With A Show Of Hands, Filipino-American Chefs Rekindle Kamayan Feasts
Kamayan is the traditional Filipino way of eating — without utensils. But it's also a generous shared meal of time-honored colorful foods that creates camaraderie. And it's catching on in the U.S.
At Boston's Mei Mei Street Kitchen, a small crew led by Ellie Tiglao rearranges tables, turning the Chinese-American restaurant into a pop-up Filipino banquet hall. About 30 people mill about, sticking with the groups in which they came. A line forms to buy beer.
Guests chatter with anticipation as the food trickles out. I hear "!"with the unrestrained excitement of people fawning over fried pork belly. Tiglao shapes long, wiggly snakes of white rice onto the banana leaves that cover each table. She places fried spring rolls called , small bowls of red shrimp paste and garlic-dotted vinegar, platters of whole crabs on vivid orange sauce, and dashes the display with flowers and blooming mangos. "I
