The Filipino BBQ Throwdown Streetfood Fest Brings a Taste of the Philippines Straight to San Antonio
Written by Lisa Yang | June 15, 2025
photos by Leila Miranda
On June 15th, Kain Na-Filopino Cuisine held the Adobo Throwdown Street Food Fest. The event was held starting from 11AM to 6PM, with many events as the described by the organizers:
Food Expo
Taste an incredible array of Filipino dishes from local vendors, offering everything from traditional favorites to modern fusion creations.
Live Cooking Demos:
Learn from the best! Watch chefs and culinary experts demonstrate how to prepare signature Filipino dishes, offering tips and techniques you can try at home.
Live Entertainment & Cultural Performances:
Enjoy the rich traditions of Filipino music, dance, and cultural performances throughout the event.
Cooking Competition:
This year’s competitions are expanding with even more excitement and surprises in store. Stay tuned for big announcements!
Raffle Draws:
Visitors are able to donate to the Filipino American Association of San Antonio as a part of their lucky draw to be able win some cash prizes as well as support the event.
The event included cooking demos by the regional commissioner of the Filipino American association showing how to cook various dishes such as shrimp and BBQ pork. Using the sponsor of the event, Mama Sita’s spices and sauces.
There were cultural performances during the event with the likes of the Island Warriors Stonewolf Chapter Balintawak Arnis and Karilagan Cultural Performances.
Before the Karilagan Cultural Performance, the commissioner introduced the performance with an emotional message of cherishing your fathers as much as possible as the event was held on Father’s Day. The dances started off on an emotional foot as many of the younger dancers were children of the older dancers. The performers danced barefoot with the women and men wearing white and orange clothes. The ladies were adorned with yellow, green, and orange clothes and flowers in their hair. The men were wearing orange and yellow ascots. They performed with smiles on their faces, excited to share their cultural heritage. The dancers used various props like candles of which they cleverly used as weights as they swing or balance on their head in an exciting performance. Young boys and girls danced with each other as their elders melodically tapped the long wooden poles together. The ending was all the performers standing together clapping to the audience as the crowd cheered for the exhilarating performance. The encore of the dances was a fun challenge by the performers for any fathers in the crowd to join in on the fun. The fathers were tasked with joining in on the performance of the long wooden pole dance tradition, known as Tinikling, the national dance of the Philippines. The bamboo poles, mimics tinikling birds avoiding the bamboo traps of the rice field.
Once the performance concluded we were able to interview the head of the dance organization.
What’s your organizations name and mission?
“My name is Evelyn B. Crow and I am the President of the Karilagan Philippine Cultural Group, Inc. We are a nonprofit 501c3 tax exempt organization, we were founded formally in 1993… we are all volunteers so nobody is charged any memberships. You come because you are interested in learning about the Philippine’s culture especially if you are of Filipino background. The mission is really to preserve and promote Asian, Filipino heritage to the general public.”
How would you describe your performances?
“Our performances today come from rural Philippines. The Philippines is composed of several cultures, ethnic and traditional, and from different islands. We have Muslim influences, we have tribal influences in the north, but the ones that you saw today were from the rural, middle islands and they are usually dance of celebration.
And all the dances that we perform, whether they're tribal or ethnic or from different religious backgrounds, they are all traditional and authentic. The costumes that we use, we all have them made from the Philippines because we fit them with the dances. We do not play around with just doing anything that does not represent truthfully the culture because we owe it to our heritage to present them very truthfully.
[Today, we performed] Tinikling [which] is the national dance of the Philippines, and on a literal level, it's like the tickling bird trying to escape the bamboo trap set by the farmers because the farmers tried to drive them away from eating the rice grains. On a symbolic level, it represents the cultural mix of the Philippines, the East and the West. And so the Filipinos, in order to survive, we have to dance gracefully and skillfully to balance both cultures in our background so that we don't get caught, we don't have any problems in terms of the way we behave. We kind of go back and forth, like the dance between the East and the West.
How would you say is the importance of an event like this?
“An event like this gives us exposure to the Filipino community. Most of our members have a Philippine background, but we welcome everybody. Some of the dancers are not even Filipino at all, but they love to dance and so they also learn our culture. And I think it is great that we also perform with other dance groups from other backgrounds, from other countries, because then we exchange information, why we're doing this. We all have the same mission to kind of preserve our own cultures, because this is like a melting pot or a salad, whatever it is that you describe our culture. San Antonio, Texas is a mix and we are all volunteers. We do not charge anybody so if you're interested you just have to come to us but we just need your dedication and your interest.”
Karilagan are always welcoming new members so if anyone is interested, they can be contacted by the following.
Email: karilagansa@gmail.com
Facebook: Karilagan Philippine Cultural Group Inc.
Later into the event, once the cooking demos were concluded, the cooking competition was about to begin. We sat down with Gene Carangal, the Regional Chair of the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce - Greater San Antonio Region, who brought this vibrant experience to life.
What does Filipino food mean to you?
Okay, so Filipino food to me is actually my life. It's my life's work. That's where I dedicate pretty much all my free time is trying to either cook Filipino food, read about Filipino food, or promoting Filipino food. Because my goal in life is to elevate Filipino cuisine to levels it's never seen before. And that is my goal. This is where I spend the vast majority of my time. So it is of supreme importance to me.
Where did you learn to cook Filipino food?
“Okay, so I learned from watching my mom. And she made all these wonderful recipes. Unfortunately, she didn't write them down. So what I had to do was from memory. So I was inspired by my mom but then I was guided by YouTube.”
What’s the main flavors of Filipino food to you?
“So the main flavors for us is the flavors that we use for adobo and that is soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, salt, and peppercorns. And also people like bay leaf. I don't like bay leaf. I exclude it from all my adobo and I get a lot of grief for it, but it's okay.”
So what do you think makes a good adobo?
“To me, adobo is something very personal. There are thousands of versions of adobo because every city has their own version and every region has their own version. Some of the adobo is without soy sauce and that is just vinegar and salt which is called adobo sapote, there's adobo that is just with tomatoes. So there's a lot. Everybody has their own interpretation of adobo. I think for me, my best version of adobo is, a cross between traditional adobo and coq au vin, because it has equal parts soy sauce, vinegar, merlot, and water.”
How important is an event like this?
“The importance of this event is putting Filipino food on a pedestal, and I want it to be shown by itself. There's so many other Asian festivals, but I feel that Filipino food is good enough that it can stand on its own. So it's really important that we highlight the richness of the food, the richness of our culture, the uniqueness of how we present our food, but also our hospitality. Because in the Philippines, as Filipinos, when we say hi to each other, we don't say, hi, how are you? We say, “Kumain ka na? Kumain ka na ba?” or “Have you eaten?” Food is a central part of our life. Events like this are something that we share with everyone. That's very deep.”
Tell us about your organization.
“So I am the regional chair for the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce here in Greater San Antonio. The Philippine American Chamber of Commerce is composed of five regions here in Texas. We have San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and the Rio Grande Valley. Our purpose is to promote entrepreneurship and commerce trade between the Philippines and the United States. The Adobo Throwdown cooking competition and food expo is a huge expo where we have several different contests.
There's an amateur adobo competition where home cooks can bring in their adobo creations. There's also the professional adobo competition. That's more like an hour and chef style. But these professional chefs, they come down, they present their adobo creations, and they're judged live by celebrity judges. It's a really fun event, and it happens every year. It's from, and it usually happens at the Schertz Civic Center.”
What do you want to say to the young Filipinos out there?
“Here's the message to all the young Filipinos. When I grew up, my parents told me, you know, it's very important for you to settle down, find a job, and don't rock the boat, don't attract attention to yourself. My message to you is to do the exact opposite. Attract attention to yourself, do everything you can to shake the world, and be known. Make yourself known and be yourself. Don't be what somebody else wants you to be. Be what you want to be. And that's my message.”
The event ended with the cookoff competition which had a table of 6 judges who were part of the Philippines Cultural Group who tasted the various Filipino dishes. The criteria which the dishes were being judged by was: 50% taste, 25% creativity, and 25% appearances. There were dishes with the Texas influences such as a Filipino bbq dish with a puffy taco wrap. The event was an excellent example of the Filipino community here in San Antonio, welcoming and lively, an exciting showcase of culture.
To find more events by either Adobo Throwdown or the PACC, you can find them in the websites below!
