A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE
While the noise of traffic on Highway 237 buzzed along an overpass in Milpitas on Sunday, hundreds of people gathered in a parking lot underneath to celebrate Filipino culture, food and music at the 13th Annual Adobo Festival.
The traveling celebration stops in a different Bay Area city for one weekend each year, usually in a place where there are large Filipino populations, including Union City, Newark, San Jose and Daly City in the past.
It also has been held in Stockton and made an appearance in Carson, in Southern California. This year marked the festival’s third time in Milpitas.
Hungry visitors were devouring Filipino dishes, including lumpia, the name for skinny deep-fried spring rolls; pancit, a plate of stir-fried translucent rice noodles with veggies; and, of course, chicken or pork adobo, the staple marinade and seasoning of Filipino culture that lent its name to the festival.
White vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and onion create the beginnings of most Filipino-style adobo dishes, with other ingredients, such as fruity peppercorns or aromatic bay leaves, added at the chef’s discretion.
The food was the undeniable star of the show. Many waited in a long,
winding line for food from a stand operated by Pampanga’s, a Stockton-based restaurant named for the province in the Philippines known for the culinary skill of its residents.
“I’m here to taste the adobo,” JoJo Candelario, of Fremont, said Sunday afternoon while standing in line for Pampanga’s. “To see if it tastes better than mine,” he added.
Matt White, of San Jose, said he was driving down Main Street in Milpitas with a friend after getting his car washed when he noticed the festival in the parking lot and decided to stop off.
“We saw food, and then read the sign of what it was, and knew there was going to be good food,” White said while sipping on a refreshing mango and pineapple lemonade drink.
The festival also featured live music and dance performances. Various groups put on a show for dozens of onlookers on a stage near the rear of the festival, performing both traditional folkloric dances and contemporarily choreographed moves.
A small group of activists gathered near the stage at one point in the afternoon,
trying to bring attention to what they called unjust wages and working conditions for employees at NutriAsia, a Philippine condiment producer and distributor. The company makes the Datu Puri brand of condiments, including vinegar and soy
sauce widely used in adobo recipes.
The protest was quickly drowned out by the stage performances, however.
Joey Camins, the festival’s founder and head organizer, said the event provides a space for Filipinos of all backgrounds and
ages to come together and celebrate.
“We’re 7,000 islands in the Philippines. And we seldom meet each other,” Camins said.
He said festivals like this one not only “create solidarity and camaraderie” for Filipinos living all around the Bay Area, but also help expose the pillars of the culture to others who come.
Stina Marshall, of Castro Valley, was at the festival with her young kids and partner, who was helping her fill cups of sweet chili sauce after getting their food.
“We decided to come because we love to take the kids out and try good, culturally diverse food,” Marshall said. “We’re big foodies.”
One of the main attractions at the festival was the adobo cook-off, featuring six different cooks whipping up their variations on the dish.
Bun Lem, of San Jose, is Cambodian and had never entered a cooking contest before. But he said his wife, who is Filipino, encouraged him to enter and make his signature deep-fried adobo chicken wings with an adobo glaze.
Mike Eblacas, of Mountain View, was making a chicken adobo kicked up with a little heat from serrano peppers. “It’s not traditional, but hopefully the judges like it,” he said.
Tucked into the far corner of the yellow tent where cook-off competitors were prepping their dishes, Chloe Mosqueda, of Richmond, was cooking up her mom’s traditional adobo recipe.
“Adobo is always some parent’s, godparent’s or grandparent’s recipe,” Mosqueda said of the famous dish, known to virtually all Filipinos. “It’s in the heart.”