately for these readers was cut from the book.
My first published work is a chapter about the Philippines for Street Food Around the World: An Encyclopedia of Food and Culture (ABC-CLIO, 2013), available on Amazon. Another publisher, Agate, purchased rights in 2017 to the book and repackaged it in paperback as Street Food: Everything You Need To Know About Open-Air Stands, Carts, And Food Trucks Across The Globe, available on Amazon.
More about this blog.
All writing and photography are my own, unless attributed.
I do not receive any compensation for what I blog about here, unless indicated. Sponsored posts are clearly marked. In July 2013, the Philippines’ Department of Tourism underwrote my participation in the Ambassadors’ Tour.
I do not receive any compensation if my readers purchase products or services I’ve written about on this blog. I don’t participate in affiliate marketing.
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