The Happiest Place on Earth is a Filipino Grocery Store
When I was younger, my parents would drive over an hour to downtown LA to shop at a Filipino grocery store. Despite the long ride, my brother and I enjoyed the trip because we knew we could play with the live crabs in a box and we would probably get to eat out too. My mom would load up on a bunch of items like soy sauce, vinegar, fish sauce, and most importantly, meats. My mom would get longanisa, tocino, oxtail - pretty much all the meat and fish you couldn’t get at traditional American stores. If we could stand the HOURS at the grocery store, we would usually eat lugaw, mami, and barbecue, then fall asleep on the way home.
A Box of Crabs at Good Fortune Grocery Store
I never realized how important Filipino grocery stores were until I left California and Filipino food stopped magically appearing in front of me (aka when my mom wasn’t buying groceries and cooking for me). You may be thinking, “who cares, it’s just a store.” But when it comes to food, there is no such thing as “just” anything.
Ethnic grocery stores are representative of the communities they are located in and serve as a source of all things familiar. When an ethnic grocery stores pops up, it is usually because there is a growing enclave in that neighborhood. A state like California may have several Asian country-specific grocery stores, offering only Filipino, Korean, or Japanese items imported from that specific country. On the other hand, stores that serve multiple cultures will carry items that cross cultural lines. For example, areas like Northern Virginia may have one lone grocery store that serves multiple ethnic communities; there, you can find Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese noodles at equal levels in a technically Vietnamese grocery store. It is a wonderful place.
A small section of the noodle selection at Good Fortune Grocery Store
Ethnic grocery stores allow immigrant families to hold onto a piece of home and pass their cultural cuisine on to their children even though they aren’t growing up in their homeland. Despite living in the United States, my parents only ever fed me Filipino food. Ages 1-21 were exclusively filled with Filipino dishes like adobo made with Filipino soy sauce and vinegar, pancit with bihon noodles, tinola and sinigang with Philippine specific spices, or my favorite kare-kare with oxtail. My parents were able to keep their cultural cuisine alive in our family because of the grocery stores that gave them access to imported goods from the Philippines. Even today, so much of American food is still foreign to me. I had meatloaf and shepherd's pie for the first time at 21 years old; in fact, I had my first grilled cheese sandwich this year and I really wouldn’t have it any other way.
Green Tea Kit Kats
Asian grocery stores carry imported goods and items that cannot be found at your local Harris Teeter or Albertsons. You can find meats like pork belly, oxtail, tripe, frog legs, and so much more. Larger Asian grocery stores will carry fish tanks with several kinds of shellfish, with boxes of crabs lying around and whole fishes for people to pick from. There are whole aisles dedicated to over a hundred types of noodles and rice. There is the aisle similar to the traditional American snack aisle but instead of Doritos there are Filipino shrimp chips or Hello Panda chocolate Japanese biscuits next to the Indian gulab jamuns, which are next to the green tea kit kats.
Seafood option at Good Fortune Grocery Store
While ethnic grocery stores play a pivotal role at the home they also play a larger role in the community. When ethnic grocery stores succeed, other elements of that culture will pop up. Growing up in LA and directly benefiting from the massive Filipino population in Carson and the communities of Chinatown and Koreatown in California showed me first-hand how important these stores became. Successful ethnic stores like Seafood City in Carson eventually developed into a whole shopping center, paving the way for Filipino chains like Jollibee and ChowKing to move in. Stores selling traditional Filipino barongs and Filipino bakeries also started popping up. Similarly Eden Center, a Vietnamese strip mall in Northern Virginia, also expanded from the original Good Fortune grocery store. Now there are over 125 Asian stores in Eden Center, with everything from boba to Vietnamese tax preparers. I challenge anyone to try to find parking at Eden Center on a Saturday; the crowd would give Costco a run for its money.
Vendors at Chinatown in downtown Los Angles
My mother vigorously haggling in Chinatown
When I went to Eden Center this past weekend, I saw several groups of Asian American teenagers drinking some boba and just chatting about their day. Ethnic grocery stores can create an entire shopping mall catered to a specific culture. They become a place for people of the same culture to hang out and be surrounded by familiar things in a society where everything is still foreign. Without fail, I know I can find a bunch of manongs (grandpas in Tagalog) just hanging out outside of Jollibee on a Sunday morning after church. On the weekdays I know I can find some Filipino teenage boys hanging out at Jollibee after playing basketball at Carson park. When I was looking for a place to rent an apartment or someone to do my taxes in Virginia, my mom said I should look to the Filipino market in Virginia because she knew someone there would help me.
When I am away from home, the next best thing is a Filipino grocery store.
When I moved away from home and the Filipino enclave that is Carson, California, I realized how much I used to take for granted the access to cultural cuisine and the community created around it. I went through a two-year drought without an Asian grocery store while I was in college, before I finally found a couple places in Northern Virginia. After several years of going home only once a year, I walked into a Filipino grocery store for the first time and the lady said, “may gusto mo pa kainan anak.” Translated into Tagalog, it meant, “Is there anything else you want to eat, my child?”
The Ramen selection at Good Fortune Grocery Store
Now as a grown adult, I miss the long drives into downtown LA for Filipino food, followed by the lugaw soup and Filipino barbecue. When I am away from home, the next best thing is a Filipino grocery store. I live in a world where I am constantly surrounded by White America, and stepping into a Filipino grocery store feels like stepping into my home, surrounded by people who share my language, my experiences, my values, and my history.
The happiest place on earth isn’t Disneyland - it’s a Filipino grocery store.
