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​If you don't happen to have any of your own Memories of Philippine Kitchens -- banana hearts in coconut milk, chicken tinola, hot salabat -- Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan's cookbook by that name will soon be rereleased with updated content (the book includes a history of Filipino foods) and recipes.

And if you haven't seen the 2006 copy, a lifetime ago in current online cookbook terms, in brief: The book is a compilation of personal and local travel stories from the authors, little history nuggets (the Chinese influence on Filipino dishes, where various ingredients are native) and traditional as well as the couple's own recipes. The authors, who now live in Brooklyn, are both from the Philippines. The couple owned Cendrillon restaurant in Manhattan for more than a decade, and now have Purple Yam in Brooklyn, where Dorotan is the chef.

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D. Gonzalez

No kidding around: The cashew caramel bar

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Excitement in food world seems driven by the perpetual pursuit of the new. A hot opening. Emerging trends. Yet, so much about food is tied to the past. Case in point, a hot new restaurant writes on their menu how it was inspired by the feeling of, "...cracking crabs on Redondo Beach Pier as a youth." For many of us, the definitive meal of our youth was found in our lunch boxes. And excitement was generated by the possibility of a snack cake inside. As with anything new, years passed and snack cake disillusionment set in. That was until the day we tried the cashew caramel bar from Luisa and Son Bake Shop

Suzy Qs, Krimpets, Gansitos. No matter which made us smile, it wasn't only their sweet taste that made snack cakes a lunch box staple, it was their convenient individual packaging. A few months ago we paid a visit to Luisa and Son Bake Shop to purchase fresh made Filipino polvorones, a powdered milk candy. As always, we casually scanned the wall of pre-wrapped baked goods in hopes to find a snack to go and instantly our gaze fixed on a little sign, "Cashew Caramel Bar."

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screenshot of Burnt Lumpia post

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Local food blogger Marvin Galputos, who runs the Filipino food blog Burnt Lumpia, is having a good run lately. The Filipino food truck, Manila Machine, that he started with fellow food blogger Nastassia Johnson (Let Me Eat Cake), participated in the 3rd annual Gold Standard over the weekend. And shortly before that, Gapultos got a cookbook deal.

As Gapultos emailed us last night: "Some recipe examples floating in my head are things like chicken adobo pot pie, bacon sisig, bittermelon quiche, and many many pork recipes;) And there will be plenty of traditional recipes as well, but all of this is preliminary of course--it still hasn't really set in that I have to write a cookbook."

The tentative title of Galputos' book is The New Filipino-American Cookbook, and it's scheduled to be in bookstores by the fall of 2012. Proving that the road to success is sometimes paved with adobo.

Cathy Dahn/GastronomyBlog

sisig from Manila Machine

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Filipino cuisine is finally entering the mainstream, thanks to a handful of high profile chefs, the rise of food trucks, an interest in street food and ethnic home cooking, increased attention in the media, and, well, some really good food. So it's probably fitting that the food from the Philippines has now gotten its own festival. Well, not exactly a festival, but the precursor to one, in which Manila Machine, the city's first Filipino food truck, will be parked at The Oinkster, the Eagle Rock restaurant owned by Andre Guerrero, probably the city's best-known Filipino chef, for an evening of lumpia and ube shakes.

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N. Galuten

The White Rabbit Truck

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Yes, another food truck has arrived, and yes, they are serving fusion tacos. But the new White Rabbit Truck is not another Korean-Mexican Kogi impersonator. Instead they are, as far as we can tell, just the second Filipino food truck in Los Angeles, after the blogger-run Manila Machine. But while Manila Machine veers more in the direction of traditional Filipino cuisine, White Rabbit is a much more fusion endeavor, with menu items like tacos, burritos, lettuce cups and "Fili Cheesesteaks."

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Marvin Gapultos

Manila Machine

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The democratization of food, if you can call the evolution of the food truck such a thing, continues. And this time, instead of a rogue chef taking the wheel, it's a pair of food bloggers. Noting the relative absence of Filipino food in Los Angeles in general, and in the fleet of food trucks in particular, the Filipino-American bloggers behind Burnt Lumpia and Let Me Eat Cake, Marvin Gapultos and Nastassia Johnson, are launching The Manila Machine, a food truck serving Filipino food.

The Manila Machine, which will officially debut this Thursday, June 10th, during Downtown Art Walk, will be serving a menu devoted to Filipino street food and homestyle cooking. Chicken adobo, pork belly and pineapple adobo; lumpia; beef and sausage sliders on pan de sal; and for dessert, leche flan, turon and halo halo. There will be specials and, when the weather cooperates, stews and soups. "We believe we're the first food bloggers to tackle a food truck," emailed Gapultos. Probably not for long.

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N. Galuten

The other red ketchup

​Ketchup is, obviously, the great American condiment. Jeffrey Steingarten, in fact, wrote an excellent article about it, which can be found in his book The Man Who Ate Everything. But while we here in the states have tomato ketchup, in the Philippines, banana ketchup (also called banana sauce) is the preferred national choice. Not surprisingly, it is essentially a ketchup made from bananas rather than tomatoes, then dyed red so as not to look incredibly unappetizing.

Banana sauce is sweeter than ketchup, packing a fruity flavor that is balanced out with the acidity of some vinegar. In the Philippines, it is used often as a condiment for fried foods, but can also, as Abby at Pleasure Palate once told us, be used in a variety of other ways. If you're interested in sweet Italian fusion, mix it with your spaghetti sauce and fold in some sliced hot dogs. She also told us that frying eggs and bacon, then breaking the yolk and mixing it with steamed rice and banana sauce makes for a new twist on breakfast.

It is also, like tomato ketchup, incredibly inexpensive. Most Filipino markets, like Bahay Natin in Culver City, will carry bottles of it for under $2. If you're up for a little more adventure, you can also pick up a bottle of spicy banana sauce for a little extra kick.

Bahay Natin Food Mart: 9903 Venice Boulevard, L.A., (310) 841-6773‎.