Angel’s debut cookbook, Filipinx: Heritage Recipes from the Diaspora, co-authored with now New York Times Restaurant co-critic, Ligaya Mishan, is a vibrant mix of design, family recipes, and cultural storytelling.
Then one day, I did a cooking demo at the Williams Sonoma in Columbus Circle, NYC, for the launch of Lucky Peach’s 101 Easy Asian Recipes. I was making my coconut milk chicken adobo when the LP team surprised me mid-demo by bringing out my mom to cook with me on stage. In the audience was Rica Allanic from David Black Agency—now my cookbook agent—who pulled me aside afterward and asked if I’d ever considered writing a cookbook. I told her no. I hadn’t. I imagined maybe doing one in my 60s.
Four years later, the editors at New York Times Food & Cooking asked me to contribute 10 Filipino recipes that were essential to my experience. Growing up around my maternal Lola’s incredible Kapampangan cooking, it was an easy yes. I wrote the recipes, and I tapped Ligaya Mishan to write the story, and the feature took off. Comments sections of anything published on the internet should always be avoided.
Soon after, and thanks to everyone for the encouragement, the book was born: Filipinx: Heritage Recipes from the Diaspora.
A little backstory on it from me:
Without ever having opened a Filipino restaurant—just being a proud Filipino, cooking and being out there, I found this thing online Anthony Bourdain once said this about me:
“There’s a lot of delicious food in the Philippines and a lot of Filipino hipsters who are out there introducing these flavors. I think of Angela Dimayuga. If you were to appoint an official ambassador, somebody with the juice, the trust, the confidence to open a place serving Filipino food, I think she would be a good advocate.” - Anthony Bourdain
BUY FROM MY FAVORITE BOOKSHOPS
“A cookbook can be anthropology, artwork, prose poem, kitchen manual, manifesto or memoir. Occasionally a title hits all those marks, and FILIPINX: Heritage Recipes From the Diaspora (Abrams, $40), by Angela Dimayuga and Ligaya Mishan — a playful, inventive celebration of the funky, tangy, salty flavors of Filipino American cooking — is one of them. Put a copy of “Filipinx” on a low table and you’ll find small children gawking at photographs that somehow manage to be mischievous, edgy and appetizing at once. A whole fried fish swims across a retro plate. A slab of daffodil-yellow chiffon cake reclines on a bed of dewy dust-pink roses. Halo halo soars above the rim of a glass, an extravaganza of purple ice cream, inky sweet adzuki beans, electric-green palm seeds, a single rectangle of satiny beige flan. Exciting though it is to look at, “Filipinx” is even more fun to read. Dimayuga, who opened New York City’s Mission Chinese Food, and Mishan, who writes for this newspaper, excel at sensuous, funny descriptions.”
—The New York Times
“Reading Filipinx both filled me with longing and satisfied hungers I’d almost forgotten how to access. I returned home in its pages—to memories of pork chops in the turbo broiler, rice grains on the bottom of tube socks, the crinkling of wrappers around Food for the Gods. Angela Dimayuga and Ligaya Mishan have created an essential document for the next generation of the Filipinx diaspora and a beautiful guide for anyone who thinks of food the way Filipinos do—as a humble, extravagant expression of communal love.”
—Jia Tolentino, New Yorker staff writer and author of Trick Mirror
“This cookbook by superstars Angela Dimayuga and Ligaya Mishan is a contemplation on what it means to be Filipinx through food. The recipes are inviting and easy to follow, while the narrative merits a book unto itself. The whole is a dinner party, full of delicious food, interesting people, and compelling stories that describe a proud, diverse, and inclusive community. This is a book you’ll want to devour whole.”
—Anita Lo, Michelin-starred chef and author of Solo
PRAISE FOR FILIPINX
“Filipinx is the story of the daughter of immigrants who doesn’t feel the need to assimilate into America, but rather celebrates her roots and culture in their full richness—that is her contribution to being an American. Strong, thoughtful, and to the point, all while stylistically challenging what a ‘cookbook’ can be.”
—Humberto Leon, fashion designer and co-founder of Opening Ceremony
“If you want to understand the arc of Filipino food, realize its connection to other cuisines, and craft splendid flavors, Filipinx delivers. Angela Dimayuga and Ligaya Mishan packed the pages with tender remembrances, careful research, and smart recipes. Anyone interested in Asian cuisines should have this book.”
—Andrea Nguyen, author of The Pho Cookbook and Into the Vietnamese Kitchen
“Whether the subject is spicy banana ketchup, rice cake roasted in banana leaves, or the Filipino community Dimayuga found while once stranded in the Caymans, the combination of personal connection and deep culinary knowledge proves unbeatable. She includes recipes for adobo with chicken, pork, and squid, alongside one for Spam. Instructions are meticulous and ingenious: chicken to be fried in the style of the Philippine chain Max’s is propped on a can overnight to air-dry for crisper results, while eggplant are charred then dredged in beaten egg and fried. Robust flavors abound, notably in a chicken and rice porridge that’s topped with soy-cured egg yolks. Meanwhile, contributions from the likes of trans activist Geena Rocero and “flavor scientist” Arielle Johnson enrich and entertain. Those ready to take the plunge into Filipino cooking will find endless inspiration and heart here.”
—Publishers Weekly STARRED review