The days of lumping Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Filipino cuisine into the generic “Asian food” category are gone. Consumers are more educated about ethnic foods than ever before, and the diversity of food within the Asian world is too great to be stuck in one generic grouping.
Food from the Philippines, for instance, takes some traditional Asian food and merges it with influence from years of Spanish and American colonialism. Favorites include noodles (pancit) and spring rolls (lumpia), steamed buns, sausages and more. Filipino cuisine was, according to a recent article in Forbes, one of the top restaurant trends from 2016 and is sure to carry over into 2017. Understanding Filipino food and recreating it for a wider audience requires an understanding of the country, its history and its people.